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Marketplaces like "Thumbtack", "Book a Tiger" where customers can find independent contractors to help them with their daily tasks like cleaning; made it easier for customers to search for household service providers online and book them in the fastest way possible. In this case study; I will be going through a marketplace app design concept. 👇

Role

UX Research, UX Design, and UI Design

Tools

Sketch, Invision

🗯️ The Problem - A marketplace needs to provide enough value for the customers to keep them on the platform. - The marketplace should allow users to view service providers’ profiles and communicate with them via the platform - It’s not easy for the customers to let other people in their homes

🎯 Goals Provide more value to the customers by enabling them to book different services in one platform and making them able to browse through contractor profiles or post their tasks and get offers from the independent contractors , display more details about the contractors, and finally allow them to communicate with the contractors to build trust.

My design process

Research
Information Architecture
Designing user flows
Sketching & Wireframing
Moodboards & Design Inspiration
Designing

01 Research

(not included in this case study)

In this step, I usually start with conducting stakeholder interviews to identify the product’s requirements and the business goals, understanding what is the core value prop of the offering, and identifying who are the users of the platform, and who are the main competitors.

After that, I analyze the competitors and research how do they solve common problems, analyze existing user feedback from online reviews, or social media channels, and finally develop user personas and user journeys.

02 Information architecture

In this step, I used "card sorting" to build and organize the app structure and navigation. I also decided what to put on the first screen, how many navigation levels I should use, and the most important content sections that should be placed in each of the app screens.

03 Designing User Flows

In this step, I designed scenarios that describe a sequence of events, such as creating an account, or posting a task on the platform.

04 Sketching and Wireframing

I usually start by drawing low-fidelity wireframes using a Sharpie pen and a piece of paper, and then I design high-fidelity wireframes on Sketch or Illustrator for better documentation and presentation purposes.

Wireframes should include details like navigation, breadcrumb, headers & footers, and body content.

05 Moodboards & Design Inspiration

I use Muzli, Pinterest, Dribbble and Behance to find inspirational work from other great designers. Then I create different boards for myself and take some screenshots for future reference.

06 Final mockups

07 User testing & validation

After finishing the designs, I used InVision to create an interactive prototype for the application MVP, and started testing it with some users to gather some qualitative feedback; and then I did some design iterations based on the feedback I have received from the users.

I wrote a detailed article here 👇 about how I usually conduct customer interviews:

How to Conduct Customer Interviews

I usually use an note for that, so I can share it with the product team. But you can use a Google spreadsheet or even create some Keynote slides. And this is how to write your plan: 1- Set the goals of the user research.