Design Process

Video summary:

bargainbuddy.mov

Context:

In today's digital world, consumers are inundated with promotional emails and spam messages, causing valuable discounts to go unnoticed. Traditional coupon tracking methods are inefficient and frustrating, often leading to missed savings opportunities and overwhelming coupon management.

Team members & description:

Kenny:
1. Contributed to setting up team’s meetings, designed the website and interviewed participants.
2. Collected the project summary clips and edited them; contributed to the poster.
Marcus:
1. Contributed to the presentation; interviewed and came up with qualitative user insights
2. Ideated product concept and defined key features; built high-fidelity prototype in Figma
Ashlee:
1. Organized the tasks into a checklist;
2. Transferred and answered some questions on the project website.
3. Contributed to the poster
Alissa
1. Contributed to the interview & setting up team meetings; HMW and research questions, contibuted to brainstorming.
2. Built one low fidelity, and two high fidelity prototypes on Figma, contributed to creating reflection video.
Aisha:
1. Contributed to the interview; affinity diagram and problem statements
2. Contributed to setting up the meetings and was very responsible in finishing her tasks

Problem statement:

Problem Statement: In the modern era of digital communication, our email inboxes are consistently flooded with promotional emails from diverse brands and businesses. While these messages may present attractive deals and discounts, they also contribute to inbox clutter, making it challenging to find important messages and organize discounts for future use. From Statista, the use of digital coupons rose in 2021, reaching 145.3 million users. However, the average coupon redemption rate in the US in 2021 was only 0.77%.

How might we...?: How might we create a product that aggregates discounts and coupons, personalized to individual preferences, to simplify savings and enhance the shopping experience?

Final outcome:

Our coupon management app simplifies saving by automating the organization and tracking of digital and physical coupons, featuring smart reminders before expiration and an easy scan-and-store function that ensures users never miss a discount opportunity.

Design process:

Original research question: How could a product save consumers the most amount of money ?

Needfinding Research Summary: Our chosen design research method was to interview 5 UC Berkeley students who fall in our middle class Gen z demographic. They represented a diverse range of majors including Art Practice, Business Admin and Computer Science.

3 key insights:

Preference for Convenience and Digital Coupons - digital coupons are found to be more convenient to use and store, enhancing their shopping experience and reduces transactional anxiety.
Targeted Couponing - participants seek discounts specifically tailored to their needs and interests, expressing frustration when coupons are irrelevant to their purchases.
Coupon Organization and Reminders - participants experience difficulties in organizing and remembering coupons, leading to missed opportunities for savings

These insights informed our "How Might We...?", as they highlighted the preference for convenience and digital coupons, the importance of targeted couponing tailored to individual needs and interests, and the challenges users face in organizing and remembering coupons, all of which contribute to addressing the frustrations associated with managing savings opportunities.

Ideating Summary: In our ideating process, we started by brainstorming ideas that addressed our "How Might We...?" Question: How might we create a product that aggregates discounts and coupons, personalized to individual preferences, to simplify savings and enhance the shopping experience?

See our brainstorming outcome and three ideas chosen to prototype below:

Lo-fi Prototype Process Summary: In our approach to designing the lo-fi prototypes, we focused on creating app interface designs that outlined the key features intended for integration into the product. These low-fidelity designs served as initial representations of the user interface, providing a visual framework for the functionality and layout of the application. By using lo-fi prototypes, we were able to quickly iterate on design concepts, gather feedback, and make necessary adjustments before moving on to higher-fidelity prototypes and development stages.

Lo-fi Prototype 1

Automated Reminders about coupons when in proximity with the store

Question:

How can we optimize savings when users aren't actively looking for discounts?

Takeaway Summary:

Investigate geofencing functionality and its potential application in triggering notifications based on user proximity to stores.

Lo-fi Prototype 2

Notifications when discounts are available for existing item(s) in brand cart

Question:

How can we help users avoid regularly look for brand discounts?

Takeaway Summary:

Explore methods for integrating brand accounts/apps with Bargain Buddy to provide users with seamless access to discounts and deals.

Lo-fi Prototype 3

Community driven platform where users can share and discover discount opportunites.

Question:

How can we build a sense of community for users of our product?

Takeaway Summary:

Implement measures to safeguard the community space from bots or fake ad reviewers, ensuring authenticity and trustworthiness for all users.

Hi-fi Prototype Process Summary: In transitioning to our hi-fi prototype designs, we employed tools like Figma and other software to refine the paper lo-fi designs we had created earlier. This process allowed us to add more detail and fidelity to the designs, making them more realistic for our usability tests. Participants could better visualize how our ideas would translate into a real app interface, enabling us to gather more meaningful feedback and iterate on the design effectively.

Hi-fi Prototype 1

Question:

How can we optimize savings when users aren't actively looking for discounts?

Takeaway Summary:

Implement a "Pause Notifications" or "Pause Notifications for this Store" function to address concerns about the perceived invasiveness of the notification feature, mitigating potential negative impacts on user experience.

Hi-fi Prototype 2

Question:

How can we help users avoid regularly look for brand discounts?

Takeaway Summary:

Consider refining the notification feature to minimize annoyance, especially for users who frequently add or remove items from their cart.

Hi-fi Prototype 3

Question

How can we build a sense of community for users of our product?

Takeaway Summary:

Address user concerns about anonymity in the social space by implementing measures to ensure privacy and security within the online community.

Usability Testing Process Summary: Our chosen design research method was to interview 5 UC Berkeley students who fall in our middle class Gen-Z demographic. They represented a diverse range of majors, including Art Practice, Business Admin, and Computer Science.

3 key insights and recommendations of what we would change:

Concerns About Overwhelming Notifications - concerns regarding the possibility of overwhelming notifications, particularly with location-enabled features.

To address this, we could implement controls for users to manage their notification preferences or limit the frequency of notifications.

Desire for a Reward System - integrate a reward system for active community members or those who share deals frequently to encourage more engagement.

To address this, we could implement a rewards program to incentivize users to participate more actively in the community-driven platform.

Need for Community Regulation - concerns about the community needing to be regulated and monitored to ensure safety and fairness.

To address this, we could implement moderation tools and mechanisms to verify or rate the validity of shared deals, enhancing the overall trustworthiness of the platform.

Reflections:

Importance of User Research: Through engaging in user interviews and surveys, we learned how critical it is to base our design decisions on actual user needs and behaviors rather than assumptions. This helped us identify key features like the scan-and-store function, which were directly influenced by user feedback about the difficulty of managing physical coupons.
Value of Prototyping: We discovered that creating and testing multiple prototypes allowed us to quickly iterate on our ideas based on real user feedback. This iterative process helped us refine our app’s usability and functionality, ensuring that the final product truly catered to our users' preferences and requirements.
Team Collaboration and Diverse Perspectives: Throughout the design process, we learned that incorporating diverse viewpoints and expertise from different team members led to more innovative solutions and a more robust understanding of the challenges and potential solutions. This diversity enriched our creative process and led to a more user-centric design.

One thing we would do differently:

Avoid Starting in Solution Space: Initially, we found ourselves jumping straight to potential solutions without fully understanding the problem space. If we were to do the process again, we would spend more time in the problem identification phase, conducting more thorough user research before brainstorming solutions. This would ensure that our design decisions are even more aligned with user needs and not biased by our initial ideas or technological constraints. Starting with a clearer focus on the problem rather than the solution would likely lead to more innovative and user-tailored design outcomes.

Page updated

Report abuse