A broken wallet shouldn't stop you from looking cool on great deals
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Overview
Being "povo" is not an excuse not to be trendy and cool. With PovoTheApp, a classifieds application for those who are looking for interesting items to buy, there are always cheap and good options around.
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This project was crafted in August 2018 as part of the UI design course from CareerFoundry.
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Product Discovery
Vintage is the new cool. Vintage is hipster, saves money, is eco-friendly and invokes visual trends from the past that are now back, either in interior decoration, fashion or lifestyle. Vintage, however, can also translate into rare and expensive. It can also be old, rotten and useless. The good vintage is the one that is somehow connected to the present, unique, full of life. And finding the good vintage can be a task for the thrifty who spend too much time on second-hand stores.
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There's room for a local deals marketplace app of curated vintage items sitting somewhere between the old and expensive, and that's what Povo aims to fullfill.
User Research
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For the exploratory user research of this topic, we selected 10 prospective customers aged between 20 and 39 years old, half of them with previous experience purchasing items through classifieds and the other half without such experience.
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The main questions asked were:
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1. How often do you search for vintage items?
2. Where do you currently search for such items?
3. Do you currently use marketplace apps for this?
4. If not, what blocks you from doing so?
5. What sorts of vintage items are you mostly attracted to?
6. What are the most important characteristics of those items that you need to be able to check?
7. How often do you negotiate prices?
Research Results
Description is not important as long as there's an abundance of images to support the product. Literally, an image speaks a thousand words.
LOCATION IS FLEXIBLE
Customers seem to be willing to go a bit further if the item is really promising. It will be a win if we can reflect that on the search results.
VIDEOS PLEASE
Videos are a quick and easy way to showcase the upsides of a product, including how it looks in the surroundings and in the body.
IMAGES ARE KEY
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Inspiration
PovoTheApp draws inspiration from all that is vintage, classy and old school. The general asthetics aims to invoke feelings mixing Americana, Elvis and burger places who could have been taken out of a 60's themed movie.
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Job Stories
For the first iteration of this app, the following job stories were prioritised, considering both sides of the marketplace:
SELLER
1. When I am posting my items, I want to use only images and videos, so that I can save my typing time.
2. When I am posting my items, I want to not need to describe anything beyond price, so that I am not drawn to postpone the posting of my items.
3. When I am communicating with a prospective buyer, I want to only communicate through the means chosen by me (either anonymous chat message or phone call), so that my privacy is protected.
BUYER
1. When I am looking for an item, I want to also see suitable items around my chosen location, so that I can save my trouble when searching.
2. When I am searching for an item, I don't want to read tedious descriptions of the item, so that I save my time when assessing.
3. When I am communicating with the seller of an item that I am interested in, I want to have my privacy protected, so that I feel safe.
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Defining a Visual Language
ACCENT
HEX: #FEA680
RGB: 254,166,128
HSL: 18, 98%, 75%
ACCENT
HEX: #01ABAA
RGB: 1,171,170
HSL: 179, 98%, 34%
SUPPORT
HEX: #000000
RGB: 0,0,0
HSL: 0, 0%, 0%
DOMINANT
HEX: #FEDC3D
RGB: 254,220,61
HSL: 49.4, 99%, 61.8%
COLOURS
PovoTheApp has colours that evoke vinyl records, dresses and bikinis with yellow polka dots, girls with pony tails and big haircuts. The 60's and vintage aesthetics target the audience that identifies as "hipster", which values the vintage, the old, the high quality and old school products, such as fixie bikes and turntables.
STYLE
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The Look
SEARCH QUICKLY
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Both the item and locations search help customers find exactly what they're looking for, where it makes sense for them.
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The Interface
EASY AND CLEAN DISCOVERY
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Povo's interface prioritises the item images and the sorting criteria. It's easy to save an item for later viewing through the right icon. Location also plays a prominent role, as it's an important asset of the item for the prospective buyer to evaluate convenience.
LOCATION-SENSITIVE SEARCH
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As it was noticed that customers are generally willing to go a bit further for the sake of the ideal item, Povo "relaxes" the search to the surrounding locations when the list of potential items in the customer's desired location runs out
CLEAR VIEW OF WHAT MATTERS
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The most important asset for a customer to evaluate the adequacy and convenience of an item - the pictures. Big, high quality and abundant, the pictures speak a thousand words.
Thank you for checking
