Designed an App for GenZ to build a better shopping habit.
Duration: Mar. 2021 - June 2021
My Role: Lead UIUX Designer
Project: Project of User Experience Design course, Department of Design, NTUST
Type: 4-people team project with Jiayao Ju, Yantsu Chang, and Huihuan Fon
Project Overview
Utilized gamification to design an App to help GenZ facilitate their shopping habit in a fun way
Received a favorable NPS of 29.1 from 51 users through a high-fidelity prototype and video
Graded A+ for User Experience Design project, a NTUST design course.
It was a course assignment within 4 months during my junior year in UX Design project, with Chiayao Chu, Yantsu Chang, Huihsuan Fon.
My responsibilities include:
Conducted user research by interviewing and summarizing findings in a Customer Journey Map
Collaborated to design UX and gamification mechanisms
Designed personal UI style and made prototype for testing
Evaluated by 1:1 user testing and iterated the design
Visualized the vedio
Mind Learnings
The ability to design a gamified app
Designing an app that promotes behavior change is the central objective of this project. To accomplish this, I delved into the book 'Actionable Gamification' and explored various apps with gamified designs to gain insights into their functionality. Throughout the design process, we dedicated ample time to contemplating effective metaphorical mechanics. I noticed that the success of these mechanics was closely tied to the research-derived problems. It became evident that the design concept could only thrive with the right problem and strategy in place. Consequently, I learned not only about the principles of gamification but also the importance of extracting insights from research and transforming them into innovative design solutions.
The skill to design and implement a new UI style
The design of the UI plays a crucial role in the app, which is designed with metaphors and a strong narrative. Despite having no prior experience, I dedicated time to browsing Pinterest for references, closely observing the app during daily use, and ultimately creating the UI for key pages. Since the project's outcome was an innovative concept, I initially did not develop a guideline. However, I encountered difficulties when designing other pages. Therefore, I recognized the importance of creating a guideline at the outset of future projects to ensure consistency in the UI style and avoid obstacles.
Evaluations with different purposes and methods
In this project, we conducted two rounds of design testing: once when the concept was finalized and again after completing the entire design. The number of testers and testing duration varied based on the specific goals. Through this experience, I gained insights into strategically planning tests to optimize cost-effectiveness. Additionally, I recognized the significant value of test results in supporting the concept and demonstrating the impact and value of the project.
Background
As the largest generation and digital natives, 41% of Gen Z have bad shopping habits.
With advanced advertising and algorithms, Gen Z is influenced to desire the newest items at a greater speed, leading to 41% of them being impulse buyers (Brewis, 2020). Therefore, they are considered to be the most materialistic (Flurry and Swimberghe, 2016) and desire-driven shopping group (Passport, 2018).
As a result, helping Gen Z build up a better shopping habit is a valuable issue that worth designing.
UX Research
Explore users’ behaviors and summarize in a design goal
In order to analyze Gen Z’s shopping behaviors, I strategically used 2 different methods, the "Fly On the Wall" method and "Semi-conduct interview".
Insights 1: Easily be attracted by unexpected goods and motivated to make a purchase.
With the progressing algorithm, users may be linked to other products that fit their preference but are less related to the one they are supposed to focus on. During this process, users were unconscious and they would increase positive emotions when they saw something interesting, leading to shopping motivation.
Insights 2: Tend to rationalize every purchase and not used to restrain the desire.
Before making a purchase, users would realize that they were buying something unexpected. However, they would make up some excuses to persuade themselves, such as a gift to celebrate festivals, or it would become useful one day.
Insights 3: Lack motivation to decrease unnecessary shopping.
3 of the interviewers expressed that they have ever decided to stop buying unnecessary stuff; however, there was no motivation for them to keep saving.
“I think I have to save $2 for that milk tea, but I also think that $2 is just a charge and I won’t have significant benefit if I saved them. So, I still bought it in the end.”
Insights 4: Shopping decision would change easily that results to the regrat purchase.
According to interviewers, they might change their minds just within a night. However, due to the advertising, they suffered from buying without spending another time to check if it is needed.
“I was so regretting buying that dress when I woke up in the next morning.”
Insights 5: The existed accounting tools cannot help improving shopping habit effectively.
In general accounting apps which record everything, there was no motivation for users to keep tracking their shopping habits.
“I’m used to accounting, but I have no idea what’s wrong with my shopping that I always spent it all unconsciously.”
How might we help Gen Z build better shopping habits to restrain desires and avoid being regretful about purchases?
UX Design
Step 1: Convert research insights into 5 design concepts
Step 2: Utilize gamification as strategy to boost a good habit’s formation with positive motivation
Metaphor and storyline
Using groundhog hoarding things in holes as an image, symbolizing users buried their desires underground. With such, users can track their desires and thereby restraining expenses as well as turning desires into saved money.
Step 3: Define layout and narritive
Desire Cave
Have you ever tried to find out which expenditure went wrong within the accounting records? "Desire Cave" is a gamified app that records unnecessary expenses in an interesting way, helping users to review desires and save money in the long term.
Iterations
Recruited 4 users for prototype test which worked effectively to help discover iteration adjustments.
After evaluating, we iterated for the better experience according to the test results.
Design solutions
Finally, designed 4 core functions and UI as an innovative solution.
As a group work, the mechanics were discussed and designed as teamwork. For the UI design, each member had developed their style and the one presented here was designed by me.
01. Desire record
To enhance the user’s awareness to restrain and conquer the desire.
02. Desire review
To extend the period of considering in order to avoid impulse shopping.
03. Monthly review
To present the user’s shopping trend and create motivation to build a long-term habit.
04. Statistics report
To present the user’s shopping trend in details.
Overall user flow
UX Evaluation
54 user testings for positive NPS.
To evaluate the final concept, we made a 3 minutes video to introduce our design and collect NPS as a metric. The test result was positive with NPS 29.1.
“I’m used to mix all the expenditure in accounting app. But I think Desire Cave is a good idea to better my shopping habit.”
“It’s so special for record only desire.”
“The gamified mechanics and UI are so fascinating”
In conclusion, this project has provided valuable learning experiences. I acquired the knowledge and skills to effectively utilize gamification as a design strategy, enhance my UI design abilities to bring the project to completion, and strategically conduct evaluations to showcase the design's value. These learnings have empowered me to continue creating and innovating valuable experiences with confidence.
