Mallats, an e-commerce platform based on the concept of a mall. A one-stop application where a user can find any and all that they need, all from the comfort of their home. The one addition the app really needed was an improvement on it's usability. As the majority of those working on the project thus far had been developers, they lacked the foresight it took to facilitate the user experience as well as the general means of research to understand the user base.

Research Methods

• Heuristic Evaluation of the website was used to take notes of the areas that required improvement in the existing application

• User Interviews were used to identify user pain points in regard to their experiences before, during and after going to a waterpark.

• Competitive and Comparative Analysis where the features of direct and indirect competitors of the app were noted and analyzed to understand the existing market and assess different ideas that may or may not be implemented within in the design in order to improve the overall experience of the application.

• Surveys were used to understand the overall demographic of Mallats user base.

• Contextual Inquiry where users were tasked to complete an order and assess the application from their perspective as potential users of the application, the observation happening in their place of comfort to maximize authenticity.

Research Results and Synthesis

Grouping together quotes in an affinity map helped to identify trends which facilitated the creation of a persona as well as problem and solution statements which later aided in the process of feature prioritization and the building of a user flow based on the task given to the users in the research method "contextual inquiry." All synthesis of problem and solution took into consideration the business needs as communicated prior to the beginning of the project.

1. Persona "Mona" an avid shopper

   • Mona doesn't trust many of the e-commerce apps lately.

   • She needs offers and the convenience of online shopping.

   • She also expects to be able to track her order easily.

The team then synthesized the following Problem statement:

Mona needs more transparency and information from Mallats because she wants to trust the items she is buying and the sellers she is buying from, and to ensure that her purchases are tracked and safe.

We then considered the solution:

We believe that by providing Mona with detailed product images and descriptions, customer reviews, shipping tracking, and a responsive customer service, we will gain her confidence and satisfaction.

We will know this to be true when we see increased number of orders and more reviews on items.

Sketches based on User Flows:

1. Purchase an item: