Case Study
ELEVATE
Elevate allows potential customers to easily browse Elevate Wholesale’s product catalogue and get in touch in a personalized way.
Roles
UX Designer
UI Designer
User Researcher
Deliverables
User Surveys
Persona
Competitive Analysis
User story/ Journey
Site Map
Wireframes
Prototype
User Testing
Visual Design
Tools
Google Forms
Figma
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
OVERVIEW
PROBLEM
Vape & Smoke shop owners are always on the go and want easy and effective access to their wholesalers.
"I am interested in this new wholesaler, but I do not have time for a long meeting or playing phone tag."
The customers need a mobile app that allows them to get a feel for the company with:
1. The ability to browse the wholesaler's products
2. Fast and efficient communication
3. A personalized experience
SOLUTION
A design sprint was conducted for this project.
Target: Mobile application with general e-commerce design and contact us feature.
CLIENT
Elevate Wholesale: Smoke, vape, and dispensary wholesaler.
NEEDS
An application to allow new wholesale customers to experience their company from their phone.
AUDIENCE
-
Ages: 24 - 65
-
Gender: All
-
Title: General Manager/ Owner
-
Values: Price/ Simplicity/ Efficiency
RESEARCH
EMPATHY MAP
Needs
mobile
access
Simplicity
is key
INDUSTRY RESEARCH
52% of B2B buyers value the ability to search through an online catalog above everything else.
87% of respondents believe that e-commerce solutions are the answer to meeting customer needs by providing a personalized buying experience.
KEY INSIGHTS
-
Want to navigate all products efficiently.
-
Need information to be easily accessible.
-
Limited computer access during the day for customers.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
There is not much market for a competitive analysis in this field, but there are similarly based applications that I researched and studied how their platforms function.
The client did not want in-app purchasing available at this time so I spent my time focusing on company applications that mimic E-commerce while not actually providing purchasing options.
ZILLOW APP
1
1
1
2
1
"Saved Homes" feature allows the user to save homes they are interested in
2
Option to "Call" or "Message" because there are no in-app purchases
CARS.COM APP
1
2
1
"Contact Seller" page allows for direct and personalized communication
2
"Sort By" gives the user an opportunity to narrow their search
KEY FOCUS AREAS
-
Information Architecture and Filtering
-
Favoriting Feature
-
Contact Us
USER FLOW
WIREFRAME SKETCHES
PAPER PROTOTYPE
DIGITAL WIREFRAMES
USABILITY TESTING
Here is a short clip from one of the usability tests showing testing of the filtering and sort by features.
USER TEST & INTERVIEW SUMMARY
*2 Users were used to conduct testing and interviews for this design sprint*
While user testing, user interviews were also conducted in order to gain more in depth knowledge on the usability of the app as well as the users emotions during the experience.
FINDINGS REVIEW
-
Intuitive due to similarity to E-commerce websites.
-
Users curious about features that are usually available with full E-commerce.
-
Personalized experiences are wanted.
-
Never used an app for wholesale before.
RECOMMENDATIONS
-
In the future have in-app purchasing.
-
Add a way to see list of brands without filtering through products first.
-
Have a way to remember previous transactions with the company in the future
DESIGN ITERATIONS
FINAL PRODUCT
FINAL THOUGHTS
Some successes of the Elevate App Project were designing a simple application that would allow my clients customers to browse the product catalogue efficiently and creating a point of communication between the customer and the client.
There are more opportunities here to learn about Wholesale E-commerce and the B2B world. I learned about the complexity of E-commerce applications and how to simplify an application down to the users most prioritized needs.