Problem Statement
B-Stock is solving return logistics problems for top retailers across the world as well as helping small businesses. Industry trends, user research, and survey findings all highlight the theme of trust among B-Stock buyers, who trust big retailers like Amazon, Target, Walmart, HomeDepot, but are suspicious about smaller liquidation sellers. Low quality of some of them is hurting reputation and causing a drop in traffic. Data insights also show that some facilities of big retailers are more problematic than others. How can we increase quality of sellers, increase trust in our buyers, and help them to make better decisions for their business?
Users and audience B-Stock Platform buyers (small business owners and employee); B-Stock employees who are moderating reviews. B-Stock sellers are not taken into consideration at this moment, but planned to be included in future project phases. Roles and Stakeholders Lead UX designer (me), Junior UX Designer, Product Designer, Product Manager, Data/Business Analyst, Marketing Department |
Scope and Constraints
Out of Scope
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The Design Process
The project was broken down into several phases. For each phase we planned two to four sprints of design effort, however, it took some time to roll out the feature due to different reasons like implementation, initial data collection, and marketing support.
Phase 1 - Q3 2019
Collecting data from thematic analysis of user interviews, brainstorming with product manager on product feature, scope, and requirements. Creating tickets with brief descriptions in the backlog related to the product feature. Participation in project planning and consulting on UX methods to use. In order to collect an initial database of reviews, we decided to collect feedback on orders through a mailing agent until critical mass will be reached. We also were demonstrating some mockups with the seller's rating as an add-on at the end of some usability sessions related to other projects to validate the solution among B-Stock users. The feedback was very positive and we also were able to collect initial data faster than we expected. As a preparation for the next step, during this phase, I also did an analysis of existing UX/UI patterns of modern high-rated e-commerce apps and websites, which I revised during some of the later phases.
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Phase 2 - Q1 2020
As only basic functionality on review collection was planned for this phase, the decision was to delegate the work to a junior designer whom I was onboarding at the time and mentoring to provide design solutions for displaying rating and 'buyer submits review' initial experience for an existing platform. Together we identified UX touch-points, user cases, messaging, and labeling. The ability to sort and filter by seller rating was added to the listings page by me, and the submit review designs were done by a junior designer. Designs were translated to responsive view for three screen sizes. With this release, B-Stock buyers got a possibility to see ratings of some sellers, as well as sort and filter by rating, and publish their reviews right from the list of orders or order details page, which increases engagement and product convenience. The design included a responsive version for narrow and medium width designs.
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Phase 3 - Q1 2021
Enriching experience (filter and sort by seller rating) and optimizing reviews approvals workflow. Stakeholders interviews and brainstorm sessions with the product manager to optimize the review submission workflow and created an approvals flowchart. Documenting user stories and breaking downflow into cases for further design work. During this phase, I provided high-fidelity mockups of related experience documenting behavior through annotations, created new UI library components, page templates, and interaction patterns guidelines. I also collaborated with the product manager and business analyst on setting up success metrics and measuring experience. Part of the work was providing two alternative solutions for developers' estimation. (Ideal for the user and another one based on an existing solution built without involving UX)
Buyer experience was handed off with responsive designs, where a mentored junior designer translated solutions for narrow and medium screens for the web and a variation for a mobile application. We created the majority of the flow designs during this stage. Based on developers the design file was updated to include only one option with intend to minimize developers’ effort and part of the functionality (managing list of keywords) was taken out of development scope and planned for future phases. |
Phase 4 - Q2 2021
During this phase, the ideal experience solution for a new many-to-many marketplace had been provided. The work covered only the buyer’s experience and included consolidation of previous patterns, updating UI per new library standarts, enriching UX experience, gaps filling (i.e. seller’s rating page and buyer’s all reviews page). One of the UX suggestions not included in initial product requirements was redirecting upset users to file disputes instead of collecting very bad reviews. To create the flow and make sure all cases are covered I’ve created a matrix of use cases and designed an experience for them. Some of the cases required a careful review and decision making involving two product managers owning features (Sellers' Rating and Dispute Experience).
During this phase, I also started to document suggestions for future A/B testing on the feature and functionality development. The design was done primarily for the wide web portal version with identifying main patterns for narrow and touch-screen devices and then completed by one of B-Stock summer UX interns. |
Phase 5 - Q4 2021
Extending UX of internal users, including the ability to edit and re-submit denied review for buyers, updating UI of internal tool to fit new Internal Management Tools Platform. Creating UX for sellers with the ability to view reviews on their orders and reflect (UX designer on the seller's side is involved).
Project Outcome
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Learnings
- good planning and prioritization are critical for long-term projects;
- provide ideal UX solution, then create a version to support current limitations if needed;
- existing workflows might be not optimized, apply critical thinking when researching the workflows;
- be flexible and provide options, some designs might not bring ideal UX but allow save development resources;
- always check data before starting the project (this can influence the scope and planning);
- learned many new UI/UX patterns and how to switch the context of different users fast.