Vicinity Mobile App
“I have lost nearly 40% of my customers just over the course of the covid-19 pandemic. My business is my livelihood and I need help getting it back on it’s feet.”
Vicinity was birthed during the covid-19 pandemic as there was hurt and loss being experienced all around me. Tragically, lives were being lost due to the virus, but I also saw that small-businesses were being affected. My team and I set out to discover the hardships that small-business owners (SBOs) were experiencing during the pandemic and how we could be a part of helping their business, not only stay alive, but flourish.
Timeline
3 weeks
Team
Kayla, Kat, & John
Project Type
Mobile App
Roles
User Researcher, UX/UI Designer
User Research
As we began our research, we quickly discovered that SBOs did not have a lot of time, as they would not respond or they would turn us away. With persistence, I was able to conduct a few interviews and send out a survey to 2 different small-business pages on Facebook.
Our objectives were to:
Find out how SBOs have been keeping their customers informed
Discover what they wanted to be communicated to existing/new customers
How to integrate the app into their everyday routine
Definition & Synthesis
From our interviews, some of the insights we gained were:
SBOs need simpler ways to communicate with customers because they are short on time
Many customers were confused on protocols
New information SBOs had to communicate was creating pressure
Based off our of affinity diagram, I helped to define our:
Problem
SBOs are short on time and have lost many customers due to the covid-19 pandemic. Many customers are confused on what protocols are in place and when/if businesses are even open. SBOs need a way to communicate and gain their business back.
Solution
Vicinity will deliver accurate, up-to-date information pertaining to a business during COVID-19 to clarify services offered and promote confidence that customers will be safe patronizing small businesses in San Antonio. How might we improve our mobile app so that customers are properly informed during COVID-19 and increase patronage without consuming business owners precious time?
Ideation
Based on the problem and the insights we gained from research, I helped my team create a user-persona named Linda.
She owns a café, but now that covid-19 has swept the globe, she is having to adapt quickly to new information being received on a daily basis.
Next, I created the journey that Linda would take as she sends out a message to existing and new customers. As I walked her through the experience, I tried to think of any problems that she could encounter or include ones that other users have had with different applications.
Opportunities for Vicinity:
Send out notifications using geo-fencing
Message could also include daily specials, etc. to persuade a passerby to come into the business
Decrease confusion by clearly stating in notification before customer comes into the store
Prototyping
In this next phase of our project, I designed the notification process that would be sent out to the existing and hopefully new customers.
After the user created their account, they would be able to send out a notification using geofencing through a simple icon on the bottom navigation. The process of sending out a notification was kept to a four-step solution that allowed the user to put in the necessary information, while also having the option to use the same information to make a social media post. Combining the two types of posts/notifications saves time for the busy small-business owners.
User Testing
After we were done with the mockups, I put our prototype together using Figma. We then proceeded with conducting usability tests, where I conducted two of them.
Overall, all of those who were tested were very satisfied with Vicinity and completed all of the tasks given. They were very happy that there was an application that was dedicated to helping SBOs, especially in such a difficult time as a pandemic. One of the problems that arose was the familiarity with geofencing, but once it was understood they thought it was a great idea. With this problem being stated, one way we could solve it would be to put a clearer explanation of it in our Onboarding process.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we feel as though the mobile app can become a successful tool for small business owners to use during the pandemic and even after. I was very fortunate to have a team that collaborated well, communicated and iterated when needed, and listened to the feedback that was being received.
Further user testing feedback and team critique sessions showed us that there is a good amount of scaling to the features of this application. Some feature that we might add in the future are:
Ability to set a custom business location for food trucks
Further develop the social media feature
Expansion into other cities and more languages
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