BodeGo

1.Overview

Bodegas do not have a way to spread to reach others from a farther distance to spread the exclusive goods they carry without using apps like Doordash / Grubhub, these are mostly known for ready-made food, restaurants and supermarkets, but not uniquely for corners stores.

This project is a colloborative work with my UX design team and a Web developpement team.

The goal of the project was to build a full-stack application allowing people of a local community to reach out to other communities' bodegas and get exclusive items and deals.

2.Problem Statement & solution

Problem 1:

Local community members appreciate the convenience and unique products offered by bodegas but are often unaware of what products each bodega carries beyond what they see on the shelves. They are interested in discovering new and exclusive items from nearby bodegas.

Problem 2:

Bodega owners struggle with inventory management and tracking sales data, which hinders their ability to optimize their businesses. They are interested in tools that can help them manage their inventory and track their profitability.

Problem 3:

EBT/SNAP users often have difficulty finding places to shop that accept their benefits, and they lack information on which products are eligible. They are interested in a platform that can help them find places to shop that accept their benefits and discover eligible products.

There is a need for a platform that connects local communities with nearby bodegas to discover and purchase exclusive items. Such a platform would provide a valuable tool for bodegas to showcase their unique products and services to a wider audience, while also providing useful features for both users and bodega owners.

3.Users and Audience

The target audience are New Yorkers who prioritize quick and efficient access to items while still supporting local businesses.

4.Roles and Responsabilities

This project is a collaborative work with a web development team , we used Notion to stay on track, Slack for collaboration and Figma as a design software.

My role for the research phase, was to conduct interviews, establish an affinity map, create 3 low-fidelity and high-fidelity wireframes with their prototyping, later on participate on animation and second iteration on the interface.

TEAM:

• Ahmer Ali - UX/UI Design

• Mouniratou H Cisse - UX/UI Design (me)

• Ann Lee - UX/UI Design

• Robert Quartey - Web Developer

• Diana Vargas - Web Developer 

• Chinedu Ejiogu - Web Developer 

5.Scopes and Constraints

We had a timeline of 12 weeks to design and developp the BodeGo platform

MVP

There would be a map that shows a distance with other/nearby bodegas as pins on the map. When a user clicks on the pin, the user would be able to see what that bodega is offering. 

Road Map

• IDEATION

Brainstorming: 

Components, characteristics, and objectives.

Exploration of similar products.

Surveying of the market.

(Take note of market assumptions and current limitations).  

• CONCEPT

Continuation of product brainstorming.

Creation of product concept: Patterns, features, target demographic.

Developing marketing ideas and building brand identity.

• TESTING

Development and testing of product concept: Evaluating comfort, durability, functionality, and style.

• RELEASE

Ongoing product testing: Revising, refining, and finalizing.

Prepare for Launch Of Application

Possible assumptions that I found, were bodega owners' opinion on instant delivery app such as Uber eats, Instacart and Gopuff stealing their customers. Additionally, users think that , prices might be higher on the delivery website or that bodegas sell lower quality goods.

6. Design process

Phase 1: Research

We identified a diverse group of local community members, bodega owners, and EBT/SNAP users and unsure a mix of demographics, including age, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

The research goal was to understand what people look for, in bodegas? how to make bodegas easily accessible ?and determine, what are the common payment methods used at bodegas?

One of the research objectives was to understand the needs and pain points of local community members,bodega owners, and EBT/SNAP users. Another one was to identify the challenges faced by bodegas in reaching a wider audience and showcasing their exclusive products. We also wanted to determine the current tools and platforms used by bodega owners for inventory management and sales tracking.

I conducted 4 interviews through calls and physical meetings , of 2 bodegas owners and 2 bodegas customers and EBT/SNAP users , we also conducted surveys using Google Forms and resulted with 11 responses.

Based on these materials, we were able to conduct a research synthesis with 3 user personas. I established an affinity mapping , we then conducted a feature prioritization matrix and a heuristic evaluation.

Phase 2: Wireframming

• Lo-fi and copywritting

• Hi-fi with styleguide

Phase 3: Prototype , animation , iteration.

The collaboration with the web development team was simultaneous to the user experience design team, as both of our tasks where influenced .

6.Outcomes and next steps

My team was succesfully able after 12 weeks, to design and develop a full-stack application , that addresses the needs and pain points of and bodega owners and local communities consumers, providing them of a valuable tool.

Regardless of some minor communication issues due to different schedules of team members, it was rewarding to work on the Bode-Go app.

I learned the value of a project manager for the support of a tech team to adjust miscommunication and conflicts of interest between Web developpers and UX designers , and wanted to learn more about the role.

We wish in the future, to improve the payment functionality with a data dashboard to track inventories and sales for the admin side of bodegas owners.

Some suggetions that I made for future iterations of the platform, would be, to combine the " shop " and "locate" pages on one page , to reduce the number of clicks by 50%.

Displaying all items details on the "products" page , might be overwhelming to mentally or visually impared user, a redirecting button to a pop up page with the item details, and an option for customization, can be considered as a solution for more accessibility.Implementing a reward system to the app , can be considered as a possibility for gamification and user retention purpose.