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ISEEK's DakShub E-Commerce

Deliverables 
Layout (Wireframes)
User Research
​Timeframe 
Spring Semester 2017 
My Role 
User Research
Secondary Research
Competitive Analysis
​​Information Architecture
Design
Wireframes
Team 
Myself
Madeline Kiley
Cameron Grundy
​Erin Miller
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My Project Journey

​This is a multi-semester project where my team and I spent researching the users and various aspects of website design that is required for building an inclusive website for people of various backgrounds. By the end of the semester, we were in the ideation stage. The next stage of this process involves evaluating and testing the designs with the target population. 
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Project​ Overview
We worked with the Institute for Social Empowerment through Entrepreneurship and Knowledge, referred to as ISEEK, for the Krannert School of Management team and developing an e-commerce website for Project Saksham. We were in charge of designing the e-commerce website (Dakshub) which is the forefront of the Saksham project. This is the channel in which consumers all over the world will be able to purchase goods and support the businesses developed through the project. 
Problem Statement
The current e-commerce website developed by ISEEK for Project Saksham does not have a fluid, culturally neutral, and accessible site [dakshab.com] design.”​
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01 DISCOVER

Gain knowledge of users, context, user data, competitive products, conduct interviews, primary research
Establishing Key Audiences
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​Investors 
Theses are the individuals who are giving donations to ISEEK or investing in specific companies from the initiative. 
Companies 
These are the people who are selling and producing goods that are advertised on the website.  ​
Customers 
These individual are the ones purchasing goods from the website.​
General Users
These individual may not have a specific task in mind but are just browsing through which could include potential customers and investors as well. 
Research Areas
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Icons & Design Strategies
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The users of this site will be from many different cultures and socio-economic status. The sponsor emphasized to our team a lot that it is very important for the website to be universal, accessible and culturally neutral. This is why a big portion of our research went into researching shapes, colors, pictures, etc. 
Information Architecture
There is a lot of information that is needed to put onto this website. It will serve as an e-commerce site as well as information site for the initiative. Therefore, it is important for us to thoroughly research how to structure the website so that it flows well and is easy to use. 
Research Methods
To get the full picture of everything we are dealing with in this project, we did both primary research and secondary research. 
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​Secondary Research
The main purpose of this was to gain a better understanding of the research topics. We looked into information such as e-commerce evaluation and web testing methods, icon design on computer interfaces, designing interfaces for low-literacy users, cultural interpretations of visual meanings and icons, etc. Through this we were able to create surveys and make more informative design decisions for the website. 
Survey
The main purpose of the surveys is to understand how the difference in culture and background affect how individuals view and interpret different things. The three topics that were tested in the surveys are icons, word association and color.

We were able to get results from two types of audiences; students (general users) and individuals from India (potential business owners/companies).
Competitive Products
To create a website that will competitive in the market, it is necessary to research the features and functions of current e-commerce websites. 
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Bellroy
- Heavy Icon Use​
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Amazon ​
- Organization of large amount of data
- Search bar filter
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OverStock ​​
- Error prevention feature
​Personas
To reflect our understanding of our users, we build user persons in order to validate our design decisions against during the design process.
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Business Owners
What do they want?
> Build a successful business 
> Sell products internationally
> Financially stabilize family

Frustrations
> People underestimate their potential
> Not having access to basic resources
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Investors
What do they want?
> Manage company
> Make a difference 
> Explore the world

Frustrations
> Slow & Inefficient methods
> Close minded people
> Following the norm without any thought
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Customers
What do they want?
> Buy quality products
> Support under-privileged individuals

Frustrations
>  Unreliable product qualities
>  Not creating a difference

Site Map (Information Architecture)
This shows the layout of the website pages within the e-commerce website. We decided to separate the three sections from the get-go because different audiences will be interested in different content of the website. For example, the general users would be using the e-commerce aspect of the site the most, while investors would be in the "Donation" pages. 
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02 IDEATION

Create wireframes, evaluate, test for concepts and prototype development
​Sketches
After getting a solid understanding of the audiences that we are designing for, each team member made sketches of their ideas about how to display information as well as the navigation through the website. Some of these sketches can be seen below:
​Wireframes
From the sketches that each of the team members made, we looked at the strengths and weaknesses of each design to combine into  a better design. From there, digital mock-ups were created for better visualizations for the client as well as future testings. 

03 NEXT STEPS

More Usability Tests Continue testing on users from various cultural groups and socio-economic status
Refine Changes on prototype based on feedback
Final Implementation Final Design Coded and implemented on Wordpress

Reflection

This was the first project that involved researching populations that we not have access to easily. One of the biggest constraints was the time, in order to best understand the individuals from India, we had one chance to interact with them through our sponsor when he traveled there over spring break. Looking back, I think that we could have made other arrangements to get insights about how individuals with little experience with technology interact with them. Even though it might not translate directly towards the population we are targeting, it could give us ideas to initially base our designs off of. 

I learned a lot about the difference between cultures and how to design for people with different backgrounds. This project taught me a lot about time management, especially about how to have better time management for projects. I learned the need to adapt to unexpected and difficult situations. 
For more information on this project

To read more about our project with Krannert's ISEEK Initiative, please view the complete documentation here: https://goo.gl/n7sXkm

View the final presentation given to the students and staff at Purdue University here:
https://goo.gl/RMQigw

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