Living Local: An End to End Application
This application will be an e commerce website/app that features small businesses based on the user’s zip code. This website will help promote small businesses and help battle climate change. This idea came to me as I order a lot of things online that need to be shipped by airplanes and trucks, this idea will help by users going to pick up locally or only shipping a small distance.
This is my final project as part of my Design Lab and is a fully functional prototype. I worked on this project for a little over a month, 1/24–3/11.
My roles and responsibilities included research, information architecture, task and user flows, wireframes, responsive design, prototyping, testing, and design implementation.
The main focus of this project is to create an easy an accessible ecommerce website for both sellers and buyers to of local small businesses. It also will focus on the climate and reducing the carbon emissions put in place by larger companies shipping their products all over the world.
This project came to me as I am a big advocate for climate as well as shopping locally. I was inspired by Etsy, which I like to use to support small businesses, yet I knew the items were not local and could be shipping from across the world. I thought of this idea as small businesses could link their products and websites to this one page where the user can input the zip code they want to shop from. This website replaces the user googling shops near them and needing to go in to shop. Many small businesses do not have the resources or time to create their own website, so this would be a way for buyers to look at local options and purchase them without driving and going into each store.
To begin my application I started by looking at potential competitors to my site. I started by looking at Etsy, then other sites that either provided local services or search sites that show you shops near by.
From my competitors I found that there were not actually many sites or places where I can actually find local shops and people near me. I found that even sites that highlighted local shops, the shops usually didn’t have their own website, therefore I would have to walk to the shop and go in person in order to see their inventory. My application will solve the problem of small businesses needing to have their own site, by featuring their products for them.
After looking at my applications competitors, I began my research using surveys to help me narrow down the ideal persona for someone who would use my website. I found patterns from my users that supported buying and purchasing local, and that doing so makes them feel good.
Since I knew that the market for people wanting to purchase local, I then wanted to know how users were currently finding local shops in there area. I found that users use Google the most when looking for businesses that are local. Other than Google it was spilt between the rest of the answers given.
Other than Google, I found that users are pretty split to find local shops. Other than Google two of the four results showed that users hear about local shops through walking around town or word of mouth. I found this information interesting because it shows that the online presence for local shops is hard to find.
From looking at users and reviews from the competitors I was able to create a persona of who will be using my End to End application. This person is someone who wants to support local and help their community grow.
After I created the persona for my End to End application I began to work on the sitemap for my application. One of the main features of this application will be to be able to look at products and services that are from shops and people who are in the same zip code the consumer inputs (or their location finds).
This sitemap helped me to create some wireframes for my application.
After the wireframes I began to work on the name of my application and the logo. It was difficult to put one together a name that represented my application and was visually pleasing.
Once I had the logo I began on the color pallet and my style tile. I wanted to go with green to represent freshness, the environment, and growth. This meets the brand identity that I want to create and will make the user feel connected to their community and environment. Along with green I wanted a warm and inviting color.
Once I finalized my colors and logo I began to create my End to End application website. From here I realized what I wanted my final look and feel of my site to feel like. Here you can see my final style tile
Here are some of my main pages from my final application.
Here is a video walk through of my entire site with fully functional prototypes.
This website was able to be such a success due to understanding what the user needs and what is already available. Through my research and surveys I was able to come up with a game plan as well as designs that are simple yet intriguing.
Overall the outcome of my Living Local was a success. This site successfully showcases local businesses and the products they are selling as well as the services they provide. I have created a simple checkout process for the user to either pickup or ship the products to them. They user can create lists of products they like as well as follow shops.
