Designing an app to help us shop responsibly.
How did my experience in the retail industry trigger me to take a deep dive into the way we shop?
How did I design a concept of an app that would help us to be mindful of our possessions?
Image credit: Confessions of Shopoholic (2009 film)
About the project
This was a graduation project of mine at the National Institute of Design. I started to think about it after my conversation with a stranger. When the conversation ended he said: "So you are the ones who made people do impulse purchases."
I worked on a method to help us curb the extra spending on things we don't need. also to allow us can we optimally use/circulate the possessions we have.
The problem
71% of people leave things at home:
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That was bought on a whim.
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They have not used.
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They will never use.
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They are planning to throw out.
Validating of problem using card sorting method
I created small 80 cards and wrote the items form our expenditures on each card. Respondents segregated the cards in two classifications:
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I overspent on this item
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I moderately spent on this item.
This helped to set the context of their spending then they shared their spending behaviours which helped me validate the problem.
Eventually, many respondents ended up sharing possible solutions for optimum utilisation of their savings and already possessed resources.
Defining personas
Design brief and evaluating ideas
Usecase on the basis of the selected idea
Step by step userflow
Sketching ideas
From sketches to prototype screens
66
Respondents were interviewed in the card sorting and idea validation sessions.
54
Responses were received in the survey taken for the conceptual association of the prototype.
2
Iterations of prototype till now.
Main takeaways
I learned the visualization methods for demonstrating the user flows. It helped me to get experience in conducting card sorting and heuristic evaluation session with users. The insights definitely helped to design better iteration. I learned the value of documenting the steps to communicate the project progress to stakeholders.