E-Commerce Mobile Application Design
Overview
Nile is an online shopping portal created to meet every need of its users. An online niche at first glance, it opens up a world of products and shopping experiences when explored through its mobile application.
Design Question: How might we attract users to create an account on Nile?
Target Audience: Busy professionals
Design tools: Sketch | Adobe Experience Design | InVision
Persona
Reggie - a busy sales rep with no time for family.
Reggie is a 28 years old Sales Rep who lives in Seattle with his wife. He wants to stay connected to his family living in his hometown, but it's been a challenge since he moved away from there for work.
"My mom and sisters are not on Facebook or Snapchat, and calling them constantly feels awkward." - Reggie
Reggie has a loud voice and doesn't like making personal calls in public. He also has a very demanding job with daily, weekly and monthly goals. He enjoys spending his free time with his wife or watching sports.
Experience Goal: Stay connected with loved ones.
Life Goals: Spend quality time at home with his wife and watch sports in his free time.
End Goals: Show his extended family in his own way that he cares.
The ideal shopping solution for Reggie would take into account his time constraints even when he uses it for simple things such as buying gifts or creating an account. It will enable him to optimize his time so that he can spend phone-free moments at home with his wife or catch a Seahawks game.
It will also provide him with the ability to connect with his dear ones in a way which doesn't involve making phone calls, especially when he has free time away from home, like when he is traveling.
Scenario 1: Create an account on Nile
Reggie recently heard of Nile online shopping at work while discussing the new line of Seahawks jerseys and the upcoming game season. His colleague told him that Nile has a promotional discount for new members on Seahawks merchandise when they create an account. Reggie is excited to check it out, but he has a busy schedule ahead of him at the office with multiple site visits to meet his sales team. En route to his regional office Reggie has some free time, so he decides to install the application on his phone. Sure enough, he sees the promotional offer on the new jerseys, and after browsing through them, he finds the one he has been looking for. To avail of the discount, he proceeds to create an account while he still has the time.
The process of setting up an account should be clear and concise. It should provide enough feedforward to Reggie so that he knows how much of his time would be invested in the activity.
The screens above show the various stages of a 3 step account creation process.
The timeline graph at the top of the page provides users with feedback on the steps successfully completed, skipped or unsuccessful.
Adding payment details during account creation is optional since many users prefer to do later while some want to finish it one go. This is a handy option since Reggie can always revisit this step at a later stage when he has more time.
Inter-app integrations help Nile recognize and connect to other applications like his inbox so that Reggie saves time, and the context set by Nile is not lost by leaving the application.
The image on the right shows a successful account creation where users have decided to skip both step 2 and 3, the payment details and checking confirmation email steps.
Since Nile aims to be the world's most user-centered application, the account creation process is designed to be simple and flexible.
Scenario 2 - Browse and checkout
Now with a new account promotional discount offer, Reggie makes the most of his spare time during the commute from work to his home by browsing Nile for the things he needs, like that new Seahawks jersey and something special for his mother's birthday. This way he can have phone and computer-free evenings at home with his wife. With Nile’s in- built gifting options based on on-going trends and customer reviews, Reggie finds it easier to look for suitable gifts on-the-go. As he is purchasing a new jersey while waiting for his bus, thanks to Nile's handy gifting ideas, he continues browsing the app to look for a birthday present for his mother without relying on insights from his wife.
The process of browsing for for unfamiliar products, like gifts for mom, has been made easier by Nile. This feature helps foster a connection between users and their dear ones. Since it is installed in the app, users like Reggie can seamlessly transition from browsing for products for themselves to products for others.
Checkout is short 2-step process. Information required to place an order has been chunked into separate sections so that it's easier to glance through.
Gifting options for different people have been incorporated into the side drawer menu so that's easily accessible. This is in keeping with Reggie's desire to stay connected with his family and giving him the affordances to do that in his own tech-savvy way. The transition from shopping for himself to shopping for others is aimed to be smooth and short.
Browsing for products is designed to be a fairly straightforward interaction where the user can view an item and either add it to cart or buy it then and there. However, the persona in question comes across to me as an individual who wouldn’t necessarily make a quick decision to invest in something without fully vetting it and ensuring it’s the right choice. For this reason, the primary call to action is to save the article in cart.
Prototype Videos
This prototype shows the various steps involved in creating an account on Nile.
This prototype shows the various steps involved in browsing and buying on Nile.
Keep watching this space for Nile website version.