Barnraiser
Applying UX research to foster community interaction
My Role: UX Designer (Contract)
Deliverables: User Research, Personas, Wireframes
Team: PM, Barnraiser Founder, Development
Duration: Three weeks
Project Overview
Barnraiser is a collaborative community & social marketplace for the food & wellness economy. Beginning as a successful crowdfunding website, they are currently undergoing a redesign as an eCommerce marketplace where customers can shop & contribute to emerging brands based on lifestyle (ie, gluten-free), passions (ie, chocolate) & interests (ie, healthy kids).
I was brought in on a three month contract to provide UX for a variety of user flows, including their Merchants landing page. My research during this project provided insights to Barnraiser’s user base.
Exploring the Problem
RESEARCH PROVIDED
Initial interviews with Barnraiser stakeholder’s revealed prior research on their customer needs, interests, and what encourages them to buy.
Learning the Merchant’s Story
Merchants are independent sellers that are passionate about their products. They have a story to tell, and customers want to hear it.
Supporting Small Businesses
Helping these independent merchants grow is important and customers like to support in monetary & non-monetary actions.
Community Driven Engagement
Barnraiser’s customers frequent farmer’s markets and enjoy the sense of community and interaction with one another. Sharing recommendations, discussing unique merchants and projects - their customers enjoy engaging in a community.
Ability to Browse
Customers prefer information in short & long form, as they would like.
Pre-Problem Statement:
Customers want to connect with businesses through personal interaction and learning their story, in both long and short form. They need to feel connection with this community, and that they are helping these small businesses in their success. At this time, we do not know what Barnraiser’s merchants need, or whom they are.
Independent Research
Barnraiser has done initial customer research, but were lacking information on their merchant’s needs. We knew where these merchants products would be - farmer’s markets, boutique stores and online. I recruited ten individuals for a round of 20 minute interviews. I noticed a divide within these merchants: many were younger, very social media savvy and interested in growing their online brand. Others were of an older generation - having limited web presence and technical capability but interested in the benefits of an online platform. Affinity mapping showed a division of needs and echo’d two distinct merchant personas.
PERSONAS
Tech Capable Merchants (Ages 25-50)
Needs:
Tell their origin story
Grow their brand and presence
Market themselves individually (as influencers)
Sell more product
Wants:
Spend less time going to farmer’s markets
Differentiate themselves in the marketplace
Tech Limited Merchants (Ages 50+)
Needs:
Focus majority of time on farming, not on the internet
Create or maintain some online presence
Looking to expand their customer base
Sell more product
Wants:
Spend less time at farmers markets (they find them less profitable now than ever)
Quickly and easily make edits and fulfill orders
Revised Problem Statement:
Customers want to connect with businesses through personal interaction and learning their story, in both long and short form. They need to feel connection with this community, and that they are helping these small businesses in their success. Merchants have vastly different technical capabilities, some of them are looking to grow their brand and differentiate themselves online. Others would like an online presence, but with a minimum upfront time investment and maintenance.
Prioritizing Design Requirements
With two merchant personas, Barnraiser and their customer base, the design needed to account for many stakeholders. In order to simplify our design requirements, I turned again to affinity mapping and found shared needs amongst the stakeholders.
In order to create the most valuable design, these “shared needs” outweigh individual needs and became priority. Utilizing a 2x2 matrix, these “shared needs” were placed in the upper-right quadrant. Second bidding was given to “shared wants” and “individual needs”, in the upper-left and bottom-right. Some additional attention was given to “shared wants” in the final design, as these solutions could satisfy more stakeholders than “individual needs” and maximize overall benefit.
Solutions
MERCHANTS TELL THEIR STORY… LONG & SHORT
It’s important for Barnraiser merchants to tell their origin story, but in a way that’s clear and concise for customers.
These customers like to browse, but also engage more fully with the content as they would like. In order to give customers a small snapshot of the business, I created taglines, where merchants in 100 characters or less describe their business.
I also added text boundaries for two merchant inputs: the merchant’s “Mission” and “Story”, clicking “more” allows for expanded text, for customers looking for a deep dive. Pictures & video in themselves tell a story, and were included frequently in the design.
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Merchants & customers in this homegrown food space have a unique connection. Our more tech capable merchants are looking to promote themselves, and can link their social media accounts. Customers browsing the merchant’s page are given information on their most recent post.
This allows a closer look at the personalities behind the business, and may result in “following” the merchant, and returning to their page in the future for purchases.
Q + A
To foster engagement between merchants and customers, a Q+A section was included. The design originally was for an open comment section, with the intent of positive discussion amongst loyal customers. We realized however that extensive curation would be necessary to ensure a positive environment. Barnraiser is not staffed for this, so alternatively we decided to give moderation to the merchants themselves. Customers can ask questions post a comment, and merchants can answer them either privately or publicly on their page.
LOYAL CUSTOMERS & NEW BATCHES
We wanted to make sure customers have the tools to purchase products efficiently, but without being overbearing. Customers can request updates when a merchant releases a new product, which will allow Barnraiser to send personalized emails. Also, customers can favorite merchants & products to easily see what their favorite merchants are up too, and get curated recommendations on similar merchants and products.