treat-a-friend
Mega app for lifestyle needs
Project Scope
User Research
UX and UI Design
Strategy & Branding
Product Management
Website Goal
Conversion Rate
Marketing
Team Enablement
Lead capture
Project Timeline
2017—2019
Services
Website
UX Design
Treat A Friend is a mega app. Using the power of AI and ML to deliver an amazing experience to our users and customers. Treat A Friend is a gift & experience marketplace which also offers an on-demand delivery service.
Treat A Friend was designed with the aim of combining 8 different platforms together to create one unified experience.
The Challenge
Travel enthusiasts are always looking for new places to go and new adventures to experience in order to break the monotony of life. With this goal in mind, Treat A Friend approached me to give shape to their app concept.
My challenge was to travel in a new direction by embracing a bright and vibrant colour palette paired with a strong and striking mark. This allows the app to stand out as an attractive competitor in the e-commerce arena. Also, one other key area was integrating 8 platforms altogether and still giving the users a seamless experience while making a profit for the stakeholder. And keeping a seamless flow in the Buyers App, Seller app and Admin App.
My Role
My involvement spanned through all the stages of the product. I –
- Undertaking 1-2-1 user interview
- Facilitating discovery workshops
- Creating a set of UX principles
- To inform a clear user-led
- Overall implementation strategy
- Creating an initial conceptual idea
- Developing user journeys
- Developing wireframes and interactive prototypes for these core journeys.
- Creating test protocols for each user observing user testing
- Rapidly treating any feedback
- Developing wireframes and interactive prototypes for the user flow
The design process
We approached with the design thinking methodology where we first conducted the User Research.
From the user research, we understood what the users are looking for and why they are looking for that particular feature. Later these insights helped us draft solutions on how to meet those demands.
This also gave us a clear idea on which problem to prioritise, in order to ideate further.
Following this, we produced a paper prototype to conduct our initial user testing. Soon, we discovered a few problems with this new solution. Using an evaluation heavy, human-centred design approach, we finally were able to create our first MVP.
Tools I used
- Figma
- Sketch
- Adobe XD
- Axure RP
- Miro
- Usertesting.com
- Flowmapp
Empathise
Establishing an Initial Hypothesis
To begin with, we came up with some initial hypothesis about our target users:
- The average user has to search through multiple websites to find new event and adventure ideas.
- Users are always looking for something new to do.
- Users would like to have more of their vacation time planned around scheduled events.
User Research Goals
- To find out people’s travelling habits and determine what they enjoy most and the hardship they face.
- To find out their habits and needs before they get on a trip.
- The applications and methods they currently use to find this information and book tickets.
- To understand user behaviour properly.
- To create personas to produce a user flow and user journey.
User Demographics
Defining demographics are one of the key elements to produce great user experience. Setting user demographics makes more personalized interaction possible. It also helps improving customer service and fostering customer loyalty and retention. Keeping that in mind, we set an average user demographics and interviewed accordingly.
1:1 User Interview
After setting the average user demographics, we conducted a user interview with 6 similar users. My lead designer helped me to create interview questions which I conducted on multiple occasions. Below is a snapshot of the user interview questions..
Findings from the Interview
The User Interview gave us some great insights into what our current users are experiencing. Based on this data I was able to make further decisions. This later helped me create a user-journey.
Market Research & Competitive Analysis
I also analysed some direct and indirect competitors to get a better idea of the available options and how they are tackling the problems. The direct competitors were Airbnb experience, Virgin experience and TripAdvisor. I did thorough research on all of these platforms to understand if they were doing anything better than our hypothesis.
Persona Generation
Based on the interviews we set up three personas. We referred to them throughout the entire product development process. The results from the user survey provided sufficient information to create user personas. I opted for creating age and gender agnostic personas to focus on achieving user goals equally regardless of age and gender.
From the user research and user interview, I got enough information to develop 2 user personas. This helped us to communicate and empathise better during the time of design.
Ideation workshop
We conducted an ideation workshop with the client, inviting stakeholders across the board to contribute and pitch ideas, rank them and eventually – select the best of them for inclusion into the product.
This ensured that the client’s voice was heard, and that stakeholders had a personal stake and say in how the product would be developed – allowing for a balance between user needs and business wants.
Customer Journey Map & User flow design
Leveraging on our research on customers’ needs, wants and expectations, as well as market trends, competitor analysis and emerging technologies – the Customer Journey Map represents the current to future-state blueprint that will be used to guide the lifecycle of the product development.
Customer Apps
Final UI
Leveraging on our research on customers’ needs, wants and expectations, as well as market trends, competitor analysis and emerging technologies – the Customer Journey Map represents the current to future-state blueprint that will be used to guide the lifecycle of the product development.
Delivery App
It’s never been easier to order online. You can search in your area by:
- Your favourite cuisine, dish or restaurant brand
- Filter by dietary needs, fastest delivery time, top rated and more
- Whether you need your food now or schedule it for later
- Skip the queue with our ‘pick it up’ option
You’ll know exactly where your food is with our tracker where you can:
- Track the progress of your food being made in real time
- Be alerted when your rider is on the way and is close to you
- Share your tracker with a group for larger orders
No matter whether you want your food now or later, whether you want a family sized feast or a small snack, download our app and we’ll get it to you in no time.
