Locobuddy cover photo showing multiple frames of the app.

Project Overview

Too long;

Didn't read

Role:

Product Designer

Duration:

12 weeks

Objective:

In Vancouver and other parts of Canada, small businesses struggle to compete with larger corporations due to limited resources and online presence. There's a lack of incentive to shop locally despite consumer awareness of the benefits. Through in-depth interviews with 11 participants, we designed an app to address these issues, helping small businesses stand out and communicate their benefits and services more effectively, thereby enhancing transparency and user experience.

Strategy:

We aimed to tackle issues of convenience, familiarity, and transparency by creating an app that allows small businesses to:

  • Showcase their products, availability, and prices in an organized manner.
  • Provide detailed store information.
  • Enable convenient shopping from home.
  • Highlight sales and deals to attract customers.

Preliminary Study

92%of Canadians are aware of the benefits of shopping locally, but only 13% do so.

78%of small retailers report they're losing customers and revenues to big businesses

We also noted significant preferences for online shopping among British Columbia consumers.

  • 40% of British Columbians prefer shopping online.
  • 59% age 18-34 prefer online shopping.
  • 73% age 55+ prefer shopping in person.

Why is this important?

  • 97% of small retailers contribute to their community and province in at least one way.
  • 74% donate to charities and causes.
  • 56% sponsor local teams and events.
  • 55% provide job opportunities for the youth.

Interested to read more?

Small Business, Big Impact: Small Retailers' Local ContributionsAge Still Defines Preferred Shopping Habits in British Columbia

Primary Research

We conducted a series of open-ended interview questions to understand participants' motivations, shopping habits, pain points, and challenges. The interviews focused only on their personal shopping experiences.

Key findings included:

2/11

2 participants prioritized quality.

2/11

2 participants prefer a built-in points or reward system.

4/11

4 participants discover new businesses when exploring a new area.

5/11

5 participants follow word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family.

5/11

5 participants value convenience (distance, easy transactions).

7/11

7 participants prefer shopping online.

8/11

8 participants do not actively seek out new or unknown local businesses.

9/11

9 participants are comfortable using mobile apps for shopping.

9/11

9 participants prioritize lower prices when shopping.

9/11

9 participants are influenced by online reviews and ratings.

All 11 participants have faced difficulties shopping at local businesses compared to larger ones, including lack of product quantity and variety (6), higher prices (5), lack of organization (4), and limited staffing and hours (2).

Challenges

The main challenges faced by small businesses included:

  1. Lack of transparency and familiarity
    • Unclear product offerings.
    • Uncertainty about stock availability.
    • Lack of price transparency
    • Insufficient store information
    • Lack of store identity
    • Consumer unawareness of store's existence
  2. Lack of convenience
    • Inability to shop from home
    • Difficulty finding specific products
    • Inconvenient store hours and locations
  3. Costs
    • Unclear pricing
    • Lack of information on sales
    • Competition with cheaper alternatives

Goals

1 Enhance convenience

  • Enable online shopping.
  • Provide clear information about stores and products.

2 Increase efficiency

  • Inform users about sales and promotions.
  • Make it easy to navigate and find desired products

Design Process

Conceptualization and preliminary studies

As a team of 3 designers, we brainstormed key features for small businesses and customers.

Brainstorming chart picture displaying the four W's (Who, What, Where, Why)

Primary research

We conducted 11 in-depth interviews with consumers and business owners.

Identified pain points:

  • Transparency
  • Convenience
  • Cost effeciency

Userflows, personas, and design system

Using Figma, we designed user flows and structured pages with a clear information architecture.

Picture showing user flow for the app. User flow explores purchasing, signing up, and search functions.
Information Architecture of the app, showing how the pages and page content were sorted.

We developed Chloe as our persona to represent our target users.

Picture of the locobuddy persona, displaying her bio, motivations, and pain points.

We established a design system for visuals and interactive consistency.

Information about brand and brand identity
Brand colours and semantic colours
Brand Typography and grids and spacings
Brand components used in wireframes and prototypes

Wireframes and prototyping

Lastly, we build low-fidelity wireframes and high-fidelity mockups in Figma through an iterative process based on user feedback, refining visual and interactions.

Low fidelity wireframes
High fidelity wireframes
High fidelity wireframes of home page and store page
High fidelity wireframes of product page and cart page
High fidelity wireframes of cart checkout
All wireframe mockups

Results

Key features of the app received an overwhelming positive response from other designers and UX experts, validating our design choices.

The app's design effectively showcases local businesses, enhances transparency, and provides a convenient shopping experience.