Furnish & Co.
Furniture Retail App
In this UI/UX project, my partner and I wanted to follow the principles of design thinking to creatively and systematically create an app on Figma that would facilitate a user's shopping experience. In a world that grows increasingly digital and shopping in-person is not always possible, we wanted to build an app that could be readily used for function and fun and serve to a wide demographic of older teens and those towards their thirties. In this project, we prioritized designing an accessible yet intuitive app where the user could feel recognized and validated whenever they used the app - that they were the focus of this shopping experience.
For this digital and interactive space, we wanted to ensure a user's ease of comfort whenever using this app, so we conducted both market and user research in order to move forward in decision making. Following such research, we prototyped the structure and developed the app's visual system - a clean, minimalist, and calming aesthetic best suited for a furniture retail app. Through multiple rounds of user-testing and follow ups, we used the provided constructive feedback to continuously develop my app's strengths and weaknesses and help me work one step closer to achieving my project goals.
UI/UX Research
User Interviews
Before even brainstorming about the functions and capabilities of my app, we started my research on the strengths and weaknesses of established retail-based apps. Our questions sought clarity on how established shopping apps functioned and on how intuitive they were to the user. Additionally, we wanted to learn more about the visual overload that some users experience in their day-to-day experiences when shopping on an app.
Interviewee
17 year old female high school student
Has been shopping more on apps recently than they do in person. ​
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Key Insights:​
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Loved it whenever her search or home feed was catered to her personal preferences. She loved that she had control oveer what she was seeing, and she felt recognized that all of her interests were in one place that was easy to navigate
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Less ads! Sometimes, it seems like is overconsumed with ads that are not relevant to her. So many ads took away from the shopping experience, and she would instead spend time to learn how to get rid of ads more than the actual shopping. Either that, or she would blankly scroll through her feed without real intentionality because she wanted to avoid anything appearing to look like an ad
Competitor Research
In order to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of shopping on an app, we turned to Amazon because we were most familiar with this app from previous experiences. Through this experience, we slowly explored the app for its capabilities and functions and seeing where tension between the app and the user can potentially arise.
Unfavorable Qualities:
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Occasionally, some pages are overwhelming to look at. With so many items crammed onto one space, it gets difficult to pay attention to anything for too long
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Authenticity of the products/brands
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App has no dark mode, which may not be as accessible for some because of the brighter color scheme
Favorable Qualities:
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Layout is organized and intentional
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Brand identity is strong - colors are consistent and attention grabbing
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Users love being able to make lists/categories
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"There's a little bit for everyone"
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User Profile
Design Process
The first step of the physical process in creating this app was to establish the functions that we wanted this app to have. Aside from the standard flows, like signing/logging in, adding an item to a cart or liked items collection, or being able to access account information, we also wanted to implement a unique flow. Given the context of this app, we decided that a furniture-based retail app would benefit from having AR capability so that the user could use their camera to digitally replicate how a furniture or decoration piece would function within a room's dimension and space. We also prioritized consistency and ease of use in this app, so we made sure to account for future scenarios/desires. Through rounds of testing, we were also able to pinpoint flaws in my original design that caused frustrations for users. All of which have been fixed!
Initial User Flow
Low Fidelity Wireframe and Prototyping
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Brand Design System
Moodboard
Simple Color Scheme
Consistent and organized visual elements
Clean backgrounds
Minimal visual noise!
Typography, Color, and Icons
Poppins
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y X Z
Lato
Regular
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y X Z
Bold
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y X Z
Hex code
27445C
Hex code
FFBF00
Hex code
FFFAEA
Furnish & Co Logo
Pop Ups
Navigation Buttons + Liked Items button
Share Menu
Final Prototype
And Debrief
By creating this app with the principles of design, we were effectively able to create an app that would facilitate a user's shopping experience with ease and comfort. We designed the app with the user's potential frustrations and accessibility in mind for users of a wide age range, and the functions and visual design system reflects that. With this project I learned of the importance of designing an interface based on human empathy and constructive feedback.
