LetGo is an online platform where users can sign up and look to sell or purchase items on the platform. LetGo transactions are currently only conducted in person with physical money on hand.

PROJECT CHALLENGE

LetGo is seeking to facilitate in-person purchases via in-app payments from buyers & sellers, making transactions safer. How might we use the UX process to create a refined LetGo experience that address the concerns of users regarding trust and safety when purchasing from others online?

PROJECT CONSIDERATIONS

• PROJECT TIMELINE: 2 Weeks
• ROLE: UX Designer, User Researcher
• TEAM: Jessica Kim, Talia Sultzman, Nick Townsell, Diego Mas González
  
• TOOLSET: Screener Surveys, User Interviews, Affinity Mapping, Design Studio, Feature Prioritization, Persona Development, Prototype Iteration, Usability Testing, Sketch, and Invision
• DELIVERABLES: Finalized Sketch mockup and Invision prototype

PROJECT SOLUTION

Introducing a redesign of LetGo – with LetGo Cash, the LetGo Wallet, a messaging system, and verified user profiles, users will find making their purchases easier on the platform, all while giving them a sense of both trust, and safety. Please click this link to launch the LetGo prototype.

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PHASE 1: RESEARCH & SCREENERS

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PHASE 2: USER INTERVIEWS, AFFINITY MAPPING, AND THE PROBLEM SPACE

Following the completion of our online screener, we were able to interview selected respondents based on their availability. We had six initial interviews that were conducted  — with  insights ranging from:

“If I can avoid paying transaction fees, I will.”

“If the company holds the money while the
transaction completes it makes me feel
more secure.”

“Any protection or dual protection the
vendor offers I would recommend enabling it.”

With interviews conducted,  we discovered four common threads and pain-points that our user base had referenced throughout their interviews. These four topics were:

• Security — Users sought robust security options when transacting online
• Payment Methods — Users wanted multiple methods of payment when shopping online
• Brand Recognition & Trust — Users tended to trust services more with a brand they recognized
• Service Fees — Users wanted to avoid unnecessary fees when shopping online)

Now having the elements of concern provided by users, we were able to establish the problem that we would be solving for in our redesign:

Cash is the only transaction method offered to buyers and sellers on LetGo and users like flexibility when it comes to payment.

How might we persuade users to use LetGo instead of other options in the e-commerce market?

Since individuals are hesitant to trust without brand recognition, users need concrete and diverse payment options if they are going to use LetGo.

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PHASE 3: PERSONA DEVELOPMENT

With our problem statement guiding us forward, we determined that there would be two types of users using LetGo – a Primary and Secondary Persona. The first would be navigating LetGo, and applications like it, as a frugal student. The second would be a middle-class New Yorker, who always searches online for the best deals. Please meet Marie and Alex.

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PHASE 4: FEATURE PRIORITIZATION

Now having our personas for a revamped LetGo platform, we decided to prioritize several features that would live in our initial lo-fi, mid-fi, and hi-fi wireframes. Our prioritization of features included the following:

• LetGo Wallet — an in-app wallet system that would connect to different payment services
• LetGo Cash — a cashback incentive to be in-app only, where a percentage of revenue based on a user purchase would return to the end-user
• Verified Profiles — adding a layer of safety to those wanting to transact together
• Location Information — helping users decide to meet other users in their proximity
• Service Fee — Mentioned in our prompt, we determined that a LetGo seller would incur a 2% transaction fee that would be sent back to the hosting service
• Security — we would include an in-app two factor authorization prompt or PIN for users for their security. We would also implement an Escrow Service, where fees could be withheld by LetGo and provided to the seller as a security precaution
• Push Notifications — we would implement a push notification system to ask users to confirm their collected items and rate their experience overall

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PHASE 5: THE WIREFRAMING PROCESS

Taking our features into account, we broke into several rounds of Design Studio to iterate on these features. We came to this Lo-Fi paper sketch as our initial design:

The original Lo-Fidelity design had two tasks for users to act on as our primary persona Marie:

• You just moved to NYC and your apartment is unfurnished. Your weekend time is precious and you need to get furniture fast. You hate the fluorescent lighting in your bedroom so see what you can find on LetGo.
• You have successfully picked up your new lamp and it’s amazing. The seller, Jake, was such a nice guy and you know ratings matter for his account status. LetGo follows up with your purchase via push notification, go ahead and show him some love.

Four users successfully completed our tasks but gave us feedback on the visual design, which we considered throughout our revisions. In total, we had roughly 60 revisions made from the beginning of our wireframing process to the final Hi-Fidelity prototype.

Based on our design implementations, the original list of tasks showcased above eventually came to become five tasks in our final prototype. These tasks were for users to:

• Find the lamp on LetGo. Express interest to Jake about the lamp
• Confirm any transaction details with LetGo
• Check your LetGo Balance
• Use PayPal to buy the lamp
• To rate Jake, the seller, positively after a positive purchasing experience within the application
  
• To rate Jake poorly after the lamp was cracked and he was late to the in-person meeting within the app
  

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  PHASE 6: MID TO HIGH-FIDELITY DESIGN CHANGES

Originally, our homescreen iteration wanted to showcase a banner to callout that cashback could be received by a furniture purchase from the user. This was removed following feedback from users, including “If I saw that, I would automatically look to not click on it.”

Here we have our mockups of the product availability page. Based on user feedback, we incorporated information about the seller, as well as a rating system and review count.

The LetGo Wallet system was pivotal to “get right”, as it provided multiple methods of payment for users. We also included LetGo Cash, where cashback on LetGo purchases would be available as credit for additional purchases if selected. In our task scenario, PayPal is the desired payment method.

As part of the wallet, we incorporated two-factor authorization with a PIN system for added security.

The lockscreen notification was consistent throughout our design process. However, by incorporating both a positive and negative task, we chose to add a positive review screen and negative screen to showcase both pages a user could navigate to based on their shopping experience.

Following our Hi-Fidelity prototype, if another design sprint would be considered, we would need to iterate and expand our current design. We would look to work further on the following features of our redesign:

1. LetGo Balance Use – Users should have the ability to use LetGo balance towards lamp or item
   purchase.
2. Ratings Page Consistency – Users wanted a consistent format for both negative and positive rating pages.
3. Notice of Funds Transfer – We need to develop a way to notify the user of a transfer of funds once a product has changed hands (or not) in real life.
4. Return Policy – After a negative experience, LetGo could provide reassurance to the user that the funds reserved for product purchase would be reversed.

Thank you for reading.