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How we used UX Design to understand the informal sellers problems and help them to increase their sales in the digital market.
The challenge
In march 2021, the team formed by Pedro Thairan, Luádyna Almeida, Maria Luiza Faleiro and Maria Santos accepted the challenge:
How to help informal workers to improve their sales in the digital world?
The current scenario
The COVID-19 pandemic has boosted the unemployment rate in several economic sectors. For informal workers, the crisis was even worse; 68% of workers were left without work in the second quarter of 2020. This means that, because they are informal workers, they are not entitled to vacations and government guarantees to support their families. Among the most affected groups are young people aged between 18 and 25, followed by the elderly. ↗
Headline of article on loss of formal positions and informal work in the COVID-19 pandemic, from the Central Única dos Trabalhadores.
With that, it was necessary to use creativity to replace the family income; that's when digital informal entrepreneurship comes in, where you see commercial activities in virtual environments that are not regulated by public authorities. They are handmade and resale items such as clothing, food, accessories, beauty items and many others that have become the main source of income.
Also called *social commerce* ↗, social networks integrate sellers and consumers in faster and more efficient ways than traditional online commerce. However, although social networks are bridges to more consumers, they have numerous negative points, such as competition with established companies and the bad view that people have of 100% virtual and informal enterprises. To learn more, click here. ↗
Project’s goal
The project’s goal was created from a S.M.A.R.T method, starting by the principle that the solution had should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.
With this information, we have the goal:
Create a solution that helps informal workers to divulge their products and increase the number of clients in 20% until the third trimester of 2021.
Users
We identify 2 basic types of users in our solution:
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The consumer, interested in buy products searching the best cost benefit;
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The seller, interested in show her products and increase her sales.
With the validation, we improved this personas and their journeys.
First Validation Step
In the first validation step, we separeted what we judged as Certain, Suppositions and Doubts in a CSD Method (Certainties, Suppositions & Doubts.
Quantitative Research
We applied two questionnaires in a time course of four days, where we had 38 informal sellers answers and 128 consumers answers.
The questions were elaborated considering the CSD Method hypotheses. With that, we could validate some of the most relevant hypotheses for the solution.
Qualitative research
Based on the data obtained in the quantitative research, we created two small questionnaires to better understand some of our questions.
The questionnaires were divided between consumers and sellers, and we obtained 6 and 5 responses, respectively. The most relevant responses are below:
Consumers:
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Platforms like Shopee saw preference for offering discounts;
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2 people said they liked collaborating with informal trade, 3 people said they chose to offer more convenience;
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4 preferred to pay per platform, as they feel more secure. 1 said it doesn't matter, and one said it depends on the rate;
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6 people check stars and comments for rating.
Sellers:
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Use of Instagram to expose the products. 3 responded said they produced content from social networks, 2 did not respond.
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Most sell in the city itself or to people they already know;
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3 answered that they prefer to make the purchase directly with the customer; 2 said they preferred using a platform;
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Satisfied with the way products are delivered: meeting point or delivery services (rappi, uber flash);
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2 sellers said they had already tried to promote on instagram but were not very successful; 1 answered that he does not use it because he has already heard that it does not work.
Selecting solutions
Based on the results of quantitative and qualitative research, we gathered the main insights, rewriting them using the Como Poderias or How Might We technique.
Then, to visualize what would be most important for the solution, we organized the insights into an Effort x Impact matrix. The criterion for selecting what would have the most impact on the solution was based on the combination of quantitative and qualitative research results, then measuring the importance of achieving the objective defined at the beginning of the study. The result of the prioritization is shown below:
Effort x Impact Matrix
It is important to emphasize that some insights take into account business decisions, and not necessarily interface ones. With that in mind, we were able to prioritize what would make the most sense for the solution at the current time.
Finally, we concluded that the best solution would be:
A platform where consumers could find nearby sellers, facilitating the purchase process and promoting local commerce.
The solution
With the main insights defined, we move on to the ideation stage. Initially, we focused on transforming the insights into functionalities, which, after being listed, facilitated the process of creating the solution flows. We chose to create two flows, one for sellers and one for consumers, and test both in the first usability test.
We started the ideation with Rabiscoframes. We carry out techniques such as Crazy 8's and individual sketches, selecting the best ideas from each drawing to form the final idea.
Scrawlframes for consumer and seller flows, respectively.
Usability testing in Scrawlframes
The first usability test was done with the help of the Marvel app, using the best ideas already selected and passing them on in a defined flow. Tests were carried out with 3 consumers and 4 sellers, over a period of 2 days.
Scrawlframes in Marvel — Consumers (1) and Sellers (2), left to right.
The tasks defined for this first consumer test were:
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Search for a product;
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Identify the nearest product;
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View the seller's profile and check reviews;
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Buy a product.
The tasks defined for this first seller test were:
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Look at product metrics;
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Add a product;
Feedbacks
The feedbacks received were very constructive for the refinement of the solution. Among the most relevant topics are:
Improve the identification of products that are nearby;
Add signals that indicate new notifications, requests and messages;
Make access to the seller's profile clearer.
Wireframes and user flows
After the first validation with rascoframes, we started with the wireframe version of the solution. Using gray scales and a sober color, we designed the predefined user flows, in order to better visualize which paths the user could take to complete a task.
The elaboration of flows for both the screens for sellers and the screens for consumers are below:
Styleguide
The style guide was created from the creation of the wireframes, which guided the definition of the necessary elements. You can check all the decisions that justify the elements in our extra case.
Colors and Typography
High Fidelity Prototype
Based on the wireframes already produced and the definition of the style guides, we produced the high fidelity prototype.
High Fidelity Usability Testing
We applied usability tests with consumer and client interfaces, the first being tested in two rounds based on collected feedback. 7 consumers and 7 sellers were tested, obtaining really relevant results for our solutions. All tests were done using the Maze platform.
For the seller flow, we imagined three main tasks, which were given from a hypothetical context. The final report was as expected: with a usability score of 72, misclick rate between 32 and 37% and success rate between 71 and 85%, the sellers interface was considerably easier to use and, therefore, with feedbacks best.
The flow of consumers presented some problems. With low usability score and high misclicks and task abandonment rate, we did two rounds of testing where we managed to raise the usability score from 30 to 72, making modifications based on feedback and A/B Testing with VisualEyes.
UX Strategy
Still in 2015, in the article “What Is UX Strategy?”, Jamie Levy defined UX Strategy as:
It’s the vision of a solution that needs to be validated with real potential customers to prove that it’s desired in the marketplace. (…) It is the high-level plan to achieve one or more business goals under conditions of uncertainty.
Thinking about better defining and understanding the business model behind the solution, we created the Business Model Canvas, a way to visually identify the application's attributes and operation.
Conclusions and lessons learned
We can all say that the process of creating this case was very enriching. At all stages, we can see mistakes and successes that brought us maturity to face the design process as a flexible method.
We were able to see where we could improve, such as the surveys, in which we later identified doubts that we were unable to transmit with the questionnaire; however, the development of the case as a team made all the difference, as we believe that the collective strengthens the design process and was essential for us to be able to deliver an MVP based on real numbers and responses.