FY! APP: MINI CASE STUDY

MY ROLE

UX/UI Designer

PROJECT SUMMARY

Fy! is a marketplace app filled with established and emerging brands, where people can discover stuff they actually want and shop on their own terms. As someone who loves home shopping (it really is one of my favourite pastimes!) and I'm about to move house, I wanted to give shopping on an app a go and came across Fy. I looked at the app from a personal perspective as I was genuinely exploring it for personal reasons, but as a designer it's natural to notice UX/UI issues when you're not intentionally looking for them. As a result, of noticing a few, I decided to try making improvements on the current app mainly because I felt like designing.

I looked at other marketplace style apps and home shops that I liked, to see what features were liked by users and took notes. I also looked at what common features they had, as well as what would be a great product features to add to the Fy! app. These places included Depop, Zara home, John Lewis, Lyst and ASOS. I also conducted user research by going on the Apple Store reviews for FY! and used the negative feedback left by users to incorporate into my design. I then drew some low fidelity wireframes and finally took to Adobe XD to design a slightly different interface.

PAIN POINTS

Some of the problems with the current design include the fact that the text size does not meet the design accessibility standards (size 16 minimum). As someone who wears glasses I struggled to read the prices of the items shown to me on the app.

Another issue with the app was lack of visual hierarchy. As a new user I was unaware of where to look, with no actual indicator as to what I was `'supposed" to do and in which order which makes it hard for users in general to visually navigate a page.

No visual hierarchy
No add to basket option.
Price text is too small.
Heart buttons are too small, I struggled to add items to my wishlist quickly without accidentally clicking on the actual product.

Below is a rough sketch of what a design of FY! could look like based off of the competitor research, user research and also little added features I would love as a customer.

THE PRODUCT

From the top. I added a menu. Which would need further fleshing out in terms of categories however the current app only has one long scroll page as the homepage with no actual direction. This isn't user friendly because you have to scroll to get to the sections that you want when you want easy access to them at any given time no matter what page you're on.

I added the logo in the middle at the top. Even though customers know what app they are on, it helps with the visual hierarchy of the page to have it there.

I decided a shopping basket in the corner would be great. In the process of trying to buy a cushion from the app, I was directed to complete my payment. As a user this is tedious particularly if I'm planning on buying multiple things - being sent to the checkout after each product can be tedious and off putting for a customer. During my research phase I found this to be a major pain for other users who had left reviews on the app store too.

I added a carousel of main categories at the top which is visually appealing, aids helps with visual hierarchy issues and also the customers can quickly find what section they are looking to purchase from and quickly (shelving, furniture etc.)

Underneath that I kept the idea of the inspiration categories. Maybe customers don't know exactly what they want to purchased but they know the room they want to decorate or the themes they want to go for and this allows them to search very easily.

I have made all the text and heart icons accessibility friendly - easier to read (at least size 16), big enough to tap and easier to see.

Finally. I designed a "My Wishlist" page. House shopping on an app and wishlists are more fun when you can make it organised. The best way to do this for a home app is to make it feel like a moodboard where you can separate the items you want by room, or object type e.g. "My bedroom" or "My furniture". This feature was inspired by Pinterest and ASOS.

SUMMARY

I genuinely enjoyed redesigning Fy. I think I'm going to make it a full case study with my user research and more in-depth design process but until then I hope you've enjoyed what I've made so far. Do let me know what you think.