Decade Gifts

Decade Gifts 

An institution of South Broadway in Denver, Decade Gifts has been around for over twenty years, garnering acclaim from such publications as Travel + Leisure and Rachel Ray’s Tasty Travels. However, while Decade’s website does tell its story and display new wares through an Instagram link, there is no e-commerce option for those either too busy or distant to make it to the physical store. On spec, I made a more commerce oriented website that conveys the vintage aura of the store, while building an e-commerce option for both desktop and mobile.

Overview

Process:

• Competitive analysis and design research

• User research

• Stakeholder and user interviews

• Contextual inquiry

• Card sorting analysis

• Site mapping

• Sketching

• Wireframing,

• Lo-fi prototype

• User testing

• Iterating

• Hi-fi prototype

Role:

As the sole UX researcher and designer associated with this project, my role encompassed all aspects of the process, from conducting the competitive analysis, to sketching out the initial ideas, to finalizing the second high-fidelity prototype.

Tools:

• Pen & paper

• Sketch

• Craft

• InVision

Through competitive analysis, I discovered that Decade is able to separate itself from its closest competitors due to the size of the store, along with the breadth of items offered. Sewn and Hope Tank were consistently listed as Decade’s main competitors due to their proximity and nature of goods, but both competitors tended to specialize in specific items. Meanwhile, Decade’s niche was how eclectic the goods offered were. Further separation could occur through the simple offering of an e-commerce site, especially due to the transient nature of Denver residents.

For user research I conducted a mix of in store observations/contextual inquiry, examining Decade’s Facebook and Yelp presence, reading customer reviews, interviewing both customers and workers, and card sorting. Meanwhile, one of the biggest problems I faced in this project was narrowing the various items into categories that could be listed on an e-commerce site while still staying intuitive for customers. I handled this by listing out 37 items from Decade spanning a wide spectrum, and having people sort them into categories, creating their own category labels each time.

Personas

Dani: The Thrifty Fashion Shopper

• Social assistant store manager in her late twenties with student loan debt

• Typically shops at thrift stores to save money

• Derives a strong sense of identity from her wardrobe choices

• When not shopping at thrift stores, refers to buy from local stores that offer unique options

Celia: The Unique Gift Giver

• Successful and professional young mom

• Recently moved away from Denver to pursue a new career opportunity

• Makes sure to stop by her favorite store, Decade, when in town to stock up on gifts for her friends

• Forced into expedited shopping expeditions because she usually has her kids in tow

I sketched out various solutions to the problems raised by our personas, namely access to an affordable and rotating clothing selection, and a faster way to select unique gifts based on previous purchasing history. Through user test feedback, I quickly realized the need to expand beyond a simple e-commerce site, allowing for more personalization and contact between Decade and its customers through customer accounts.

Dani’s Userflow

With more of a browsing mindset, Dani is able to navigate to the item that she desires to shop for, while filtering due to price in order to avoid looking at items that don’t fit her budget.

Celia’s Userflow

A frequent online shopper at Decade due to her distance from Denver, Celia has an account that she is able to sign into, quickly navigating from there to items similar to those she has bought in the past, thus expediting her time spent shopping while still finding items that fulfill her desire for new and quirky gifts.

Realizing the need for a truly on the go experience, I created a responsive web design that would allow for an effective and pleasurable shopping experience for mobile as well desktop, trying to make the two experiences match as closely as possible in order to keep the customer engaged and prevent any potential confusion.