Toys Can Community-Based Toys Sharing App
Background
Since childhood, I’ve had a keen interest in toy exchange – I always saw it as the start of a new friendship. Nowadays, my hobby has shifted to exchanging second-hand clothes, but the sentiment remains. This story is particularly relevant to my 12-year-old niece, an only child living in a big and often lonely city, who has amassed a large collection of toys. The issue of toy waste is critical to the wider community in Beijing, where an alarming 63% of toys are discarded annually. In just one district alone, 540 families are grappling with this problem.
Duration5 Months Solo ProjectTool Sketch, AI, Figma, R Studio, MiroRoleDesign Researcher & UI/UX designer
Solution
- Toys Can build trust in the neighborhood and allow children’s parents to share kids’ toys within the community, with the sharing option not only resolving the problem of waste but also increasing the social contact of children in these residential towers, teaching them how to share from a young age.
Solution
Challenge
How can we simplify the toy exchange process for parents compared with large-scale shopping like Taobao, or eBay? How can the process of getting a toy be easy, community-based, and trustworthy?
Phase 1: Design Research
Research Goal
- Define the target user using scenarios, motivation, and using goals.
- For Millennial parents, what’s it’s the new topic/function they would like to see in the app?
- What is the biggest concern for parents? How can I fix the issue through design?
Research Approach
To identify my target users or app champions, I began by using a questionnaire. After sifting through 500 responses, I focused on those with a positive attitude and discovered that most were parents who expressed a strong desire to exchange toys.
Here is some data visualization from my work.
User Interview Insights
I select 6 parents and 1 toy collector as my app champions.
Overall :
I learned more details from them about these toy exchangers, including their eco-friendly nature and a strong sense of community. In fact, they engage in various ways of exchanging toys and other second-hand items.
Refine the project focus: Given the limited budgets and time constraints of young parents, what steps can be taken to foster a friendly and trusting environment for toy exchange?
Phase 2: Design
ProcessSign Up: User downloads the app and creates an account by providing her name, location, and contact information.
Toy Givers: MariaAdd Toys: Maria can adds children’s gently used toys to her library on the app by providing a description, photos, and any relevant information about the toys.
Easy to Navigation
Clear Information
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Next
Toy Takers: Adam Browse Toys: Adam browses the toys available in her community and selects the ones she would like to share. He can filter by toy type, age range, and other criteria to find the perfect toys for his children.
Filter Ability
Key tag
Previous
Next
Request Toys: Adam sends a request to borrow the toys he is interested in. He can specify the dates he would like to use the toys and any other details about the toy-sharing arrangement.
Key Category
Previous
Next
Communication: Adam can communicate with Toys Giver Maria, before he pick-up the toys.
Communicate
Previous
Next
After conducting a second design sprint and incorporating user feedback, I improved the usability and visual system and added new functions to enhance the user experience.
Phase 3: Test & Iteration
Toys GiversOn-boarding + Guidance during the sharing process
Guidance
On-Board
Added a sharing feature for toy givers, which includes the option to choose a “ship only” mode and hide their location when sharing.
Privacy
New Path
Toys Taker Browse ToysThe navigation has been relocated to the bottom, which is more frequently accessed, and the home page now features integrated common topics to increase the density of information.
Navigation
Information architecture
Viewing toy information is a constant, the ideal flow is for users to browse toys, take action, and then move on to the next toy. To make it easier for users to return to the previous level and view other toys, we’ve adapted each toy’s page into a pop-up page.
Information architecture
The final Call for action is divided into three types, chat, Add to Cart and Pick-up.
New Getting Path
I have separated the geolocation information of the toys onto a distinct page. This allows users to easily identify the location of the toys they are interested in, and helps them discover other nearby toys. By providing this information, users can conveniently browse for and acquire multiple toys in a single trip, saving time and effort.
Flexible
Toys Taker Browse ToysAdded top filters and marked the best matches for each category to help users navigate the platform more easily.
Navigation
Filter Ability
Label
Credit System
New Pain point with Insight, transfer to new function.Confirmation: For Toys Taker, Adam receives a confirmation from the toy owner when his request has been accepted. He is able to view all of his approved toy-sharing requests in one place on the app.
Notification
Popular Topics recommendation: including sustainable tips and restoring the toys
Order status: to check out the status of the toy, meantime encourage the User to interact with the community.
Order Status
Home Page, Category, Community toys takers browse flow
Community Map View, Carousel pop-up page, Chat pop-up page
Share centre onboarding page, Adding a toy page, Tips page
Location page, Order status page, First page
Learnings & Challenges
I find that the process of building trust such as communication, community credit, etc. – is better “over-designed” than undesigned. For the user, this indicates that we pay attention to subtle needs.
An old fashion card sorting can help me quickly get the sorting method from the user.
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VISUAL EPIDEMIC
Web & HTML & Motion Graphic
B-CORP DESIGN AGENCY
UX Research
MOZI
Website & APP & Navigation Design