XCHNG MARKETPLACE
2021
E-commerce
16 Weeks
Service Design
Overview
Three friends trying to change people's perspective towards buying and selling sneakers. The sneaker culture has recently made its way into the Indian Market. In 2021, it reached its all-time high of $2.4 billion and is expected to grow annually by 8.93%. We saw an early opportunity to capitalize on the market with a sneaker exchange platform where customers can buy and sell their luxury shoes and with us acting as the source of trust and authenticity.
Current Scenario
These luxury goods are limited. Only selected pairs are produced, that are launched seasonally. Due to the high demand, they are sold out immediately and are later sold by resellers for a higher price. This scenario results in smaller companies creating counterfeits to make a quick profit. We wanted to position ourselves as a trusted reseller that provides genuine and authentic pairs of sneakers each time.
Outcome
Through the Beta release, we secured £15,000+ for our product. We tested the end-to-end process from buying, selling to authenticating. Furthermore, We hired an external agency to help us develop the admin platform and the customer-facing app (iOS and Android).
My Role
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Lead the design and technology arm of the business.
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Hire and work with an external agency (Octal Solutions) to develop the iOS App, Android App, and admin platform.
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Identify API vendors and manage communications with Octal Solutions.
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Create business process diagrams, service blueprints and project plan to build a shared understanding between all relevant stakeholders
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Create the designs for iOS app and conduct visual QA on the development environment.
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Work closely with Authenticators and Order fulfillment services to ensure smooth order delivery.
Project Plan
The plan focused on developing the foundation for the business. We focused on developing an MVP product that can be launched in the market to test the initial reactions of the sneaker community.
Fig. 1: The first phase of the project focused on business development and identifying project partners.
Fig. 2: The second phase of the project focused on building the product and testing it.
Service Blueprint
Initially, we struggled to understand how the service would work. Blueprinting is usually the last step in the service design process, however we started with the blueprint to help us understand the scale and the support processes that would have to be put in place to get the service off the ground.
Fig. 3: Service blueprint from the perspective of a seller
Understanding business
We created a variation of the business process diagram to give us a micro and macro-level view of the business operations. The document helped us gain confidence as we were able to see the end-to-end process. The artifact also acted as a source of truth for specifying our requirements to Octal Solutions.
Fig. 4: We used Miro to document the process as it allowed collaborations across multiple locations.
Fig. 5: An image showing collaboration with Octal on Miro.
Product Scalability
I worked closely with the Founder to understand the business scalability. We built a pricing structure to project profits and used that information to inform our product scalability. The documentation also helped us with the calculation on our admin platform to control the margins.
Fig. 6: Pricing structure for 50 pairs sold on the platform. All values are calculated in INR.
Fig. 7: Pricing structure for 300 pairs sold on the platform. All values are calculated in INR.
Information Organisation
Using the business process diagram, I designed individual screens and prepared a list to share with Octal Solutions. We had initially hired them to do the design and development. However, the proposed designs were not up to the mark, and I decided to create them myself.
Fig. 8: The image highlights the information documented for each screen on the customer app.
Collaborating on Scope of Work
I worked closely with Octal solutions to build the scope together. We referenced the ‘App flows’ and the ‘Screen List’ to create the document. We often shared our thoughts on excel sheets and collaborated over zoom calls to identify the requirements.
Fig. 9: Images show the back-and-forth conversation between me and Octal.
Design and Develop an e-commerce platform that allows customers to buy and sell authentic sneakers.
Documenting Requirements
The scope of work was further refined into specific requirements. These requirements captured the detailed interactions and the API vendors that we needed to contact. We also made a conscious effort to document the calculations for the admin platform.
Fig. 10: The red highlights show the points of API integration.
Communicating
with API vendors
We contacted over 30 partners for our API integrations. However, only 3 of them responded back positively. I set up regular meetings with Octal Solutions and API vendors to ensure the APIs worked as per our expectations.
Fig. 11: The image shows my conversation with TG4 Solutions to partner with us for Sneaker database.
Designing the
Experience
In the ideal scenario, I would have created the wireframes and explored multiple options. However, in this instance, I jumped straight into Visual Design as we decided to keep the app black and white and let the imagery drive color.
Fig. 12: Few stills of the XCHNG App displaying the emphasis on the imagery.
Exploring Variations
For the MVP, we focused mainly on product cards displayed on the homepage. We explored different versions of the cards to communicate important parameters such as cost and condition.
Fig. 13: Different variations for the product cards on the home page.
Concept of
Progressive
Disclosure
The sellers have to add multiple details to list a product on our platform. This is done to ensure all the products are authentic. To ease this journey we used the concept of progressive disclosure to reveal the steps as and when they are completed. Furthermore, we ensured they always had visibility into the upcoming steps.
Fig. 14: A video showing the journey of Listing your sneaker on XCHNG App
Visual Designs
We primarily used an achromatic color scheme for the visual language, as we wanted the product pictures to be the primary focus. We also focused on using native iOS and Android interactions and avoid building any custom functionality. This helped us speed up the process and the entire application was developed within 2 weeks.
Developer
Handover
Octal Solutions insisted on using Adobe XD for the design as the developers were most comfortable with it's handover process. The software generated a link that developers could use to download assets and understand the specifications.
Fig. 15: A snapshot of the naming convention followed during the handover process
Visual QA
I connected weekly with the development team at Octal Solutions to match the development environment to the visual designs provided. The developers would send a build each week and I would prepare a presentation with all the updates that need to be made.
Fig. 16: Images show the process of visual QA on the screens developed by Octal Solutions.
Learnings
The experience I gained at XCHNG has made me think about the impact of my designs on the overall business. As experience designers, we only tend to think about the people we are designing for, but in this project, I learned more about the people we are designing with.
Empathising with project partners
I made a conscious effort to connect with our external partner, Octal solutions. Since the very beginning, I focused on using tools and processes that they are comfortable with, and this approach helped us deliver the MVP product in just a few weeks. I often recognized their efforts by treating them to dinner or lunch to boost the teams' morale.
Wearing many hats
In this project, my role often switched between a project manager, a product owner, a chief technical officer, and an experience designer. There were a lot of instances where I had to choose between customer satisfaction and business viability, often learning when to let go of the experience to create a sustainable business.