CHICKPEA
A kids marketplace that grows with them.
SKILLS
• Product Design
• User Research
• Prototyping
CONTEXT
• Solo Project for Google UX Design Certificate
• June - September 2024
TOOLS
• Figma
• Adobe Photoshop
This project marks my first-ever case study, completed through my enrollment in Google's UX Design certificate. Guided by a list of project ideas provided by the program, I chose to design an app for parents to purchase and resell children's clothing.
As a college student navigating the transition from childhood to adulthood, I've had the opportunity to reflect on my upbringing. When I saw this prompt, I began recalling the stress my parents experienced while shopping for me and how it affected our family. I took this as an opportunity to dive deeper and explore this unmet need of many parents.
• THE PROBLEM
Kids outgrow clothes, but parents struggle to keep up.
As children grow quickly, managing their wardrobes can be a challenge. Kids grow at different rates and sizing across brands is notoriously inconsistent. This presents an expensive, time-consuming, and often overwhelming process for parents who end up constantly shopping for new clothes.
How might we make managing children's clothes more efficient for busy parents?
• THE SOLUTION
A tailored marketplace
• RESEARCH
User Interviews & Surveys
Starting with user research, I quickly realized that my target users are parents/caregivers of young children. I set a goal to identify common behaviors and experiences of parents when managing their children's clothing, to see what needs are not being met. I contacted my college friends with younger siblings and asked if I could interview their parents. Three parents kindly agreed to participate, and I conducted three 10-minute interviews via Zoom.
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
How often do you purchase new children’s clothing? When you do, what is your motivation?
What do you do with outgrown clothes? How often?
What challenges do you face in managing children’s clothing? How do these challenges make you feel?
How do you think these challenges could be resolved?
I then conducted an online survey to identify challenges across a larger, more diverse group of users.
The survey had qualitative and quantitative questions, sampling 13 parents' motivations, purchasing/selling habits, and challenges around managing their children's clothing.
• TAKEAWAYS
My survey showed that most parents shop primarily due to their children outgrowing clothes, with most buying exclusively from retail stores. Additionally, the majority of participants purchase clothes significantly more than discarding outgrown ones.
The survey allowed me to identify broad percentages, while interview dialogue with participants showed me how these statistics contribute to individual struggles.
• INSIGHTS
Uncovering pain points in an untapped market
After my primary research, I noticed common themes in parents' experiences. To better visualize these patterns, I created three empathy maps from participants' responses, each highlighting a different theme.
• PERSONAS & USER JOURNEY MAP
Based on my insights, I created personas and a user journey map to better connect with the users I would be designing for.
• COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
Personalization is key to efficient shopping
I then shifted my attention to understanding the market. I analyzed 3 popular fashion marketplace apps (both direct and indirect) through an in-depth spreadsheet and annotated screenshots. Two goals drove my research:
Identify key features that enhance usability in a mobile marketplace.
Determine why existing marketplace apps are not meeting parent's needs.
• TAKEAWAYS
Considering my users' identified pain points, I analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of existing features across the current market.
My research not only taught me about design in e-commerce platforms, but also revealed a key insight: A personalized shopping experience is crucial to the problem I am trying to solve.
Recommendations with preferred sizes and styles saves users significant browsing time, crucial for parents who frequently have to shop for growing kids. My indirect competitors, Depop and Poshmark, allow users to select their own preferences during onboarding. Kidizen, a kid's fashion marketplace and direct competitor, offers no personalization.
View my full report here
• THE GAP
None of my competitors offer a tailored experience when shopping for someone else.
After identifying this market gap, I revisited my user research and key pain points. I then began exploring how to use these insights to shape my design.
• SITEMAP AND USERFLOWS
I created two user flow diagrams to illustrate buying and selling.
After identifying the essential actions and screens, I created a sitemap to outline the structure of my app.
• PAPER WIREFRAMES + EXPLORATION
Exploring a fast yet effective onboarding.
My app’s value proposition is to provide efficient shopping for busy parents. Based on my research, I knew this would rely heavily on personalization. However, a demanding onboarding process could lead to high drop-off rates. Parents may already be hesitant to try an online shopping experience, especially when they lack time.
• LO-FI PROTOTYPE
• TESTING
Using my digital wireframes, I developed a low fidelity prototype for users testing. Keeping my target user group in mind, I gathered participants for unmoderated usability studies via zoom. Each participant received a set of guided tasks and I took notes on how they were completed.
I then used pattern identification, insight identification, and affinity diagramming to identify common themes.
View methodology and notes here
• ITERATIONS
2 major improvements in my design
Based on my insights from usability testing, I iterated my design to better meet user needs. I adjusted some of the app's architecture, buttons, and icons to make navigation more intuitive. Here are a couple of iterations that significantly improved my design.
• DESIGN
A playful approach to a stressful experience
As someone who strives to embrace empathy in all parts of my work, I can only do so when also reflecting on my own experiences. Growing up in a Hispanic household, my childhood nickname was “Pollito”, meaning baby chicken.
This part of me presented itself in my design. Those little chicks—hatching from eggs and transforming from yellow fuzzballs to their vibrant adult feathers—are constantly changing as they grow up.
Just like kids.
• PRODUCT
The Final Prototype
• REFLECTIONS
What I learned.
I enrolled Google's UX Certificate in addition to my university classes in hopes of exploring the field more in-depth, and better understand how to connect with the users I design for. I am incredibly grateful for this experience, as it taught me a lot! Here are my key takeaways for future projects:
Project Scope: Less is more.
In hindsight, attempting to design a full e-commerce platform as my first project may have been overly ambitious. I also realized that most marketplace platforms share similar core functionalities.
With this in mind, I focused on specific features of my app that would best solve the problems I had uncovered during research. In future case studies, I will try to narrow my project scope from the start to focus on designing more specific solutions for unmet needs.
Don’t assume how users will interact.
When I created my lo-fi prototype, I designed user flows based on my own assumptions of how users ’should’ interact with my product. I took shortcuts in prototyping because I was confident they would follow the exact flow I had in mind. Upon user testing I was proven very wrong. Going forward I realize that it is my responsibility as a designer to ensure users can accomplish their goals in ways that feel the most intuitive to them.
Take time to learn the tool.
To strengthen my final design, I explored more advanced prototyping with Figma, utilizing variable modes, conditionals, expressions, and other features. By taking the time to become more proficient in my design tool, I was able to improve the usability of my final product.
As my work on Chickpea comes to a close, I already find myself excited about these insights and the new ones I'll uncover as I continue to grow as a designer.
