Wrapped Gift Delivery App — UI/UX Case Study
Wrapped is an app dedicated solely towards personalising users’ buying and gifting experience by making it customised and more convenient. It allows the users to choose from a wide variety of gifts and enables them to schedule delivery dates beforehand which ensures timely deliveries on special days and takes away the hassles that comes with it.
Background
With the fast-paced world and work environment, people can hardly keep up with having a steady relationship with their peers. Increasing workload leaves very little time for people to engage with their friends and family or to reach out to them on their special days. With the pandemic hitting last year, people’s work and social life got even worse and we could only rely on technology for all the human interactions. In today’s age, almost everything has shifted to digital means. However, when it came to making people feel good on their special days, there weren’t any significant application which catered solely towards gifts and everything related to it. The solution was to create an app dedicated solely towards buying and delivery gifts and making them feel remembered during these difficult times.
Problem
Users find it difficult to find appropriate gifts for special occasions all in one place for the lack of gift items to choose from. Moreover, the uncertain delivery dates take away the main purpose of delivering the gifts on the special days. Lack of features to personalise the gifts for people concerned takes away the essence of sending a customised gift.
Solution
The solution was to create a convenient application dedicated specifically to buying and delivering gifts to the loved ones and offering a personalised experience for the users by letting them choose their pick from a wide range of well curated gift items. For better convenience, a calendar feature was also added so that users can input the dates and choose gifts beforehand which will be delivered on the mentioned date and time and also be reminded through push notifications so that they don't miss any date.
Competitive analysis
Since there weren’t many popular comparable products except for a few, my research was based on the popular e-commerce applications, which were mostly used by the users as found out in the interviews and surveys.
To understand the different spheres (which included target audience, usability, interface , navigation structure, content and performance) of the competitive products, a SWCDUXO analysis was performed on the apps to understand the products and it’s features.
Interviews and surveys:
To understand the experience and the pain points of the users, a survey was conducted which included participants aged between 19–45. The survey along with interviews answered the important questions about potential users which allowed me to define the user group.
The main concerned questions were:
- What are the disadvantages users face while looking for/delivering gifts online?
- What are the things users consider before choosing gifts online?
- Is there any feature users wish existed to help make their gifting experience easier?
Findings from interviews and surveys
- Users find it difficult to find a wide variety of gift products in one platform.
- Users don’t get to deliver the gifts at the exact day they wish to — the unavailability of options to choose the delivery dates as per their requirement makes the process unassured as users wish to send the gifts at the exact day of the event concerned which doesn’t get fulfilled by most of the apps they use currently and takes away from the experience of sending gifts on a special day.
- Users don’t have the means to personalise their gifts- people love to make their gifts personalised — from choosing specific products to having a package of their choice. Users don’t have the option to personalise their gifts which was a concern for the majority of people who took part in the survey and interview.
Empathy building
I created three user personas based on the survey which comprised of:
- Users who prefer using digital products for delivering gifts to their loved ones and find it convenient.
2. Users who would like to use apps but does not very frequently due to the lack of convinient features (categories, delivery, price) which proves constraining for them.
3. Users who avoid using apps for delivering gifts because it’s an easy task for them to find the gifts they want and the whole process of delivery offline.
Sitemap
After sorting out the main features for the app based on the needs of the user groups, a sitemap was created. The most important features that distinguished the app from the ones users already were using (as found out in the survey) were the calendar, self-made gift hampers and a more personalised delivery service.
User Flow
I made a list of the main tasks a user needed to complete to use the product successfully. It included -
- Adding a date to the calendar.
- Finding and adding items to the cart.
- Creating a gift hamper.
- Personalising gift pack in cart before checking out.
I created a user flow which included each of these tasks to better understand the movement of a user through the product and to refine it.
Wireframes and prototypes
After planning and sorting out the general structure of the app, I moved on to creating the initial prototypes on paper. My main aim was to keep the app and it’s navigation simple yet serve the main purpose of the app — to make it personalised for each individual. Since the concept of the app aligned with already existing e-commerce apps (with some new added features) which users were used to, I wanted to keep the interface simple and something people are used to using and is user friendly.
Paper prototypes
At first, I started out with creating the low fidelity prototypes on paper as it gave me the freedom to brainstorm ideas for the concerned screens and quickly put them on paper and I could swiftly make changes accordingly.
Clickable prototypes
Once the paper prototypes were finalised, I went on to create the high fidelity prototypes for the final user testing.
Visual System
Key Features of Wrapped
1. Calendar — Adding a date, Editing a date, Deleting a date
The main motive of integrating a calendar in the app was to help users keep track of the special dates and send reminders to help them not miss out on making their loved ones feel special.
2. Creating a hamper
Creating hampers allowed the users to have a personalised experience. Also, it helped in making the process of saving and purchasing gifts quicker and more organised.
3. Favourites
This section consisted of the items that are Added to Favourites by the users as well as the hampers that are created by them.
4. Customising gift accessories and delivery
One of the of the findings from the user research revealed that people wanted to customise the accessories of the gifts and also the date of the delivery. Adding these features helped make the app more personalised.
Usability tests
Usability tests were done in two steps.
The first usability test was done with the low fidelity clickable prototypes which revealed minor flaws in the structure of the user interface of certain screens. Once changes and improvements were made, I moved on to creating the high fidelity prototypes which were further tested out through moderated usability testing which was conducted in-person as well as remotely through online meetings for the final feedback.
It was mainly focused on using the calendar, creating a gift hamper and curating gift accessories and choosing preferred delivery date and time. I asked questions such as -
Let’s say you want to add a date to the app calendar but you don’t wish to set a reminder. How would you do that?
If you have to add a curate a new gift hamper for your friend’s birthday, how would you achieve that?
Main Takeaways
Research and User Testing are crucial while designing a product
Products are made to solver users’ problems hence it’s extremely important that the whole design process is user-centered.
User tests reveal flaws which can be minute yet easy to spot while using the product, which can be overlooked by the designer who is well aware of its interface.
Even the tiniest additions or changes can make a big difference
Adding the calendar feature in the app was useful as it helped users keep track of the special dates and they could choose and order gifts ahead of time and the gifts would be delivered on the day as instructed by the users.
Along with that, the option to set reminders helped remind the users of the special days through push notifications so that they don’t miss out on the dates.
Future Roadmap
In future, I wish to reiterate the app and add a couple of features:
Make the app a two way process between buyers and sellers. Local artists and businesses can sell their products online through the app to the buyers which will not only help small businesses grow but will also be sustainable.
Add a chat feature so that buyers and sellers can communicate with each other and help make the process more trustworthy.
All in all, this project allowed me to delve deeper and read more about the design process. Although I chose a pretty simple app idea since this was my first ever well researched and documented design project, I wish to solve more complex issues in the future ones.
