Omi
An influencer livestream shopping app that supports eco-friendly products and promotes sustainable lifestyle for shoppers.
Project Overview
Other Key Deliverables:
Cognitive Walkthrough, Information Architecture Diagram, User Stories, Sketches
Challenge
How might we design a livestream shopping app that is convenient and fun yet eco-friendly so that shoppers can feel confident that they are headed towards a more sustainable lifestyle?
Solution
Design an engaging and easy-to-use token system within the Omi app that encourages an eco-friendly lifestyle while shopping. Omi shoppers would be able to earn tokens from each purchase they make and spend those tokens on various eco-friendly rewards, such as planting a tree or donating to a local nonprofit organization. Omi shoppers would also be able to quickly read shopper reviews of products so that they can make the most informed decision possible before buying.
Role: UX Researcher & Designer
Tools: Google Sheets, Sketch, InVision
Timeline: 1 week
Process
Cognitive Walkthrough, Contextual Inquiry, Information Architecture Diagram, Sketching, Wireframing, Interactive Prototyping.
Primary Users
Women from ages 18 to 35 with high education looking to make informed decisions when purchasing green products.
Research Methodology
Cognitive Walkthrough
A snapshot of the results of the cognitive walkthrough. Click to expand.
Each member of the design team individually conducted their own expert analysis through a cognitive walkthrough of Omi’s initial prototype. Completing the six key user tasks listed in the brief, we answered four questions for each:
1. Will the user realistically be trying to do this option?
2. Is the control for this option visible?
3. Is there a strong link between the control and action?
4. Will users understand the feedback and feel confident enough to continue?
After conducting our individual cognitive walkthroughs, each member of the design team compiled their information onto a shared Google Sheets. We then discussed our findings and created a research plan for our contextual inquiries.
Why conduct a cognitive walkthrough?
A cognitive walkthrough helps designers understand a system’s ease-of-use and how likely each step in a key task is likely to bring a user closer to their goal. Cognitive walkthroughs are also ideal for situations in which participants for research studies are not readily available.
Research Goals
Brainstorming research goals to guide us forward in our contextual inquiries.
Before conducting contextual inquires, the design team identified five different research goals:
Identify if and why people are influenced to shop green online
Identify valued features in online shopping
Gain insights around what makes influencers influential
Better understand live shopping and its appeal to users
Identify the differences between “green” influencers and mainstream influencers.
From this, we created a research script and identified who on the team would moderate the contextual inquiries and who would take notes.
Contextual Inquiry
Our design team was scheduled for two contextual inquiries with two different users. Interviews with participants were completed over a recorded Zoom session. As a notetaker, I listened in on my team member’s conversation with the participant and recorded key insights and quotes in a separate Google Sheets. Our two other team members did the same thing for their interview session. When we completed our assignments, we discussed our findings and created a research findings and prototype plan.
Prototype Plan
From the contextual inquiries, we each created our own user stories based on what we believed were the most pressing user findings and insights:
User Stories
“As a conscious buyer, I want to fully understand the product and its ethical implications, so that I know I’m making the best purchasing decision.”
“As an entrepreneur, I want convenient and reliable information so that I’m not wasting time online.”
Both users were opposites in what they valued while shopping. Participant 1 prioritized authentic sustainability and was aware of “green washing” within companies. Participant 2 was conscious of sustainability but chose convenience and reliability over it. However, both users agreed that convenience and finances were barriers to a more “green” lifestyle.
An information architecture diagram was then created to help guide the clickable prototype each member of the design team would be creating.
Interactive Prototype
A hand-drawn wireframe of the token management system on the Omi user profile page.
Before creating digital wireframes in the Sketch program, I identified in the information architecture diagram the main tasks I wanted to focus on. Three initial hand-sketched wireframes were then created before being translated digitally onto Sketch and then made clickable in InVision.
Design Focus
Pulling from the client brief, I focused on fleshing out Omi’s token rewards system. With this, Omi shoppers are able to earn tokens for each purchase they make, which can be spent on sustainable and eco-friendly rewards. The goal of this design is to create an engaging yet efficient token system that highlights Omi’s eco-friendly positioning.
An accordion style menu was used for the profile page to limit the need for an Omi shopper to have to load another page. Overlays are utilized to help facilitate this. Along the way, there are options for the user to learn more about Omi’s sustainability efforts, such as who they partner with to plant trees. According to participant 1 in the contextual inquiry, it was important for them to understand how companies practiced sustainability, and that it wasn’t just a buzzword.
The stats section keeps track of various information related to the token system, such as how many the user has earned since creating an account and how many trees they’ve planted. This further encourages the “gamification” of the Omi platform.
Finally, the wish list section includes all the products a user has saved, along with relevant and succinct information. Here, shoppers will also be able to find user reviews of the products they’ve saved. This helps shoppers make more informed purchases without having to solely rely on influencer reviews.
For a full look at the interactive prototype, click here.
Project Retrospective
Before beginning our two contextual inquiries, one participant had something unexpected happen that delayed their arrival over Zoom. This delay meant that the two inquiries conflicted with each other. To accommodate for this, our UX team of four split into two groups, one moderator and one note-taker each instead of being able to have three note-takers for both sessions.
This unexpected delay was both a boon and detriment to our research. On one hand, our notes may not be as thorough as they could have been with three note-takers for each session. Both inquiries were recorded, but given our 1-week timeline, we did not have time to thoroughly review both recordings. On the other hand, unexpected things like this happen all the time and this was just another opportunity to practice being flexible in the research process.
I paid more attention to the research process and creating a workable interactive prototype between Sketch and InVision. As a result, I am not entirely proud of my aesthetic design choice in the final interactive prototype. My color choices are a bit too pastel for my liking, and I think the overall aesthetics come off as an afterthought. To see my preferred design aesthetic and a quick design system I created, briefly check out this pet project I completed a week after this project for Omi.
