Timeline
My Role
Problem
Purchasing new children’s products is not budget-friendly, but purchasing secondhand products comes with risks.
Opportunity
What if we could create a service that helped parents to shop secondhand products online with the same ease as a meal kit?
A tool for parents to shop for secondhand baby products online in a bundle format and donate products back to the service when no longer needed will promote the reuse of gently-used products and save families time and costs on products for their children in their early years.
With the increased cost of living prices it is becoming more challenging on families’ finances to provide for their children. Many families turn to secondhand products found in moms groups or Facebook marketplace to save costs on items their child would only use for a few months, such as clothing or toys. However, they find it difficult to trust the quality of these items as they are directly sold from a private individual. Further, often it is a time-burden to pick up items from a seller, especially if you are purchasing multiple items from multiple people in different locations.
Business Opportunities
Not only is this extremely valuable for parents who need these items for their children, but this service also opens up new opportunities for companies to donate out-of-season items instead of discarding these items into landfills.
I connected with parents in my area through social media via local parent groups through an anonymous survey with several questions focused on the feedback of their experiences purchasing child products. The survey received 17 responses.
Insights
Pain Points
Price does not align well to use time
Many products such as clothing and toys have high price tags when purchased new, but are not used for long. Some clothing items are only used for a few months before the child grows out of them. Other items such as toys are often used very short term before they either break or the child loses interest. Sometimes the child may not use the toy at all before it is discarded.
Secondhand quality is not reliable
Since secondhand items are mainly sold privately over social media or at garage sales, there are no guarantees on quality and cleanliness of items. Items that have fabric components also bring a worry of bugs being brought into the house.
Parents often do not know what to do with items when no longer needed
There are not many companies that take used items and properly recycle them. Often, items the child has grown out of are collected in storage or thrown out.
Next I conducted supplementary research online to better understand the costs to raise a child and the percentage of new items that get thrown out.
★ Recent research suggests that between birth and the age of 18 a family will spend about $310,605 — or about $17,000 a year. The exact amount varies on location and earnings.
★ According to the Council for Textile Recycling, 80 to 90 percent of items donated to charities are sold to recyclers.
★ The value of the global toy market exceeded $90 billion (USD) in 2019, but with some claiming as much as 80% of all toys end up in landfills, incinerators, or the ocean much of this value is lost when toys are thrown away.
Analyzing the Competition
One of the biggest problems found in the options parents have for purchase of secondhand products is the high volume of products that need to be scrolled through to find a product that fits the current needs. As well, the product photos of secondhand products tend to deter purchases as they are not as visually appealing. I want to solve this problem by having product listings simplified to specific category needs, helping the parent stay focused on what they need to purchase and to avoid users being influenced by product photography.
Based on these findings, I created two personas who represent the target users I empathize with in the research phase.
Madison is a 32 year old Operations Manager for a large company in Edison, New Jersey. They work full-time remotely, which gives them the flexibility to care for their child.
They are a recent parent and are still adjusting to how fast children grow out of clothes and toys, and how it effects their budget. Madison often buys secondhand items to save cost, but it takes a lot of time to find items in good condition and to pick up the items.
Rory is a 36 year old, full-time Software Engineer who lives in Jersey City. They love their career, but it requires long hours that make it difficult to shop for their family.
They are frustrated with purchasing items for their children because they often have to purchase through online retailers, dealing with delays in shipping and high costs of shipping & handling fees.
Touchpoints
Sketches
My goal was to create a simple layout for users who would be juggling shopping for their child around the daily needs of their child. I wanted my users to feel like their needs are met and their limited time is respected.
Focusing on mobile first, I began brainstorming possible layouts through the crazy 8s exercise.
These initial ideas turned from sketches…
Into wireframes…
Participants
7 participants, age range 29-40, 4 female and 3 males, are parents or have young nieces and nephews.
Method: Unmoderated (users were asked to screen-record the prototype and capture audio while they completed a list of prompts)
Key Outcomes
“I think the app overall is very easy to use. I like that what you want to do next is right there, there's no question.”
“A lot can go wrong when using other people's stuff, when you're taking stuff and returning stuff and someone else is going to take it and return it. That would be my only concern: How can I be sure the products don't have bedbugs or roaches if they're coming from someone else's house?”
3 major improvements were implemented in the design
★ Originally designed as a single button that leads to one page where users choose to sign in or sign up.
★ Based on feedback, splitting the button into a “sign up” and a “sign in” button was more natural.
★ This removed the need for the additional page with all sign up and sign in buttons, overall simplifying the sign-up flow.
★ Based on user feedback, the original category names were confusing.
★ Improving the category names to align with intention allowed for users to understand what they were selecting.
★ Originally the design did not include item descriptions.
★ Upon feedback, most of the users wanted item descriptions so they would feel confident they understood the purchase they were making.
The Designs
I wanted to make the overall design simple and not gender-conforming.
Style Guide
For the design I aimed to use warm calm colors that would present a gender-neutral appearance.
Once I completed the first version of the design I was not satisfied with the visuals. I felt overall, while the concept was present, the design did not fully-service users or make the functions of the app easy for intended users to operate.
I presented the designs to several peers and received feedback on the visuals. Ultimately, I redesigned the app to better meet the functionality needs of the user.
Onboarding
★ Originally designed three simple screens with onboarding information simplified down to headings, however this did not fully explain the service to users.
★ The onboarding flow was expanded to five screens with clear explanation of the main functions of the service.
★ Based on feedback, a screen was added to address sanitation concerns.
Home Screen
★ Originally the home screen was designed with four buttons users would use to navigate through the site.
★ Based on feedback, the home screen was redesigned to access the app's main pages through tabs via the top half of the screen. This replaced the need for users to have to scroll downward to find buttons.
★ The home screen was redesigned also to begin the shopping flow, decreasing the click amount within the app, which is more valuable to users with limited time.
Return
★ Originally designed a simple icon-based return page.
★ Based on feedback, the item return experience was expanded on to provide users clear details on return type and what items are being returned.
★ An option to schedule a pickup return with a date and time booking function was also added in the redesign. Having multiple return methods offered in the app is valuable to users as it provides options to meet different types of users’ needs for their returns.
Clickthrough Prototype
Parents need access to services from multiple devices
Parents are often strapped for time in the day and may need to access the service from a desktop computer at the office, from a tablet-sized device while watching their children, or from a mobile site where the app is not installed natively on the device. With these considerations in mind, the design of the app changed to meet the functions of a variety of device sizes popularly used by consumers.
Participants
9 participants; test performed on 7 Apple mobile devices, 1 Android mobile device, 1 Microsoft computer.
Method: Unmoderated (I performed the usability test through the Useberry service to collect screen-interaction data so that I can pinpoint where users have the most difficulty in the prototype).
Key Outcomes
Do not be afraid to scrap the design
The Little Bundle Box visuals and user experience was poor in my first draft. Throwing out the original visuals and completing a full redesign of the project has led to an improved product that is easier for users to operate, while also being visually satisfying.
Keep the device in mind
A failure in my first draft was that, after designing the mobile app, I resized elements to fit the various device platforms that users might use, rather than designing for the experience. Part of my revision included reworking the design, while considering each device it could be used on. This creates a stronger experience for users regardless of which device they are using.
For more work inquiries, or to grab a coffee, please email me at mel@melleedunn.com
Thank you so much for reading!
