PORTFOLIO
+Local · Supporting local commerce
🇪🇸 Spanish version
Collaboratively design a solution to address the global challenges arising from the coronavirus pandemic.
This change has been very rapid, and our circumstances and those of the people around us have changed drastically: not being able to leave home, closed businesses, misinformation, and uncertainty about the near future.
Collaboratively design a solution to address the global challenges arising from the coronavirus pandemic.
We have entered a time of change because of this Covid-19 situation.
This change has been very rapid, and our circumstances and those of the people around us have changed drastically: not being able to leave home, closed businesses, misinformation, and uncertainty about the near future.
That’s why we decided to do our bit to try to improve this situation. We joined the UXER Covid-19 challenge. To search and identify problems and needs, generating an innovative solution that brings real value.
We are a group of 3 designers, María from 🇦🇷 Argentina, Raquel and Susana from 🇪🇸 Spain, who have created a solution in the form of an application to support small local commerce.
Client
Local businesses
Goal
Help local businesses after the COVID-19 Situation
Team & Roles
Three UX designers
Time
Five weeks
Throughout five weeks and applying different Design Thinking methodologies, we obtained a global vision of everything we needed to know and how to focus on the problems of local businesses in the wake of Covid-19.
Our solution is called +Local – Closer to your local businesses.
Consumers and small business owners are our users—proposed solutions.
It is an application that addresses both audiences, as we have already said, consumers and small business owners.
Contacto directo con el consumidor,
Venta online de productos
On the one hand, it allows small business owners to
- Advertise their products through promotion and inspirational content. We want the platform to serve as a showcase; it is not a substitute for the current trade but support that will give them visibility in the community.
- Direct contact with the consumer is essential for merchants to maintain the natural and close treatment, the personalised attention that characterises this type of establishment. That, together with the quality, is the most valued by consumers.
- Selling products online allows them to be known, build loyalty and attract new consumers; it also offers alternatives to traditional trade to adapt to the current situation.
Puede encontrar los comercios locales más cercanos
Colaborar con el pequeño negocio a través de una hucha solidaria
On the consumer side:
- They can find the nearest local stores and have detailed information accessible from each store, possibly filtering their searches with the content that interests them.
- Request to contact the community of merchants if they are still looking for the service or product they need.
- Collaborate with the small business through a solidarity piggy bank where they can donate the returns of the purchase, an action that they can activate and deactivate whenever they want
Lack of digitalisation, partial customer loyalty, little exposure to the Internet and change in consumer habits.
We found these main problems among 156 consumer surveys and nine interviews with small business owners.
Due to people being unable to leave their homes for weeks at a time and the physical closure of stores, these previously secondary problems significantly impacted small businesses.
Small business concerns:
Due to people being unable to leave their homes for weeks at a time and the physical closure of stores, these previously secondary problems significantly impacted small businesses.
Small business concerns:
- Owners notice that consumers appreciate the proximity product.
- Need for digitalisation without means or knowledge.
- 50% of interviewees use social media to get new customers and bet on visual marketing.
- Their customers value personal treatment.
- Word of mouth is still the leading advertising channel.
Colaborar con el pequeño negocio a través de una hucha solidaria
Colaborar con el pequeño negocio a través de una hucha solidaria
Colaborar con el pequeño negocio a través de una hucha solidaria
Colaborar con el pequeño negocio a través de una hucha solidaria
How is consumption changing in these times of confinement?
- Spanish consumers with a high level of interaction with online shopping channels will be 37% compared to 25% before the pandemic (Study: The consumer and COVID-19 ).
- 58% of Spanish consumers expect to have a high level of interaction with physical stores, compared to a ratio of 74% before the pandemic.
- 48% of Spanish consumers want more use of digital payment systems.
Design Thinking Methodology to address the problem
As we have already said, this challenge will last five weeks, during which we will manage the main phases of any design process: Understand, Ideate, Decide, Prototype and Test.
