Potsale
Main Objective
Help encourage potters to online sale by removing friction
Team
Solo
Timeline
3 Months
Result
Prototype that gets 100% task success rate in testing
Incentives
Where this idea come from?
I am a potter.
I have found interest in ceramics since 14 years old and I am still in practice.
After joining local communities in Waterloo, I have met so many great people which many are elders.
During Pandemic, lots of elder people I know are struggling turning pottery business online
due to
Complicated E-Commerce Process...
Can't Wait?
Straight to result
Research
Further Research
Conducted 5 user interviews on my potter friends, all having rich in person pottery sales experience in local markets, but struggles in online sales. I also reviewed most used E-Commerce platforms (Etsy, Shopify, etc) as my secondary research.
Highlights
Pain Points
Unfamiliarity with E-Commerce
- Shipping is expensive & risky for pots
- Unreasonable customer refunds
- Don't know how to stand out among all pottery products
Unpleasant Experience with
Online Pottery Sale
Amount of Work Needed
- Uploading takes too long
- Bulk Uploading doesn't ease off load
- Constant content management takes time, but won't guarantee payback
Lack of Satisfaction
- Lack of customer relationship
- Worries bad experience for customers
- Fear of making errors along the way, resulting in nuances.
Problem Statement
Solution
Build a platform that allows Kitchener/Waterloo Region potters to sell products online with less effort, additional help and trust.
Product Vision
And what impact would this have?
We are local.
So we focus more on local artists, enabling richer communication beyond sales. This also enables more delivery methods, making the shipping less of a must in the online selling experience.
We believe we should bring everyone in.
Enabling all professional and amateurs, from elders to teenagers, the joy of selling and making pottery. Removing friction points in logistics and online set up itself.
And empowering all potters on parts they are less good at.
Making impact as a community together, letting more people to appreciate handmade pottery.
Prototype Iterations
Design
Upload Widgets
Empowers sellers by generating more accurate description and better images for E-commerce while uploading new products
Bulk Upload
Help easing off the workload to upload items one by one
Testing
Feedback & Changes
I have conducted usability testings with 4 active sellers in the community, 2 having an online store at the moment, 1 has done online sale before, 1 has not been doing online sale before.
The result is quite positive as both features and the dashboard designs have 0% error rate and an average completion time of 4 minutes and 36 seconds for both product upload and bulk upload steps. This is higher than the benchmark 5% error rate and completion time at 6 minutes.
Quantitively, the prototype received some really positive feedbacks including
"This is useful; I would actually open up another tool to do this."
"I think this make better sense than Shopify's flow."
"I liked how this is going."
"I can get through this quite fast; I don't need to learn much."
However, the downside is observed as some elders test users would complain about how the dashboard is information dense, which is also hurting readability. Hence, I have made some further changes.
Enlarging text for Elders
Reflection & Learnings
Takeaways
This is actually the second personal passion project out of my university days, completed in full user-centered design approach individually. Usually for this type of projects, I gained the most learning. Not at the exact moment, but more after a period of time (right now when I am writing this). I can find my flaws and biases in my researches, the immature dashboard design that I was so proud of before. These observations reminds me of my learnings along the way. By just thinking about the questions “what’s wrong about this design / step?”, I was able to become a better designer. I would always remember the passion I had when doing this project, the hopes to change the current situation for my elders friends who are so talented in pottery. And never say never, it might be live one day. Special thanks to Waterloo Potter’s Workshop’s great support in this project.
