My Role
UX Research, Usability Testing, paper wireframing, UX Copy.
Context
Start up business Development, Italy
Development
December 2017 - February 2018. The platform is still running as of today (May 2021).
At the time I was acting as both Business Developer and UX Designer for the Company and therefore among other duties I coordinated the entire digital project, which in every phase was then to be approved by the management. Specifically I handled the UX, flows, wireframes and relationship with the software house / programmers until product launch and delivery.
The Problem
In the year 2017, when the first concept was ideated, in Italy the idea of same-day delivery was only possible for restaurants. Uber clients abroad were starting to use their taxi-service to transport goods.
Research
«MetaPack 2016 State of eCommerce Delivery Consumer Research Report»
Consumers state that their decisional process leading to an online purchase is directly affected by the delivery method and return policy offered by the online store, together with the general user experience.
61% chooses an online store against another because delivery times and methods best suit their needs.
45% abandon the cart before purchase because of insatisfactory shipping options, indicating long lead times and lack of flexibility as main causes.
87% confirms that a successful delivery encourages a new purchase from the same store.
47% of respondents living in larger cities wishes that shops online would offer same-day delivery
The desire of a premium service with same-day delivery is an ascending trend. 22% of respondents declared to have used the same-day delivered option (when available) during the past six months.
To consumers, the delivery defines the shopping experience as a whole and this is what we are targeting: more flexibility and velocity of the service can make a difference in online shopping.
Kiwi Five wanted to address two segments of the population, the protagonists of the online shopping revolution.
The Merchant, increasingly frustrated with the digital shopping reality, facing every day an unfair fight with the giants of e-commerce for economic power and logistic capacity (Amazon, eBay, Alibaba...)
The Customer, bound to ever-increasing life paces, who is no longer willing to wait long and unpredictable delivery times only to find comfort in cheaper prices for their purchases.
Value Proposition
Kiwi Five wants to bring online the shop-across-the-street, maintaining the traditional purchase experience and creating a new idea of proximity marketplace, supporting the merchants through this process with an innovative logistic system structured on the model of on demand pony express in urban areas. In this way, customers will receive their purchases from their favorite stores in the same-day and with the simplicity offered by the device expected to offer this and much more: the smartphone.
The Solution
The start up was able to launch a client-faced website (www.kiwifive.com), an iOS/Android app for the riders ("KiwiRiders") and a back office for the merchants by May 2019, within 6 months from start of work. It was a MVP which allowed many tweaks during the following months but was able to process the first orders almost instantly, also thanks to a good local marketing campaign.
The entire system was build from scratch. The app was programmed as an hybrid able to run on both iOS/Android operating systems.
It showcases the best commercial activities and services in the area and offers a fast delivery guaranteed by a network of independent couriers. Kiwi Five aims to support the economy of local shops, selling quality products and services and allowing users to receive them easily at home within 3 hours in the city where the service is present. It also encourages the sharing economy: the customers can not only buy articles but also send or receive different items, from documents to furniture and even valuable goods.
Approach
After weeks of brainstorming with the management, the concept idea was very ambitious: to become "the neighborhood Amazon".
We started by identifying the main segments of the service:
Client: people needing to buy something with urgency, like a gift, or groceries. People who forgot something at home or at the office and unable to go and get it. People wanting to add the same-day delivery service to their business.
Rider: independent contractor wanting to work as a courier on behalf of Kiwi Five, who needs to be able to be notified of the upcoming deliveries & details.
Merchant: Business partnering with Kiwi Five needing a tool to receive and elaborate the orders.
Since the beginning the decision was to create both a mobile app and a website to guarantee a strong presence on the market.
After research, I started with ideate solutions, having in mind strategy we focused on. Following the mission “Anything you want whenever and wherever you want” I decided to focus on highlight that idea.
My strategic principles for design are the following:
– transparent and easy to use to any customer
– satisfying any needs, even demanding users
– giving feeling of being unlimited
– confidence-building
The design process included gathering insights from research and user testing, defining pain points and finally ideate a solution through sketches and UI design.
Personas
Users of Kiwi Five can by everybody- of any age and with any command of technology. Anyway, based on a round of interviews among colleagues, family and friends, we formulated a target user who is a person who values time-efficiency, wants to take control with his/her decisions and feel unlimited thanks to possibilities in a modern society.
Gathering feedback
To get insight on the app, 5 people were interviewed. Each participant was asked to complete a task while verbalizing his thoughts. Tasks involved using the search and filter options, the "Send without buy" option, completing a purchase. I translated each task into a realistic scenario to help engage the user.
Lastly, we tested our paper prototype and local version of the software with real users to test whether the idea solves the problem and defines the project’s next steps. We iterated every time to correct usability problems mainly due to our assumptions during the development.
The following steps in this project were closely working with devs while building out the app, which meant more design changes due to unforeseen technical and legal constraints.
Learnings
At the time my designer skills were very raw. My main focus when designing was to find space on the screen for every element, but I was already very aware of the importance of user testing to understand if the team's intuition were correct. We also relied a lot on the advice of the software house which in reality only consisted of programmers and not designer. This first real experience let me learn by trial and many, many errors. I learned the importance of having a working MVP but also the importance of details (that usually lack in a MVP done in a business-environment-rush).
Prototypes
First Rider App
Merchant Dashboard
Client facing App
Rider App