Experience App
Unforgettable travel experiences start with Treat a friend experience. Find travel adventures and new places to go far away or near to you, and access holiday home rentals, new experiences, and places to visit all around the world. Book everything for your trip, or start earning money as a host.
Go on local experiences led by native experts, whether it’s for multiple days or just an afternoon. Explore Seoul’s underground music scene, hunt for truffles in a Tuscan forest, or give back to the community with a social impact experience.
Shopping App
Ever wanted to shop everything in one place, at one time? We’ve created just the app for that! With thousands of brands and millions of items at an incredible value, Treat a friend shopping is the go-to app for those in the know.
Shop what’s new & now from home to health, tech to toys and sports to shoes (plus the hottest fashion around) every day.
There are countless reasons to love shopping on the Treat a friend app but here are some of our favorites:
- Millions of trendy and unique items
- Easy Search – So you can find what you want quickly
- Coupons, discounts, flash & super deals so you’ll always get the best price
- Free shipping on over 75% of our items
- Order management & automatic shipment notifications
- Secure online payments
- Personalized feeds, with items picked especially for you
Pick and drop
Pick and drop is the faster, better way to deliver. We get your product to customers lightning fast, combining real convenience with a delightful doorstep experience. Book a courier in minutes and deliver your items within an hour or two. Perfect for people who just can’t wait to get their hands on your product.
Deliver later on the same day an order is placed. Customers can choose their preferred delivery window, ranging from 1 to 4 hours. Schedule deliveries or set up recurring orders ahead of time. Let us know when to pick up, or when the item needs to get there – we take care of the rest. Access a fleet of 3000+ professional couriers delivering an amazing doorstep experience. Track deliveries at every step of the journey, down to the last minute. Available for you and your customer. Book a courier to deliver whatever you need to, when you need to.
Flight Search
The flight search platform allowed to book cheap flights to over 5,000 cities around the world. Our advanced flight search engine allows users to find the ideal flight filtering by price, duration, departure or arrival time, or airline and stops. Users can also cancel or modify their bookings easily right in the app. Have a fixed budget, but not sure where to go? User can check out the Explore the World feature for some great suggestions.
Find a hotel
With find a hotel, a user can choose from over 1.2 million hotels, resorts, and apartments around the world. This section makes it easy to book hotels at great prices. Quickly find the latest deals, check out exclusive member offers, and enjoy zero booking fees on hotels. Still unsure about your plans? Cancel or modify your booking directly in the app. Sort by what’s important to you: hotel prices, deals, ratings and more. Advanced filters help you find accommodation in your price range, in the ideal location, and with the facilities you want (like free Wi-Fi and a swimming pool). Access your booking information offline for extra convenience.
Pay a friend
Pay a friend is the platform to transfer money globally. This particular section allowed users to easily transfer money to their contacts bank account.
We integrated the ability to send money abroad quickly and easily, at the lowest possible cost. Users can hold and convert their money in 28 currencies. And always get the real exchange rate.
Pay a friend, uses the real currency exchange rate to help expats, foreign students, businesses, freelancers and people living international lives to send, receive, and spend money — securely, conveniently, and at a very low cost.
Core feature included:
- Ability to send money to a friend or family member.
- Pay a bill in another country.
- Pay off mortgage or loan abroad.
- Hold and manage your money in 40+ currencies.
- Get paid in multiple currencies (AUD, GBP, EUR, USD), without any fees
- Spend money around the world, using your Treat a friend card
Help a friend
Help a friend is the section that allows the user to use the app to make a donation. From the app, user can support a cause via paying directly to a charity organisation, or alternatively they can donate the item using the platform. If a user decides to donate item, he or she will need put informaiton about the item and one of our drivers will pick up the item from a desired location. Collected item will then be delivered to assigned charity office.
Admin site design
Soon after completing the main mobile app, we immedietly focused on designing the admin dashboard that will allow us to manage the platform. The approach was straight-forward in this case. We simply analysed what are the features we are providing in the front of the application and created relavnt panels to update them from the back-end.
Landing Page Design for marketing promotion
Soon after the completion of main platform design, I focused on designing the marketing website and landing pages. I incorporated modern minimalistic design and produced 20+ pages for the website.
Prototype
Producing a prototype for this platform was an amazing experience for me. For easier communication with the development team, we needed a detailed visualisation of each and every micro interactions. From animation to scrolling, we created a prototype that was able to mimic the end product. Result of this extra effort was a better communication with the development team.
Prototype of the experience feature
Final thoughts
During the process, I faced making tough decisions to align business with customer goals. To convince stakeholders, I conducted A/B tests to present successful statistics — UX balances both.
Working with developers was something new, there I learnt effective (and quick) communication that prioritizes urgent and important work.
Lastly, working in a team of talented people means sharing your thought processes openly so everyone can be aligned and above all, it gives you the chance to listen to what everyone has to contribute. This had been an amazing experience designing this platform and I learnt a lot to further better my UX and UI design skills.
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