Local Community Vendors

Creating an Easy Web App for Everyone

Company Overview

Local Community Vendors, a San Antonio marketing firm, aims to empower local vendors nationwide with online marketing and innovative promotions.

Roles

  • Design Lead

  • Field Research

  • Design Story

The Goal:

Develop a user-friendly interface that enables the vendor to efficiently manage profiles, update content, sign up for events, and foster effective communication with both organizers and customers.

Process Overview

During the research phase I help conduct field visits to interview vendors on location. I also worked in collaboration with the project lead to come up with the design story of local community vendors.

1. Surveys

Distributing surveys within our networks allowed us to understand perceptions of local vendor shopping events and trends.

2. Interviews/ Field Visits

Engaging with event organizers and vendors provided valuable insights into their communication dynamics.

3. Design Story

When initiating the design process, we prioritized establishing a clear connection between the problem we aimed to address and the overarching goals of the business.

4. Prototyping/User Testing

We developed both a web app and a mobile app to function in tandem, necessitating multiple iterations and user testing.

Surveys

📋

Surveys 📋

Surveys

Affinity Mapping Discovery

• Most vendors were hesitant about technology

• Marketing and exposure could be limited by language barriers

Upon distributing the initial survey, it became evident that our target audience was not easily accessible online.

Interviews

To understand even more details of our survey findings I assisted in conducting on-site interviews with vendors.

40%

Of interviewees described themselves as tech-averse or do not have access.

59%

Of respondents attend 7 or more markets within a average 6 month period.

40%

Of organizers said there was a language barrier with vendors

Solution

Develop a way for vendors to create profiles showcasing their products, facilitate easy sharing of these profiles using QR codes, and establish on-site Local Community Vendors booths at markets to provide customer service, technical support, and translation assistance.

Design Story

It was important to me, when starting the design, to ensure there was a clear connection between the problem I aimed to solve and the business's goals.

Developing a value proposition for the business helped guide my design narrative.

When selecting font and button colors, I made sure to consult a color accessibility tool to ensure our contrast met accessibility guidelines.

Key Features

  • Vendor Profile Product Showcase

    Allowing vendors to customize their profiles gives them control over their brand's presentation and communication style, seamlessly connecting to their existing social accounts without added burden.

  • QR-based Vendor Profile Sharing

    At a networking event, learning about the QR feature connecting people to their LinkedIn profiles inspired our team lead, Wright, to implement it for our profile sharing.

  • On-site local Vendor Support

    Acknowledging the importance of supporting all market vendors, we implemented a Local Community Vendor Liaison stationed at the market, offering seamless customer, technical, logistical support, and translation services accessible even without reception.

Next Steps and Key Takeaways

Moving forward, we would need to do more testing for everyone's needs, additionally we work on translations, and make messages clearer and events easier to join.Conduct more testing to address everyone's needs.

  1. Work on translations to accommodate diverse audiences.

  2. Clarify messages for better understanding.

  3. Simplify the process for joining events.