My Role:
UI/UX Designers, Team Lead
Product Strategy, User Research, Information Architecture, Journey Map, Wireframing, Visual design, Prototyping, Usability Testing
Team Size:
4 Designers
Year:
Mar 2024 - Apr 2024
Bambu is an e-commerce platform designed to boost the discoverability of eco-friendly products.
We cater to eco-conscious consumers who prioritize convenience and positive impact, offering an all-in-one platform that simplifies sustainable shopping. Users can access transparent product insights, earn rewards, and cultivate their eco-friendly lifestyle, making it easier for them to make informed choices and contribute to environmental sustainability.
This case study was developed as part of the IterateUX 5-week design challenge, where participants work in teams to address real-world design challenges. We received positive feedback from both the judges and our mentor.
Final Design
Explore more on bambu!
Challenge Prompt
“Develop an e-commerce platform that promotes eco-friendly purchasing with features rewarding environmentally conscious choices.”
We selected this prompt to address environmental challenges like climate change, pollution, and deforestation. By promoting eco-friendly products and rewarding conscious choices, we aim to spark a movement towards a greener future.
I led a team of three other designers.
Led UI/UX Design
Took the lead on a significant portion of our project tasks, ensuring timely completion and adherence to our high standards.
Project Management
Utilized my project management skills to plan and oversee the project's workflow, facilitate daily standups, and prioritize tasks to keep the team on track and productive.
Gathering Insights
Do People Really Care About Sustainability?
(Short Answer: Yes!)
are willing to change their behavior to reduce environmental impact
are willing to pay more for sustainable products
are more actively taking steps towards being more sustainable
Yet, only about 26% follow through on their intention to purchase eco-friendly products. What causes the gap between intention and behavior?
Price & Quality
Lack of Trust in Brands
Customer Knowledge
How do we narrow this ''intention-behavior'' gap?
Understand The Problem
Common Obstacles When Shopping for Eco-Friendly Products:
Credibility
Are eco-friendly claims trustworthy?
Accessibility
Is information easy to find and understand?
Efficacy
Do eco-friendly purchases make a real difference?
Based on our research, we created a persona, "Samuel," representing our target audience. Using this persona, we constructed a journey map to track his experience searching for a stain remover.
Samuel's journey highlighted challenges like comparing products, navigating checkout, and finding value aligned with his ethical and economic priorities.
From the journey map, we identified the key problem:
Users lack awareness of eco-friendly alternatives that meet their priorities like price, quality, and logistics.
How might we
Make it easier for users to compare EF products to their non-eco friendly counterparts so that they can feel more confident about buying EF alternatives?
Design Process
In design phase, I led efforts to create solutions that addressed our constraints and challenges, contributing to user flows, information architecture, wireframing, visual design, and prototyping.
Define Key User Flow
Using techniques like "Crazy 8s," we explored various ideas and prioritized a user flow:
A user has a specific product in mind but wishes to explore eco-friendly options.
Style Guide
For the brand, we chose a warm and approachable color palette and named it “bambu" to reflect eco-friendliness and sustainability. Bamboo symbolizes rapid growth and renewability, making it a perfect fit for an environmentally focused brand.
Typography:
PP Editorial New for headlines to capture attention.
Roboto for body text, ensuring readability.
Color Palette:
Soft teal as the primary color for a fresh, contemporary look.
Light coral for warmth and contrast.
Gray for a neutral tone to enhance readability.
To streamline our design process, we utilized an existing design system, customizing templates and building a components library. Variants were developed to address different scenarios and user needs, ensuring flexibility and consistency throughout the platform.
Design Highlights
Product Comparisons
Quickly assess eco-friendly alternatives without navigating separate pages, helping users make informed decisions.
Eco-Certification Logos and Guaranteed Credibility
Provides educational content to guide users on trustworthy eco-labels
Incentive Program
Rewards users for purchasing eco-friendly products.
Validating the Designs
Our team conducted six remote usability tests using Maze, observing participants complete predefined tasks. We identified and ranked prototype issues, proposing targeted improvements to enhance functionality and user experience.
Major Improvement #1
Introduced a filter feature to separate completed and incomplete tasks for better visibility.
Added labels and visual cues to highlight completed challenges.
Improved organization and navigation to reduce user confusion.e
Major Improvement #2
Some users reported confusion about locating their total reward points and understanding how these points accumulate and translate into rewards.
Before
After
Major Improvement #3
Users appreciated eco-certification info for informed choices and showed interest in learning more about sustainability.
In response, we've created a dedicated educational page featuring diverse content such as blogs, tips, and insights on why sustainability matters.
Explore more on bambu!
Reflection & Learning
Despite the tight 6-week timeframe for this design challenge, we are proud to have achieved such high-quality work. With that, we’ve learned a few things along the way:
Prioritizing user problems & needs is key to effective solutions
Effective communication & team collaboration were crucial to our success and collective growth
Time management & prioritization are essential for maintaining productivity without compromising well-being
Utilizing tools and technology such as design systems and AI tools helps streamline our workflow and improve efficiency
We aim to implement further improvements through continuous testing and iterations, with a focus on enhancing accessibility and responsiveness. Additionally, we're considering the development of a mobile app version to expand our platform's reach and usability.
