Simplify App
An ecommerce company has a real problem of planning huge amounts of shipments all around the world.
Overview
Simplify App was a freelance UXUI Project which gave me more confidence on my proffession. It was an ecommerce company project and it has a real problem of planning huge amounts of shipments all around the world. There was no online courier pick-up and drop facility in Birinin, Abuja. The web-based tracking service provided by courier vendors did not have a good user experience. And then, people were unaware of the standard courier delivery prices.
Role
I and Moses was only the persons in the research and designing team. It was a big challenge to contact all the time and discussing the project. We both played all role in researching, wirframing and prototyping.
Time Frame
5 weeks in total
• Research, create user personas, use case diagrams and mockup (2 week)
• Actual design; Implement ideas into the UI Kit, prototypes and Test (3 weeks)
The Challenge
They are struggling with the problem of sending different couriers to the same location to ship goods to customers which is a waste of resources. And, the problem of inconsistency when handling location data provided by customers Huge
Optimizations Possible!
The Solutions
Normalize location data from different customer sources
Provides additional meta information about courier routes and destinations (minimal street width, maximal curviness, building information, opening times, ...) using a maps
API
Helps to plan shipments with route information.
Research Methodes
The Survey
We conducted a survey on a community nearby the city of Abuja using Survey Monkey and instagram polls. The aim of survey was to find the great soulution for the challenges which people are facing in the sector of courier delivery services. The research helped us to perform the root analysis to reach the origin of the problem. As the result shown from the servey, 90% of people already used the courier serviece and all they are looking for a better and easier way of services. We found that there is no efficent way to track packages and people are unaware of standard courier delivery prices and also the parcels usully get delyed.
Interviews
We interviewd some of the college students, couple of business entrepreurs in the city and also some IT proffessionals. Most of them said that they faced many problems in sending parcels especially like tracking and delivery delay. There seemed to be a lcak of information about standadard delivary services and price information.
Problem Synthesis
Affinity Diagramming
We used affinity diagrams for getting best and qualitive data. This analysis helped us in categorizing and prioritizing the data of problems, issues and challenges the people who sending parcels every day.
Persona
Understanding the user
The analysis of servey and the Interviews helped us to gather different insights and typical patterns from the user's answers. The research methodes helped very much us to understand the user and so that we created an end user for this project. The purpose of the persona was to reaching out the Solutions. Focusing on a paritcular user helps to keep the user's needs in mind and not get distracted whenever an idea for an additional feature or demand pops up.
User Journey
Next step was to create a user journey. We just analysed user emotions and empathies and considerd how the end user whish to do things in a smartway. The process helped us identify oppertunites and ideas to enhance the user experience of the simplify app.
Flow Diagram
Mapping & organizing information
Designing for the user experience began from sketching out a typical user journey based on the accomplishment of specific tasks within the app. Once the user journey had been established, the team began to unpack the design flow for general and specific use cases.
Wireframing
Low-Fidelity Prototyping
Based on the main features and task flow of our platform, we created initial sketches and wireframes of our prototype with the following user flows: User onboardings, group creation and tracking facilities. We used Adobe XD as the tool for low-fedility prototyping the app.
AN Fashion App
High Fidelity Design
1. Onboardings: Onboardings have designed to understand what would be in the app and how to get rid the confusions at the earliest phase of user. It explains the alternative usage of maps and traking facilities. Also the onboarding let user know that facilites of order history and grouping systems.
2. Logins and Sign Ups: Whenever the user goes after the onbordings, they will be directing to the courier or manager screen which will lead them to their own login or signup screen.
3. Maps and Account Creation: After onboarding, users can book courier services directly from the dashboard. For that they need to create their account and need to go to the map session. When booking the service, one can add the sender and delivery address, package details, and item category for the parcel. Users have an option to either schedule the parcel pick-up or request an immediate pick-up.
4. Tracking and Ordering: Users are taken to the payment gateway to pay the service charges based on traveling distance, package category, and size of the package. The payment details will show all the relevant information and offers applied. Thus, providing all the relevant information to users and bringing transparency into the system. users have an option to track their packages at every step in the “your orders” section of the app. The parcel tracking procedure should be easy and quick to keep it in line with the app’s simple interface. Thus, the tracking cards on the dashboard provide better discovery and immediate usage. Detailed tracking is done by clicking on the respective cards. In the “your orders” section, users can get the schedule, package details, and payment summary of the package.
The goal of simplify is to allow users to book courier delivery quickly and easily at comparable costs to well-established courier delivery services. Simplify helps users send parcels at the comfort of their home or office. The app provides real-time tracking for their courier. The app is provided with an enhanced user experience to help people built a dependable relationship with the app.
Conclusion
Reflection & learning
Designing simplify has been a challenging and rewarding experience. The primary challenge was to make users interested in something that competes with the trial and tested the brick and mortar business model of well-established courier delivery services. I researched the user needs, market gaps, and costs for courier delivery service. I understood that users want to shift to an online platform to send and receive couriers. Finally, I faced the challenge of creating an engaging app both from the user experience perspective and the visual perspective.
What are the next steps?
1. Usability testing
2. Improve user flow
3. A comprehensive business models
