KLEKT
Bringing bids to the marketplace & Improving the E-Commerce sneaker and streetwear marketplace.
Client
Klekt
Role
Product Designer
Sector
E-commerce
Years
2021-2022
Overview
During the pandemic, the reselling of sneakers and streetwear hit a new boom, which saw many products being sold for a lot higher than usual. This created a market which was competitive in many ways but also not competitive for many buyers.
Some sites had included a bidding/auction feature which allowed the products to be sold to the highest bidder, but KLEKT had not yet discovered a way to implement this feature.
Providing a new means for users to buy and sell was not only important to give KLEKT a competitive edge and keep up with the market standard, but it was also forecasted to bring in an increase of up to 70% more orders.
Bids
Research
For the discovery phase I created some research questions so that I could narrow down exactly what it was that I wanted to find out throughout the research phase. They were:
• Find out how people currently bid
• Find out how people want to bid
• What do people want to know before they bid?
• What would make bidding experience easier?
• What pains do people experience when bidding?
• Find out how people currently bid
• Find out how people want to bid
• What do people want to know before they bid?
• What would make bidding experience easier?
• What pains do people experience when bidding?
Competitor analysis
For the first stage of research I decided to conduct a competitor analysis on sites like Stock X, Ebay, Depop and a few others, to find if and how they used a bidding feature. I also wanted to analyse other features on their apps and websites. I then collated the findings into a competitor analysis framework. The study showed that Stock X was the most successful in implementing a bidding feature for the same target audience as KLEKT, but sites like Ebay provided other key features, like being able to send messages and also other “offer” features.
Gathering user insights
I conducted a survey to further find out the perspective from many different users about how they buy and sell, their experience with bidding, what their pain points have been and what they would like to see from a bidding feature. I also conducted one-to-one user interviews with members of KLEKT & Crep Protect to further the study.
Key findings
The key findings from the survey and user interviews were:
• Price point is a deciding factor to a users purchasing methods.
• Users wanted transparency on when payment would be taken.
• Users bid when they do not want to pay full price, usually at least £20 cheaper.
• Users want to know what a “good bid range” is before placing a bid.
• Users wanted control around bid value and time frames.
Following my findings I created an affinity map of my findings and divided them into 7 groups.
• Price point is a deciding factor to a users purchasing methods.
• Users wanted transparency on when payment would be taken.
• Users bid when they do not want to pay full price, usually at least £20 cheaper.
• Users want to know what a “good bid range” is before placing a bid.
• Users wanted control around bid value and time frames.
Following my findings I created an affinity map of my findings and divided them into 7 groups.
User Flows
Following my research and meetings with the product manager, we decided to push forward with navigation, as this would map out how a users flow through the bidding experience. I created many different user flows along with edge cases, bringing in all the different touch points for the user. I completed this while considering that experiences may vary through app and web, so I designed in the most adaptable way possible.
Wireframes
As part of this project I also had to design low and high fidelity wireframes for app, mobile and desktop. However during this phase of the project, we came under a time constraint which resulted in “Bids” being stripped back to an app exclusive feature. I have decided to still showcase some of the cut desktop and mobile web designs below.
Improving the sneaker + Streetwear Marketplace
Overview
With KLEKT being a sneaker & streetwear selling platform, they discovered that in order to keep competitive in the growing market of sneaker/streetwear reselling needed to improve upon their current features and develop new journeys which allowed customers to visit the site/app and find exactly what they were looking for, whilst providing a clean and clear interface for their users
To narrow down the approach, we set up & divided different approaches & projects that would help us to achieve the goal. The projects that I designed for were;
• Drops pages - Pages that allow the user to see and shop for products based on popular release dates. This also allowed the user to interact with a calendar.
• New landing pages - New landing pages and flows that provided a better browsing experience for the user.
• Updated site navigation - Redesigned the site navigation to improve the user browsing experience.
• Design System - KLEKT had an old and non consistent design system, so it was important to redesign.
• Drops pages - Pages that allow the user to see and shop for products based on popular release dates. This also allowed the user to interact with a calendar.
• New landing pages - New landing pages and flows that provided a better browsing experience for the user.
• Updated site navigation - Redesigned the site navigation to improve the user browsing experience.
• Design System - KLEKT had an old and non consistent design system, so it was important to redesign.
Drops Pages
One of the ways that I improved the browsing experience for users was by providing drops pages on web & app. The purpose of the drops pages feature is to allow the user to see specific dates that an item is released on, and sometimes giving them the ability to buy/sell the product earlier than the official release date. This idea was validated by interviewing members of the sneaker community. The responses given showed that users wanted to be notified of upcoming releases and wanted a way to buy products earlier than the release date.
When considering the user journey for this feature, it also became clear through data that a lot of users logged on to purchase specific items on the day of release. From this I decided that it would be good to find a way to implement this feature on the homepage, to also simplify the user's purchase journey.
When considering the user journey for this feature, it also became clear through data that a lot of users logged on to purchase specific items on the day of release. From this I decided that it would be good to find a way to implement this feature on the homepage, to also simplify the user's purchase journey.
Landing Pages
Another way in which I found a method in bringing clarity to the user was by designing landing pages for the brands which can be found on the site/app. A challenge that we faced was that we did not already have an “all brands” page or brand pages for the products on the site. Through research and ideation we found that by adding these features, it would provide a much better browsing experience for the user. The features allow for the user to browse popular items, hot picks, specific product models, and also information about the brand.
Site Navigation
A key problem that we found when I first joined KLEKT was the site navigation. I was tasked with designing a new menu that provided a refresh and also allowed users to easily access popular searches and other areas of the site . I managed to tackle this by designing a mega menu that showed popular searches, items and other pages, such as the brand landing pages and blog.
Design System
Another project which I was a part of was the creation of the new KLEKT Design system. KLEKT already had a design system, however through the years it become outdated had not been followed so the site lacked consistency in many places. Myself and another designer then agreed to start a more consistent design system for Web and App, whilst bringing in a few previous essential components.
Conclusion
Working in an e-commerce startup was an extremely steep learning curve, as when I first joined I was a solo designer. But I found it so fulfilling and eye-opening as I learned a lot in such a short time, when working solo and in a team.
There’s always room to learn - I took time during the duration of the projects to refine my Figma skills and also learn how to better create user journeys, and also keep up with UI trends.
Take time to interact with all members of a tech team - In a fast paced startup, there is only so much time that you can invest in getting to know the team (especially when you're working full time and remote on occasions!). However it’s important to make sure you talk to all team members, as you can learn many key insights, and understand how design decisions will affect other stakeholders.
The best designs come from collaboration - It was inspiring to work with other designers as it was exciting to learn new ideas and see different perspectives during design sessions.
Take time to interact with all members of a tech team - In a fast paced startup, there is only so much time that you can invest in getting to know the team (especially when you're working full time and remote on occasions!). However it’s important to make sure you talk to all team members, as you can learn many key insights, and understand how design decisions will affect other stakeholders.
The best designs come from collaboration - It was inspiring to work with other designers as it was exciting to learn new ideas and see different perspectives during design sessions.
More work