Covet

An all-in-one visual wishlist app which allows users to capture products, record store details and curate lists with friends and family around the world. For the finder's & keepers.

My Role

The Challenge

At the beginning of 2017, Ideasmade released the visual to-do list app NINE, which caught the attention of Wired, Gizmodo, Stuff and was featured multiple times on the App store. It saw huge grow quickly, and data was suggesting NINE was also being used as a visual wishlist app as the tag 'Buy' was used more frequently than any other tag.

It's difficult to remember all the things you want to buy, and where you discover them. They end up scattered across wish lists, various apps, photo libraries and ultimately get lost and forgotten.

All the stakeholders at Ideasmade decided there was a niche in the industry for a dedicated visual wishlist app which could help users remember products and where to buy them.

The Goals

• Release Covet MVP in 3 months
• 500+ Monthly active users
• Monetize the app with affiliation

As my first project with Ideasmade, I wanted to ensure there was a process in place to ensure we built a successful product as effortless as possible. I implemented a user-centered design approach, ensuring that at every stage of the project the user was at the core of all the decisions and solutions.

I began the project with a list of ideas and features required for covet from the project stakeholders and my first challenge was to collate research. I sent out a simple questionnaire to several current user’s of the NINE app who frequently tagged their photographs as ‘Buy’. The survey comprised a simple set of questions, so I could get an idea of their needs and behaviour.

Requirements

Working together with the Ideasmade team, we all collectively came up with a set of Business and user requirements. Ultimately, we wanted Covet to be self-sustainable and to generate enough money via Affiliation and voucher commissions to pay for itself.

Also, after speaking with several users from Nine, I could define a set of user requirements, and what features and functions were necessary to have in Covet. This also helped me to structure some solutions in the initial sketching and ideation phase of the project.

User Interviews

User questionnaire

I wanted to quickly validate the assumption that having a dedicated all-in-one visual wishlist app would be the correct approach, as opposed to implemented additional features to NINE. I created a simple questionnaire in Google forms that was sent to a random selection of 25 NINE users. The results validated that the buy tag was the most important, and showed there was a demand for an all-in-one visual wishlist app.

Desk research

Whilst researching the industry and competitors, I also discovered vast amounts of data and statistics regarding shopping and the increase in mobile usage. I also found some interesting trends in people's behaviour when it came to shopping.

'Showrooming' is a term used when people browse real stores but then use online stores to get cheaper deals and free delivery.

'Webrooming' is the opposite of showrooming where people browse products online but prefer the physical experience, therefore make the purchase in-store.

Persona's

After the user interviews, I decided to make a set of persona's which could be used throughout the project. Based on the information I had obtained from the interviews, I created 5 different profiles which could be used.

The Collector - Captures many items and organises into lists of all kinds. Everything has its place.
The Fashion Guru - Loves to shop and share the coolest new finds. 'Like' chaser
The Curator - Expert in the finer things (watches, vinyl records) Huge following by fellow curators
The Bargain hunter - Anything for a discount, You don't ask. You don't get.
The Browser - Doesn't capture much, uses others to inspire and discover. I'll know when I see it.

Competitor Analysis

During the user interview, I asked the participants what additional apps they had used in capturing and recording products in store. Out of the 15 participants, 80% used a combination of the same apps including Amazon, Pinterest, Instagram and the native iOS photos app. This was kind of expected as the ideas made team all used similar apps in our own experience.

Experience Map

To get a better understanding of how people would use covet, I created an experience map based on our personas Jasmine, Samuel and Laura.

To comprehend the entire journey from start to finish and how we could create an experience which would cater for this physical journey. From the beginning of the project, it has been my goal to ensure Covet is as simple to use as possible and doesn’t cause any friction at any part of the experience.

Concepts & Sketches

I created a variety of concepts for different screens and features based on the research and what the NINE users had told me. I wanted to give the user's the best possible experience without any friction or pain points through the journeys. I also wanted covet to be seamless and 'invisible' UI, where the content is the most important aspect.

Variety of concepts from my sketchbook

User flows & Wires

I presented my initial research and proposed ideas to all the stakeholders and got those signed off, so I was able to move on to stitching everything together and producing some user flows. Based off my concepts for features and proposed flows, I put together all the user flows for covet in a simple format, so it was easy to understand for the entire team.

Usability testing

Upon completing the user flows, I then decided to create a low fidelity prototype using Invision which could be used with a variety of NINE users to ensure the flows were accurate and made sense to the users. I wanted to ensure we maintained simplicity throughout and all features were easily accessible. 

Design Language

Usability Testing proved to be successful with a few minor changes required. I was now ready to begin exploring possible branding solutions for covet.

I actually hadn't done any branding work since I was at university, so I jumped at the chance when the ideasmade team asked me to come up with some possible visuals. The team gave me a simple brief, with some keywords and some values which covet was all about.

The Brief

We’re considered, quietly confident and conversational.

We’re all about quality over quantity, but we don’t like snobbery. We believe everyone has their own story to tell, and we appreciate everyone’s individual taste and point of view.

Balance is important to us. We’re tech-savvy, but we’re not interested in taking offline experiences online just for the sake of it. We want to compel our audience to discover new places (and maybe new faces along the way) via our app.

We are this...Simple, Bold, Curious, Creative, Expressive and Useful

Interactions

It was also imperative that Covet's interactions and transitions were also carefully defined. The app comprised many flows which transitioned and revealed new or important information. I first created a low fidelity prototype in After effects to show the motion I wanted to include in Covet and worked closely with iOS development to translate my ideas to the actual code.

Hi-fi usability testing

Final Design

Covet is a minimal, clean and captivating app. Its sole purpose is to inspire its user's via the content that is captured and shared. The UI is intentionally veiled to create a beautiful, simple and intuitive experience much like an art gallery which inspires.

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