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Presently is a group-gifting platform for kids that enables family and friends to contribute towards a single meaningful gift for any special occasion. As a startup, the company is seeing a lot of interest from potential users and is gaining momentum in its web traffic. However, it is struggling to convert these prospective users into actual users. Also, the platform's current design caters to parents, but Presently wants to appeal to non-parents at the same time and is unsure of how to bridge the gap between the two different types of users.
The company is gaining momentum in its web traffic but is struggling to convert these prospective users into actual users.
The client wants a kid-friendly experience that parents can use to get their child excited about the prospect of receiving a group gift.
The current design caters to parents, but Presently wants to expand the brand to appeal to non-parents as well.
A login allows users easy access their dashboard directly through the website.
We created a kid-friendly experience by incorporating fun icons, micro-interactions, and customizable themes.
Make the site content less specific to children and enhance the brand identity to put more emphasis on sustainability.
Heuristic Evaluation, C&C Analysis, User Interviews, Usability Tests, Affinity Mapping, User Personas, Journey Mapping
Feature Prioritization, Site Map, User Flow, Low Fidelity Wireframes
Low Fidelity Prototype, Medium Fidelity Prototype, Usability Tests, Iterations
High Fidelity Prototype, Reflection
We started the research process by each going through Presently’s existing website several times to familiarize ourselves with the overall flow and evaluate the usability of the design.
Here, we discovered a fair amount of heuristic violations that ranged in severity, the most notable being the lack of account creation. Currently, the only way the organizer can access their dashboard and group gift page is through the custom link sent by email. In addition, the onboarding is lengthy and, at times, creates sign up friction, especially for those users who may not be ready to set up a group gift.
Next, I conducted a competitive and comparative analysis to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the current website compared to other group-gifting and crowdfunding platforms.
Here, it became apparent that Presently’s focus on conscious consumerism and sustainability is unique, and I concluded that leveraging that more throughout the website and brand identity can set Presently apart from the competition. Further, Presently has the opportunity to become more competitive by allowing users to create an account, a feature all the other platforms offer.
During the interview, we had our users think aloud as they examined the homepage for the first time. We then gave the participants scenarios and asked them to perform tasks related to setting up a group-gift and contributing to a group-gift.
We then used affinity mapping to synthesize the insights from our interviews. These research findings informed the following user persona:
Bessie allowed us to keep the user’s goals, needs, and frustrations at the center of the design process.
Additionally, we mapped out Bessie’s emotional state at various points while interacting with Presently to help us visualize where the pain points existed in the user’s journey.
After getting a better understanding of our user, my team member prepared a feature prioritization analysis, which helped us identify where we can provide the most value to the user. Our research showed a login would be one of the main solutions to increasing sign up conversion rates and would also account for the in-between users who might not be ready to set up a group gift just yet.
With the new features and flows in mind, we kickstarted the design process by conducting a couple of design studios where each team member sketched out their ideas. Due to the nature of working remotely, this helped us facilitate fast ideation and explore different solutions for the sign-up flow, the organizer’s backend experience, and the contributor’s experience.
My team members and I then prepared our final design and prototype and presented our design decisions to our stakeholder.
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This project reinforced the notion that balancing user needs and business goals is not always easy, and at times can be conflicting. It was a good reminder that as a designer, it is my job as the expert to conduct the research, synthesize the research, present the research, and hopefully find a solution that works for both the user and the business. We listened to our client and our client listened to us and in the end we delivered a final product that exceeded expectations.
