Stork
A multi-vendor jewelry platform.
OVERVIEW
Stork is a complex jewelry platform for vendors and consumers. Since the project is still under development, I can’t show all the details in my portfolio. But I can present my workflow process and some elements of the design. Overall, Stork aspires to be a high-quality product that meets variable global jewelry market demands with its cutting-edge technology available today.
CLIENT
Golda Jewelry Co LTD
PROBLEM
There are a lot of jewelry websites and mobile applications. However, with the increase of e-commerce, jewelry fraud is drastically growing and will continue to do so because of the high value of the product (link). One fraudulent order can have a huge risk to somebody’s business. Day-by-day scammers become more and more sophisticated with their criminal skills, ruining jewelry businesses all over the globe. There is a need for a digital product that will provide the safest experience for users.
GOAL
Our main goal was to create a fraud-free multi-vendor platform where consumers could eliminate the risk of buying fake jewelry products, and where vendors could sell and exchange jewelry without the fear of fraud.
SOLUTION
We designed and developed an application for web and mobile platforms, with a set of special features that satisfy our goal. I can't present these features in my portfolio yet but I will show other deliverables that include research, user interviews, testing, site map, wireframes, prototypes, and design.
ROLE
For this project I was a UX/UI designer and researcher. I also managed two interns who assisted me with research, interviews, user testing, and design.
TOOLS
Figma, Google Suite
RESEARCH
I started working on the project by learning as much as possible about the jewelry industry and documenting my findings. I divided my research area into five categories:
Types of jewelry
Types of users
Types of stones
Types of brands
Types of websites and applications
USER INTERVIEWS
In order to gain a better understanding of users' needs we interviewed a brick-and-mortar jewelry store owner, an online jewelry store owners, a few customers who regularly buy jewelry, and one ex-representative of a big corporation who used to develop an online commerce segment there. The interviews allowed us to understand the pain points people had with their experiences and determine what our priorities should be. They also helped us predict the technical issues we might encounter when launching the product.
*a Whereby meeting screenshot
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
To reach our primary goal, we had to learn how other companies created a fraud-free environment in their e-commerce experience, including companies outside the jewelry industry. We explored different industries and came up with four companies that impressed us the most. I tried to use their digital products that helped me figure out the pros and cons of the features.
INSPIRATION
For inspiration, we considered the following e-commerce websites and applications, all of which have a marketing automation system.
Klaviyo (www.klaviyo.com) - A marketing tool focused on providing a personalized experience to each customer. Has the ability to make a marketing process very targeted.
Shopify (www.shopify.com) - Practically a website builder for e-commerce. Has a diversity of themes that give online sellers room for creativity.
Constant Contact (go.constantcontact.com) - Combines marketing and e-commerce platforms. The most popular feature is email marketing.
Tidio (www.tidio.com) - A marketing automated platform with a Chabot AI. This is a plugin that can improve any online store, providing a quick and effective form of contact with customers over chat.
These are the websites that sell (but are not limited to) jewelry. We looked closely at these websites because each of them had impressive attributes such as style, variety of products, a search system, and security from fraud.
Blue Nile (www.bluenile.com) - A jewelry website with a huge variety of products. The most interesting part is the product filters, which include categories such as Price, Metal, Material, Ring Style, Ring Size, Color, etc.
1st DIBS (www.1stdibs.com) - An online marketplace company that specializes in furniture, art, and jewelry for professional sellers. It also has a vast variety of filters that help users find the perfect item (such as Stone Cut and Carat Weight).
Chrono24 (www.chrono24.com) - An online store selling luxury watches, and having a robust Buyer Protection program. The company makes an effort to provide a fraud-free environment and they deliver a worry-free shopping experience to their clients.
Overstock (www.overstock.com) - An online retailer that is known for discounted prices on brand-name items. Their main focus is ensuring the authenticity and accuracy of their products, and they pay a lot of attention to customers' inquiries.
SITE MAP
We documented all our findings in a project book. Then, after careful analysis and multiple discussions, our team came up with a detailed site map. We continued to iterate on the site map after presenting it to the client.
WIREFRAMES
After we finalized the Site Map, we developed wireframes. This is an example of our first draft.
USER TESTING
Determined to make the product the way the users wanted, I contacted a set of users for testing. I met with several people and asked them to try our wireframes. During the process they had to verbally explain their actions. For some of the trickier decisions we performed A/B testing.
DESIGN PRINCIPLES
Our client wants the design to feel friendly and welcoming. This is something that the majority of jewelry websites are missing. They tend to be elegant, luxurious, strict, charming, classy, and fashionable, but not friendly. My team did a lot of research and we found out that the most friendly-looking products are in the gaming industry. Here is the dashboard I created.
HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
Inspired by gaming digital products, we discovered a design theme that fit our product, by Unity Technologies. We took the theme as a base for our high-fidelity prototype solutions. Later, I will update this page to fully present the features I was solely responsible for. For now, here are some examples.
Onboarding
Dashboard
Brand Partners
Messages
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