ThriftUP
An all in one place for pop-up thrift markets
Role
Lead UX Designer and Researcher
Skills
Lean UX, User Research, and User Interface Design.
Tools
Figma, Figjam, and Microsoft Teams
Overview
This project was pitched during my fall 2023 Interaction Design 2 Class, and I was selected as a team lead. My team used Lean UX to create a digital website for anyone interested in attending local pop-up markets in their area by creating a centralized website where you can find all of the up-to-date information on what markets are in your area. Below you will find the series of sprints of Lean UX we used to understand our users’ needs.
Timeline
Sep - November 2023
Sprint 1
Design Week 0
We kicked off as a team starting by creating our problem product statement to give ourselves a foundation for our assumptions and how we can begin to solve it. Our product problem described the current state of the pop-up market community, including the issues, lacking solutions, and how we believed we will fill this gap.
Problem Product Statement: The current state of pop-up thrift markets has a lack of cohesion. People are often having to dig for information within other products or platforms as well as a general lack of awareness of events. ThriftUP will address this gap by providing accessible, timely information on local events all in one place. We'll know we are successful when we see vendors, businesses, and users engaging with the website by interacting with site elements, ie. RSVPs, browsing, listing markets, etc.
Proto-Personas
After gaining an understanding of our market, problem, and solution, we had a better understanding of our target audience, and we began to create our Proto-Personas. We created two because there would be two different user types for our website.
The first persona we created was an attendee of the markets. He is a young adult fresh out of college who likes to shop sustainably and get involved in his community.
Our second persona was a vendor/market coordinator. She is a vendor who wants to be able to better market herself to her following on Instagram and to those who do not follow her to gain more exposure. She would like to know where upcoming markets are in her area that she could apply to be a vendor at.
Sprint 1 Backlog
After completing our Lean UX canvas as a team, we created a product backlog, which consisted of the least valuable things that would give us the most information. From this product backlog we chose the five items to complete during our first sprint.
Design Week 1 & 2
At the beginning of the first week, we started with our stand-up, which is a 15-minute meeting that happens every 2 days to go over what we have each accomplished and what we need to complete before the next stand-up. We began by creating a low-fidelity mock-up in Figma to gain a basic understanding of the direction we were heading. Later in the week, we conducted our interviews where we asked our participants questions about their habits in attending markets and gathered their thoughts on our low fidelity mock up.
During our second design week of sprint 1 week, we began adding more pages to our low-fi mock up and dropping in colors based on user interview feedback.
Sprint 1 Learning Curve and Retrospective
Sprints are fast-paced and leave very little room for error. If something is incorrect, you do not always have time to fix it to the degree that you would like, and you just have to keep moving forward. In this first sprint, I also learned a lot about leading a design team, there were many things I could improve upon for the next sprint. Such as
Better communication with my team on what needs to be done now that I know them and their strong points.
Prototyping more and creating a better understanding of my expectations of each page.
Re-doing our interview questions and asking our participants more prototype-specific questions.
Interviewing our second user type to gain a better perspective on their needs.
Sprint 2
Design Week 0
We took this time to re-evaluate our Lean UX Canvas and our Proto-Personas to re-validate or create new assumptions. We discovered that users prioritized being notified in a timely manner about an event and that they are looking for more unique pieces regardless of the price.
How Did Our Priorities Change?
We changed our hypothesis table the most during our re-evaluation. We discarded four items and added five items. This changed our product backlog, which in turn added more tasks to complete.
How Did Our Personas Change?
We changed our first Proto-Persona because, after our interviews, we realized our obstacles’ needs were not the reality of what our participants were telling us. We realized that people like to thrift not because it is cheaper but because they are against cheap fast fashion and commercialized shopping. Finding a good deal occasionally is just a bonus.
We also discovered that they are often aware of the events that are happening in their area, but they will often forget that they are upcoming or the events that are occurring do not fit within their schedules.
Our second Proto-Persona stayed the same because we did not interview anyone of that user type.
Design Week 1 & 2
With the first two weeks behind us and a better understanding of our primary user type and a new product backlog, we were looking forward to creating new changes within our product. After the feedback from our retrospective, I had a better understanding of what my team needed from me, and I aimed to provide that.
We added many more pages to our prototype, and we began to make more features interactive in order to enhance our user interviews. An onboarding section was created, the tiles on the search page were now populated with real information, and the tiles were clickable, which leads you to event pages.
We also drafted the list a market page and all of the vendor a pages which included, find a vendor, vendor of the month.
Refinement
Changing Our Style Guide
As a team, we agreed that our style guide was not matching the message that we wanted to put out there. So, together, we changed our colors and style guide. On my own time, I created a new logo that we would use on our home page.
After changing our style guide, our prototype really began to shine. We had found our groove together as a team and really started to flesh out and create new pages. We also really understood our user type and changed our product based on their feedback. We worked hard together to ensure the pages were the best that they could be
Takeaways as a Team Leader
During Sprint 1 Week 0, I would have created a low-fidelity wireframe as a reference for the rest of the sprint. I struggled to voice my vision of the product without heavy guidance.
Understanding each person on your team as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Different people excel at different things, and having that understanding when delegating is very important.
Prioritizing diversity in user interviews. I wish we had been able to interview our second user type more extensively.
A fast-paced environment needs you to think quickly on your feet and stay adaptable.
Coordinating meetings between four very busy people is difficult, and you get time in when you can. Being able to work independently and then coming together to get on the same page is key when schedules do not align.
Overall, I am very proud of my team and what we created. I had an incredible time learning how to be a team leader, in addition to learning a new design process.