Colaborar con el pequeño negocio a través de una hucha solidaria
We are in the phase of understanding, devising and deciding what problems we find and what solutions we use.
We aggregate all the relevant data from the surveys, insights from the interviews and ideas that emerged during our brainstorming sessions and generate common categories that will help us define the problems and develop potential solution ideas.
This is the moment we move from analysis to synthesis. This tool is called Affinity Diagram from which we get our potential solution ideas.
Benchmarking
We also analysed the competition since as a result of Covid-19 there have been many proposals to digitise and give voice to small businesses during the crisis. I leave here the complete study, and we summarise where our competition was weakest and the common points.
To find the real needs of both users (store owners and consumers) and not just what they told us they wanted, we conducted an Empathy Map. This will lead us to find our value proposition.
We now need to understand the customer’s needs and see how we will create value for them with our potential solution ideas. For these, we made the Customer Profile for the first and matched it with the second tool, Value Map.
La Propuesta de Valor siempre se empieza trabajando el perfil del cliente. Tendrás que valorar cuáles son sus
trabajos, sus frustraciones y sus alegrías. Y se encaja con ll Mapa de Valor con sus Productos y Servicios, Aliviadores de Frustraciones y
Creadores de Alegrías.
Our value proposition
Finally, we draw our value proposition where the user’s needs and the value we will generate for him converge.
La Propuesta de Valor siempre se empieza trabajando el perfil del cliente. Tendrás que valorar cuáles son sus
trabajos, sus frustraciones y sus alegrías. Y se encaja con ll Mapa de Valor con sus Productos y Servicios, Aliviadores de Frustraciones y
Creadores de Alegrías.
We also established the priorities that we will give to our solution’s functionalities, which focused a lot on getting an MVP (minimum viable product) and not creating an application with all the imaginable functionalities.
Es de donde obtenemos nuestra propuesta de valor y convergen el Perfil de cliente y Mapa de Valor.
Usando un diagram de MOSCOW, que nos marca las prioridades enfrentando esfuerzo / valor
We show you how +Local will benefit our customers when they come in contact with our application.
El user scenario nos ayuda a empatizar viendo cómo si siente nuestro consumidor cuando entra en contacto con nuestra aplicación.
El user Journey nos muestra cómo se siente y las problemáticas que tiene nuestro consumidor antes de utilizar +Local, nuestra aplicación.
First sketches of the design in paper and digital versions. First results of user tests
After discussing the results, paper screens were designed to define the application’s content, generating a low-resolution visual model.
From the information captured on paper, the information architecture was organised, and the app screens were developed with functionality in mind; the tool needed to be intuitive and easy to use.
The first interactive prototype was built for testing, and the first successes and failures were identified. This allowed iterating and rethinking some of the app’s features before making the high-resolution prototype.
Los prototipos de fidelidad media (MIDFI) generalmente se hacen desde la mitad hasta el final del proyecto. Este tipo de prototipo es ideal para el tipo de cliente que desea ver más detalles sobre cómo va su producto. A veces es mucho más fácil mostrar algo casi en el estado “final” que unos pocos bocetos.
We defined our brand and started with the design of our application. Moodboard and picking the colour
We brainstormed to choose a name, and +LOCAL was the chosen one. In it, we combined the concepts of community, closeness and connection. It is also a statement of intent of how we want to influence current consumption habits: promoting local consumption to help local businesses and producers.
Creamos un tablero de inspiración. Así de simple pero de complejo a la vez. Se trata de visualmente, exponer y aterrizar lo que queremos qu inspire nuestra marca y definir una línea gráfica sobre la que trabajar.
Los Style Tiles son un conjunto de imágenes en los que dejamos ver qué combinación de colores hemos barajado para el diseño, tipografías y toda una serie de elementos gráficos que dejan intuir el espíritu de la web o aplicación.
