2022, 2 Weeks
User Interviews, Competitive Analysis, Sketching, Wireframes, Design System
Depop | Concept
Sketching, Wireframes, Design System, Prototyping (low to high fidelity)
Through our user research, we established that Swap would work best with Depop’s existing brand and users.
We created a prototype showing how our ideas would integrate seamlessly with the existing app.
Depop are a platform who facilitate peer to peer clothing sales. Encouraging second hand purchases is their core business value, with their target audience being predominantly Gen-Z.
To establish whether either a clothing rental or a clothing swap feature would work better for Depop's existing user base.
We needed to ensure that our solution could integrate with the existing platform, which is mainly app based.
We discovered that Depop's existing user base are mainly motivated by sustainability and budget when shopping secondhand.
Through our 8 interviews (all of which either shop second hand or have used depop in the past) it became clear that Depop users had some strong opinions about shopping habits.
These are:
Secondhand shoppers always want to find the best deal.
They like to find unique pieces of clothing that no one else has.
They are really motivated by finding more sustainable ways of shopping, that don't contribute to fast fashion.
In the past, they have swapped because it is a free option to easily refresh their wardrobe.
Users had only ever rented clothes for significant events & usually these were pieces that were otherwise out of their budget range.
It was clear from this, that Depop's users needed a budget friendly option that would enable them to constantly refresh their wardrobe at minimal cost.
So, as a team we decided that swap was the best route for Depop
Why?
Because swap most effectively solves our users issues of keeping to a low budget whilst being able to refresh their wardrobe often & sustainably. Rental our research showed, was seen as being reserved for events & more designer pieces.
It was clear from our user interviews that there were some strong personality traits for Depop users.
We summarised these traits in our persona Tallulah
"Tallulah needs a way to frequently and sustainably refresh her wardrobe with on trend items, so that she can stay fashionable whilst not going over her budget."
Crazy 8's helped us to ideate using our HMW's.
During our crazy 8's, we focused on the below HMW question to help get our creative juices flowing!
How might we provide Tallulah with a straightforward and stress-free shopping experience?
H
We had plenty of great ideas to take forward, but as a team we established the following common themes that were needed:
1. Import your existing profile "DNA" from the existing Depop buy/sell accounts into swap
2. Reviews on swappers to avoid scams and increase trust
3. Filters are important to help users navigate the swap function
4. Symbol on the items that are available for swapping
5. Add messages when contacting for a potential swap (keep the community feel of Depop!)
It was crucial to ensure the user experience between the existing app and Depop swap was seamless, to ensure it would be used trusted by existing users.
After lots of trial and error, we came up with the below flow.
Aligning our UI with Depop was a bit of a challenge, as we had so much content to get onto each page to ensure our users didn't get lost.
My task was pulling together all the sketches from our crazy 8's and summarising into one flow we all agreed solved the problem statement.
We went straight into mid-fidelity wireframes for the prototype, as the existing Depop app itself is not busy with colour or many technical UI elements.
My colleague Alex & I worked on translating sketches into wireframes. Whilst Ana & Leni our other team members inspected the existing Depop app to establish correct fonts, colours and spacing that we should use in our prototype.
The final frames formed a simple flow, which we really thought answered our problem statement...
We set users up with 4 tasks to complete, which users did with varying degrees of success...
As with UX, our solution was really tested and broken in our first round of testing! There was a fundamental issue with our flow...
Our original solution meant that users had to pay the full price of the item to eachother & these costs would essentially cancel out...BUT, this neglected the main perk of swapping, which is that it should be cost effective.
So we adjusted the flow, so that users simply pay the shipping cost & are given 3 days to ship the product, or they would be charged for the entire item.
Payment screens before & after iteration - showing reduced total to pay & new calculations.
Our content on the crucial details page was overwhelming & unnecessary. We needed to simplify the screens to ensure minimal confusion...
We updated the copy & removed certain unnecessary sections, such as the option to offer a bundle if the items matched in price.
Plus we looked at the visual hierarchy and adjusted sections to help guide the user through the screen.
Simplified screens, with clearer CTA and improved visual hierarchy.
An introduction to the new swap feature was needed, to ensure users understood how it works from the start, so we introduced a quick tutorial flow.
How it works flow...
Requesting users to create a separate profile or "DNA" for the swap feature was a bit reduntant, so we removed this requirement entirely
Fewer screens = less confusion!
This was a short sprint and there was much more work we could have done!
Two rounds of testing left us with a few unanswered questions and things we could have improved. These are:
1. Create user journey for other swapper (the one who is receiving the request)
2. Explore options for a subscription model to encourage Depop users to swap more frequently. This would further answer our problem statement of helping our user to refresh their wardrobe frequently
3. Assess the feasibility of live in-person swaps with users. This would galvanise the sense of community that Depop values and promotes itself as.
Receiving the brief, we were really unsure which route the users would value more, rental or swap...Our research proved vital in disproving our assumptions that rental would be best.
The decision to go for swap was clear for a number of reasons found in our research, these all related to users shopping habits and what they look for most when shopping. These are: cost, frequency of purchase, sustainability and ability to find unique pieces of clothing.
Assumptions are there to be challenged!
We had huge assumptions about which route would be right for depop users before beginning our research. It was important that the research challenged these and really focused in on our biases, to ensure that we didn't end up with the wrong choice for our users!
This was interesting to me, as it really hammered home the importance of solid user research and why it is so crucial when designing products!
Please feel free to explore my work, or get in touch to have a chat!
