Flock Shop
A UX Research Project for a Group-Buying Beauty App
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Overview
Flock is a start-up company combining e-commerce and social media on a group buying app for beauty products. Users sign up to browse their favorite products and buy in groups of 3 to unlock a discounted price. Users have 24 hours to fill the 3 spots, or the “Flock Deal” expires. Additionally, the app offers community engagement where users can share their profiles with information about their skin and hair to find and connect with people who have similar features to group buy with! Currently, the app is in development phases, and the owners are looking for user feedback regarding their existing screens and group buying flow. They also requested user research to guide their development of a rewards function within their app.
Project timeline: 4 weeks
Objectives:
To identify user pain points within group buying flow to improve existing screens.
To Identify what users are looking for in a Rewards Program to assist Flock App in designing their new rewards function.
My role: This was a group project consisting of myself and 3 other Springboard UX Design students. My role in the group was the primary communicator between the group and the business owner, leading weekly zoom meetings to share our findings. I was responsible for designing the research plan, creating a screener survey, building the usability test script, conducting remote usability tests and remote user interviews, consolidating interview findings into a report, creating a user persona, and presenting a final research report to the business owner.
Research Plan
The business owner provided us with secondary research that has already been conducted, so I immediately got started on crafting a research plan.
Research Questions
Do users understand how to use the app to group buy products?
Are online shoppers using rewards/loyalty programs?
What do they like about rewards programs?
What do they dislike about rewards programs?
What features are most important in a rewards program?
Methodology
Screener Survey: To identify appropriate participants for usability testing and user interviews
User Interviews: To understand pain points, motivations, and behaviors related to rewards programs
Usability Testing: To determine what works well and what can be improved on figma high fidelity prototypes provided by business owner
Participant Characteristics
Uses social media daily
Purchases personal products on a web or mobile app (personal care, beauty, clothing, etc).
Utilizes at least one rewards program
Recruitment Methods
Screener survey offered through social media, Slack, LinkedIn, personal networks of family and friends
Interview participants selected based on screener responses
Usability Testing
Flock’s owner expressed that she would like feedback specifically on the group buying user flow within the app, as well as general feedback on the home screen, information architecture, and overall UI. Each group member, including myself, was responsible for conducting a remote moderated usability test. I then collaborated with another group member to create a consolidated usability report to summarize all of our findings. Our testing uncovered 5 critical issues, 4 major issues, and 4 minor issues. The critical issues and proposed solutions are as follows:
1. Users feel that the home screen UI is busy
Consolidate Top Categories and buttons on top of screen
2. Users struggled to Create and Join Flock Deals
Provide an onboarding tutorial that is accessible from any screen via a ? button
3. Users were confused when they didn’t receive confirmation after completing steps to Create or Join a Flock Deal
A notification/confirmation message after order complete
Red number circle added to cart to show items in cart
4. Users had questions about their spot and the other empty spots in a Flock Deal
Enlarge the icons that indicate filled spots
Enable click function on unfilled icons to invite friends
5. Users questioned the check out process & flow
Abbreviated progress bar shown at the top of each page
Add text to explain why they are providing address/billing info now
User Interviews
The next step in our research project was to interview users specifically in regards to their use of rewards/loyalty programs within apps/websites in order to guide Flock’s development of a rewards function within their app. I performed 2 user interviews, and other group members performed 1-2 interviews each. Interviews were remote lasting 15-30 minutes and recorded with participant permission.
Interview findings were then synthesized utilizing affinity mapping and empathy mapping, which led me to create a user persona demonstrating key features of our participants and Flock’s target audience. Meet beautiful and busy Brenda!
She is a tech savvy new mom who is on a budget and loves beauty products from Sephora, Target, and Amazon.
She prefers to shop online for convenience and discounts
She is naturally social and enjoys connecting with others online
She likes rewards programs that are easy to use and track
Conclusion
The main goal of this project was to provide Flock with user insights regarding their existing group buying user flow, as well as recommendations for the development of a new rewards function.
As a UX designer aspiring to specialize in research, I was responsible for a great amount of the work shown up until this point. The last week of the project, the other group members finished with sketches and simple wireframes for the new rewards app function. These sketches/wireframes were not tested due to time constraints. During this time, I was responsible for creating and presenting a final research presentation to the stakeholder.
Collaborating with other designers on a real-world project was very insightful and a great learning experience in communicating with various people with different backgrounds. I have extensive experience working with an interdisciplinary team from my healthcare background, so it was cool to see how this carries over to UX Design!
