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A New Approach to Mango Lakay

UX Research | UX Design

Understanding shortcomings of the current e-commerce platform through a variety of research methods to suggest improvements in expanding their network and promoting the growth of small Haitian businesses.

Sep 2021 - Dec 2021

Client

Mango Lakay - Association of Haitian Professionals

Client

Mango Lakay - Association of Haitian Professionals

Project Focus

User Research, Experience Modeling, Website Design

Project Focus

User Research, Experience Modeling, Website Design

Goal

To understand the problem at hand using different UX research methods and recommend a different approach to promote local businesses and boost sales for Mango Lakay.

Goal

To understand the problem at hand using different UX research methods and recommend a different approach to promote local businesses and boost sales for Mango Lakay.

Responsibilities

Led research and ideation to evaluate and revise the platform's success metrics. Organized periodic meetings with our client to stay aligned on expectations and deliverables.

Responsibilities

Led research and ideation to evaluate and revise the platform's success metrics. Organized periodic meetings with our client to stay aligned on expectations and deliverables.

Project Focus

User Research, Experience Modeling, Website Design

Goal

To understand the problem at hand using different UX research methods and recommend a different approach to promote local businesses and boost sales for Mango Lakay.

Responsibilities

Led research and ideation to evaluate and revise the platform's success metrics. Organized periodic meetings with our client to stay aligned on expectations and deliverables.

Click here for final designs!

Contextual Inquiry

Understanding the current setting

The primary goal was to find out how the existing system worked and identify systemic deterrents that prevented Mango Lakay from being successful. With that in mind, we conducted over 15 remote interviews with customers, vendors and internal stakeholders to achieve this.

Interpretation and Synthesis

Consolidating findings into Affinity Diagrams

Using the data we gathered from our interviews and the interpretation sessions conducted within the team shortly afterward, we consolidated all the data into affinity diagrams. This process allowed us to synthesize different data points gathered from the interview phase. With this we were able to point out system needs that would enhance customer retention and sales metrics.

Key Findings

So, what did we learn?

The affinity diagrams revealed three major attributes of the current system that we needed to address and incorporate:

A case of missing identity for Mango Lakay

Mango Lakay possesses the vision of creating a thriving Haitian e-commerce ecosystem, however this isn't clearly represented to share with customers and vendors.

The impact of closed customer and vendor networks

Both customers and vendors are brought in through AHP (via listserv emails or personal referrals). This dependence limits influx of potential new customers and vendors.

In-person events build familiarity and trust

Community-based events provide a customers a chance to get to know and trust vendors, which helps them to trust Mango Lakay in order to purchase through the platform.

Experience Modeling

The Customer Journey and Stakeholder Maps

To further support our findings, the team crafted a customer journey map and a stakeholder map which shed light on user behavior and pain points from start to finish when browsing through Mango Lakay and also helped us understand the current influx patterns of customers and vendors.

The Problem Statement

Defining our target focus

Using all the information we were able to gather so far, we came up with the following statement to help guide us through the solutioning process.

Identity Model

Presenting a new identity for Mango Lakay

I designed this identity model with the goal of providing recommendations on changes Mango Lakay can make to achieve their vision for the platform and invite more customer and vendor traffic into their website.

Final Recommendations

The final look of the website

For the final report, click here.

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The goal of this redesign was to promote the idea of a relationship directory, where Mango Lakay highlights their vision and passion for the Haitian community while promoting a sense of bonding and trust between customers and vendors. I came up with the ideas for the following screens that now include features and options that would allow current customers to bring in new vendors to expand Mango Lakay's network, while providing a more streamlined browsing experience while making a purchase from here.

Reflection

It was a very gratifying experience being able to conduct research with actual users and and have full autonomy over the design solutions we put forth based on our observations. But at the same time, small businesses and platforms are often restricted by financial and technical limitations, and this project served as an important lesson to streamline ideation and decision-making to align with feasibility of implementation. The finished report was handed off to the client during the final presentation along with the proposed screens to conclude the project.

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A New Approach to Mango Lakay

UX Research | UX Design

Understanding shortcomings of the current e-commerce platform through a variety of research methods to suggest improvements in expanding their network and promoting the growth of small Haitian businesses.