Walmart

Ribbon, a venture-financed newcomer, enables first-time homebuyers to submit wholly cash-based proposals on their ideal residences, giving them an advantage in a competitive real estate market.

Industry

e-Commerce

Role:

Senior Product Designer

Date:

Nov 2023

Be our customers’ first and only destination for Black Friday by helping them prep to score deals and save big.​

Customers feel confusion when searching Walmart for Black Friday deals and they are unable to separate those from our “everyday deals”.

Users are confused with everyday deals vs Black Frideal deals

In order to fully align with the agent's workflow, we dived into agent interviews to learn more about their journey. We interviewed 8+ agents to validate what's working and the areas we can improve on to align with the agent's mental model. Below are some key insights from the user interviews we had with both new agents and agents who have used our product:

  • Based on our findings, it was clear that agents want clarity as our existing experience is not easily understood by our users.

  • The initial steps are unclear (do they start by adding a buyer? What action do they take next?) and the rationale behind certain actions is not easily understood.

  • A complicated user experience only requires agents to contact an Account Manager for real-time support and guidance on the offer process which overall adds cognitive effort to the users.

Daniël

@dvdwinden

Users are confused with everyday deals vs BF deals so navigation/clear badging or maybe even reskinning could be a good consideration for item pages.

Mani

@BeingMani97

Customers want to find specific items within the Early Access sale. They are not interested in shopping for items that are not part of the sale.​

Manoj

@manojnayak

Customers expect that categories will return accurate results and become confused when this is not the case. ​

Dann

@DannPetty

Our holiday shopping space should match customer mental models in terms of creating an isolated space for them to browse and search for deals and specific items, while allowing to make all their purchases.​

Understanding user types

In order to fully align with the agent's workflow, we dived into agent interviews to learn more about their journey. We interviewed 8+ agents to validate what's working and the areas we can improve on to align with the agent's mental model. Below are some key insights from the user interviews we had with both new agents and agents who have used our product:

  • Based on our findings, it was clear that agents want clarity as our existing experience is not easily understood by our users.

  • The initial steps are unclear (do they start by adding a buyer? What action do they take next?) and the rationale behind certain actions is not easily understood.

  • A complicated user experience only requires agents to contact an Account Manager for real-time support and guidance on the offer process which overall adds cognitive effort to the users.

Event period

To better understand how our current agents are using our product, I watched some Full Story sessions to see exactly where people look, click, and scroll to overall understand the customer's app experience. This tool overall helps me analyze user funnels and conversation rates which allow us to gather data to make informed decisions. Below are some key insights that were discovered from some of the full story sessions:

Collaboration with creative, …

From the data obtained during our research phase, I began to structure a course of action to counter the issue of agents missing a definitive call to action and uncertain of their offer standings. Collaborating with the Senior Product Manager, I categorized recurring themes from the agent discussions and Full Story sessions to devise a roadmap towards the solution. Below is a mind map that was created in order to help me organize a collection of information connected to a single topic and structure it in a systematic, and meaningful way.

Mid-fidelity wireframes

Based on the insights during the research phase, I was then able to start ideating and coming up with different design concepts that would solve the problem of agents being unclear about the next steps. After some designs were completed, we then tested the prototype with our Transaction Coordinators, Agents, and some Account Managers.

Our guiding principles

I defined core design principles for our team to go by so that it keeps the entire team on the same path as I move through the design process

Keep it simple

From message to navigation and interactions - it will be 100% seamless.

Make the value obvious & clear

From W+ benefits to item deals, customers always know exactly what they’re getting and when.

No dead ends

From previews to purchase, customers will be able to go through a flow with a clear action.

Buyer detail screen

After learning that agents are getting stuck on the buyer detail screen, I then applied the design principles that were set before jumping into high-fidelity designs.

  • Agents are now able to quickly make a decision and understand what action needs to be taken at a quick glance

  • Reducing the cognitive load allows for quicker decisions to be made

  • Providing simple language that is easy to understand the next steps

Providing clarity around our program

User research shows that people typically don’t read so I had to think of a way to reduce cognitive load while serving the goal of getting users to learn more about our cash product. The solution here was to provide clear messaging and education around buying power using simple language. Additionally, breaking up the content into clearly labeled and visually defined areas on the page created clarity.

Surfacing relevant information

Our agents had a difficult time managing their properties from the iOS app since we were not matching the agent's mental model by surfacing relevant information they would need to see.

  • Creating a proper visual hierarchy allows the design to communicate levels of importance so agents can quickly scan for desired information.

  • Surfacing relevant information based for agents to complete their tasks.

  • Clear call-to-action buttons

Impact

Based on user research, we learned that there is an opportunity to launch a property tab within the navigation which would streamline the agent's user journey as they are on-the-go writing offers.

Let's Collaborate

© 2024 Sharon Kim

Let's Collaborate

© 2024 Sharon Kim

Let's Collaborate

© 2024 Sharon Kim