This case study is not affiliated with or endorsed by Vinted. I will share the process from start to finish in working on this case study.
Challenge
Finding ways to incorporate new features into the existing platform based on user needs. Analyze an already existing and highly adopted app and incorporate a new feature into the existing product. The feature you develop will be based on an area of functionality to be explored and user research.
In this project I focused on the UI part and concentrated on consolidating knowledge in dealing with Figma. To do this, we imitated a prototype of the entire app in detail and added our own feature. I simulated the app for an Android system and was able to learn a lot about prototypes, components, atomic design and the entire handling of Figma.
In addition, I benefited from the support of talented Valeria Costantini and thank her very much for the tipps and advices!
Agenda
What is Vinted?
Vinted was founded in 2008 in Vilnius, Lithuania and is now active in 13 countries — France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Great Britain and the USA.
A total of 45 million customers use the service to resell and buy clothing.
Vinted offers them the market place and the infrastructure and collects between 3–8% of the purchase price as commission.
Overall, they were able to achieve a transaction turnover of 1.3 billion euros in 2019.
Empathize
Develop a deep understanding of the problem.
Business Analysis
I made Feature Competitive analysis and compared different apps.
I’ve focused on the following two functions: choosing things in one’s own vicinity and setting an alert when things are available. Both of these are not present on Vinted.
Guerilla Research // Reviews Vinted App
I also looked at the reviews of the app. A noticeable number of users are not satisfied that it’s not possible to search in their own surrounding. The feature probably existed once, but was deleted a few years ago.
Empathy Map
Here you can see a detail of the Empathy Map.
Before that I made Interviews, with these results I built an Affinity Diagram and created the entire Empathy Map.
The pains of the Vinted users are long waiting times and high shipping costs, as well as the fear of the items not fitting. This is especially troublesome as they want to avoid unnecessary shipping and try to protect the environment. The users also like to be connected with their surrounding and their neighbourhood.
User Persona
This is my User Persona Viviene Vinted.
She tries to have a sustainable lifestyle, at the same time she loves fashion and Second Hand clothings. That’s the reason why she uses the Vinted-App already.
The Pains & Gains of the Empathy Map helped me to find Viviene’s Needs and Frustrations here.
Her Motivation is, that she likes to have a big choice of second hand clothings for a low price. But she also likes to try on the items, feel the fabric and quality. Viviene also wants to have more connections in her hood and the personal contact with the seller.
User Journey
This is Viviene’s current User Journey.
The Scenario here is: She received a spontaneous invitation to a party — it’s a dress up party and it’s tomorrow night!
She has everything to dress up as a cowgirl, only the matching cowboy boots are missing. So she decides to use her favorite App for things like this — Vinted. She opens the Application, uses all necessary filter options and finds a pair of beautiful cowboy boots with a super price. But then she realizes that the seller is too far away and the shippingwould take too long. She is disappointed and has no choice now. She opens another App, where she can search for things in her vicinity.
She chooses her location and finds some Cowboy Boots in her neighborhood.
She contacts the seller and has a fast and easy handover. The shoes are not as pretty as the one from Vinted, but time is running out, so she can’t be picky.
Define
Clearly articulate the problem you want to solve.
Problem Statement
With the information collected in this way, I was able to formulate a problem statement from the perspective of the user.
How-Might-We Questions
Also some How-Might-We questions helped me to focus.
How might we help our users to get their product as quickly as possible?
How might we keep the selection process short and simple and still integrate a filter to search in one’s own vicinity?
How might we connect the user better with his environment and neighborhood?
How might we make the vicinity feature simple and understandable?
How might we save the user time when shopping on our website?
How might we make the pick-up function as safe as possible for sellers and buyers?
Moscow Prioritization
I used the Moscow Method to focus on the most important features.
I think the possibility to select the search radius and the own postal code is a must-have. It’s also important to see the distance to each product and to have an easy and direct communication with the seller.
I wanted to insert also a map where you can see, how to get to the item.
And a could have are advices and tips for a safe handover.
User Flow // Happy Path
This is Viviene’s future User Flow. Her Happy Path is from opening the App, to selecting different subcategories, to the page for of all cowboy boots.
Then she chooses her shoe size and the color the shoes should have.
After that she selects the Location Filter (you see the new part with the yellow outline).
She chooses location, determines the radius and gets results in her vicinity.
A bit later, she finds her product and gets the option to see a more precise radius where it is.
MVP
The goal of my ’Add a Feature’ project is to insert a filter option into the Vinted sales and purchase platform that enables the buyer to search for products that are in their own vicinity.
The following criteria must be observed:
The feature should be intuitive and easy to understand — therefore it is embedded in the list of existing filters. The user should be able to choose the radius in which the products should be located. In addition, it should be possible to see how far away the product is, and in the list view it should be possible to display the products in increasing distance.
Here you can see my Minimum Viable Product Statement.
In this way we avoid that Vinted’s customers use other apps to buy products from their own vicinity. In order to guarantee a secure handover, payment via the previous payment system can be recommended.
Ideate
Brainstorm all possible solutions.
Low-Fidelity Prototype
Here we see the way that our User Persona Vivien Vinted has to select the desired cowboy boots in her own surrounding. We start with opening the app, through the selection of shoe size and favorite shoe color to the new feature: the filter option to select things that are in her own vicinity. Finally, in the last area, she has the opportunity to display the route that she will have to get to the selected boots.
Test the Lo-Fi
Gather user feedback in order to refine your solution.
With these Sketches i made some usability testings.
Users said that, the word Place is not the right one for this filter.
They prefer the word Location.
“ Place is maybe not the right word for the filter option!? Proposals: local pick-up, location, distance, surroundings.” Anne
“ I would rather suggest location for the name of the filter option.” Daniela & Rebecca
Users said that, they miss the opportunity to get located via GPS.
“ Missing an option to be found via GPS location.” Anne
“ I would like to add my position through GPS.” Daniela
Here the users said, that they like the Idea of the pop-up but don’t think that it’s the right moment for that.
“ I only need the pop-up if I have already made the purchase decision.” Christin
“ I think it’s too early for the pop-up window.” Anne
“ I prefer to have the pop-up window before the buying step.” David
High-Fidelity Prototype
I improved the results of the user testing in the Hi-Fi prototype.
Test the Hi-Fi
Gather user feedback in order to refine your solution.
I did more usability tests with the high-fidelity prototype.
In the future I would like to add a nearest-by option to the sort-by list.
In addition, I would like the distance of each item to the users location to be shown on the results page.
Next Steps
- I would like to insert an interactive map — on which you can see the distance from every item to your place.
- It would also be helpful to provide information on whether the seller is willing to have the clothes tried on in their own home or not.
- The seller should also be informed and be able to choose whether he would like to sell his things that way and with the personal contact with the buyer or not.
Created under the supervision and in collaboration by Ironhack Remote.
Project 3 // Add a Feature