Elección de color:
Our main palette is composed of primary colours, blues, red and yellow, with a degree of desaturation that helps us to harmonise them.
This combination that expresses strength, reliability, confidence and vitality helps us create a solid, energetic, cheerful and optimistic brand image.
Typography:
We used SF Pro as our primary typeface. This sans-serif typeface provides a consistent, legible and friendly typographic voice that will contribute to a positive experience when using the application.
The interactive prototype made in Figma
And here we leave you our interactive prototype . You can interact with it, and if you want, you can leave us your suggestions in the comments.
The main features of +Local are:
- Your local stores in one place. Online sale of products on offer and promotions that the owner wants to advertise.
- Direct communication with the owners in the form of a chat.
- Solidarity piggy bank by donating the returns of your purchase. Voluntary collaboration with the store (within the consumer profile).
- Consumers have a voice. Board for consumers in case they need something they need help finding.
Los Style Tiles son un conjunto de imágenes en los que dejamos ver qué combinación de colores hemos barajado para el diseño, tipografías y toda una serie de elementos gráficos que dejan intuir el espíritu de la web o aplicación.
Monetisation
- We have created a system of featured ads for merchants who want more visibility in their promotions.
- Different subscription levels in case of having more than one business for the same owner.
- If the app has enough success, we will consider setting in a Google Ads-type ad system.
Lessons learned and next steps.
After the first test with consumers, we observed that the product was well received; they considered it practical and valuable. Even so, we identified the problem with some of the proposed functionalities. The most outstanding are:
Board Functionality
We observed that the functionality is not well understood; most of the interviewees believe that it is a social network where everyone can interact to help each other’s neighbours; we explained that the purpose is to have a space to make inquiries and that only traders can answer them.
This only pleases some; what initially seemed like a good idea now generates doubts and creates a division of opinions about it.
Changes to the proposal
To solve this, we propose several strategies:
- Reformulate the concept to make it more understandable, and explain why only merchants are authorised to answer messages.
- Value the existence of the figure of the moderator and that the whole community can respond to the doubts that arise.
- Evaluate the continuity, retest and analyse if this functionality is so important and if it provides so much value to keep it.
Piggy bank functionality
We have found out that we need the collaboration of a financial institution to carry it out. We must assess the cost and difficulty of implementing it and if it brings benefits to compensate for it.
Changes to the proposal
- Evaluate the feasibility of this idea with experts in the sector and analyse other options such as Wordlcoo.
- Study also if it is more feasible that the savings are made in each store the customer would have a balance in their favour in each establishment or could donate it to the same if they so choose. We would have to analyse costs, feasibility, and interest on the part of the owners of the establishments.
- Disregard the savings, only giving the option of donating the rounding up at the end of each purchase. This is the easiest and most economical option.
Functionality inspirational content
This section, designed to encourage traffic in the profiles of the stores, is better received than we expected. It is content that the users like and surprise them.
Changes to the proposal
Value the possibility of giving it more visibility within the app or explaining this section in the onboarding.
User Registration
In general terms, we must also rethink when to ask for registration and personal data. In our prototype, we asked for it at the beginning, but when we did our tests, it was a problem for some users for an app launched new to the market and unknown.
Changes to the proposal
Value to let access to the user who can find the nearest stores (without contact details) and promotions, but if you want to chat, post on the board or make a purchase online, you have to register.
To conclude, this has been a fabulous experience, connecting with people you know nothing about and from different countries has made this a very special project. It has been five weeks of hard work, but it has been worth it. We have learned a lot and suffered and laughed a lot too.
Now we are looking forward to phase II of this project, where we will see how to continue with this plan, and we will keep you updated. Many thanks to UXER and TeamLabs for making this initiative possible as part of the @COVID19CHALLENGE of UXERS IN ACTION.
Here we leave our presentation of the project we did on Youtube in case you want to meet us :).
Team
Let’s talk
Always open to listening to new projects.
