Team
2 UX Designers
Role
UX Designer
Duration
3 weeks
BRIEF
goodgigs is a freelancer marketplace designed to connect Business Owners, Design Professionals, and Non-profit organizations by mutual values.
The value of goodgigs is that Businesses can contribute to organizations that have mutual values/vision, Freelancers have paid work for causes they are passionate about, and Non-profit organizations can post creative projects they need funded
Task: Design a functional product for Business Owners
FOUNDATION
I wanted to take a look at goodgigs as a brand and what was in place. I did this by creating summary artifacts of the brand design and observed what the Business Model implied (March 2019).
Moodboard
Because goodgigs has a heavier focus on engagement, I wanted to communicate an engaging and fun platform for Users and use limited contrasting colors for visibility
Style Guide
A Sans Serif font (Poppins) was used throughout the site to keep a approachable feel. With Information Hierarchy based on text sizes and bolding. The color palette used brighter and warm colors to communicate the fun.
Business Model Canvas
A Business Model Canvas was created to understand the business operation as a whole to understand the underlying Value Proposition of goodgigs.
USER TYPES
Business Owners
Business Owners wanting to hire freelancer's that understand the company's vision and donate to causes the business values support.
Freelancers
Freelancers that want to find opportunities to work for non-profit causes they are passionate about.
Non-profits
Non-profits that have a need for creative projects, but too limited a budget to hire Freelancers.
Why focus on Business Owners first
The reason this project is focused on creating functional product for Business Owners first is because for the entire marketplace to function every User (including goodgigs) is reliant on Business Owner clients to fund any project on the goodgigs site.
Business Owners are the only source of revenue for all parties
RESEARCH
Usability Testing
Research began with testing the current Beta product in place. Users could navigate fairly easily through the site when given the task of registering to find a Freelancer. The problem was that at the end of the form submission there is a lack of direction for what Users should expect after submitting their request.
Easy Navigation
✘ "Are they going to give me a call back? ... how long am I supposed to wait?"
Beta Product User Flow
I created a User Flow of the Beta product to highlight where Usability test challenges had occurred. The common challenge Users encountered had to do with the donation process and an unclear follow up process. Contributions indicated supporting the Freelancer's Non-profit projects, but not what the actual project is (or for which organization). After posting the gig, no indication is given what the User can do or how they will be contacted.
✘ Uncertain what the donation is spent on for the Non-profit
✘ Users have no idea what to expect after posting a gig
User Interviews
User Interviews were conducted with a mix of Business Owners and Freelancers. The purpose of interviewing two types of users was to identify the mutual values of two types of users and design around the process rather than one user exclusively.
Two sides to the same problem: Business Owners had challenges with project requirements not fulfilled while Freelancers had challenges with unclear criteria
Affinity Mapping
When my insights were sorted on an Affinity Map, there were four core values that consistently came up during research: Empathy, Convenience, Reputation, and Criteria.
Value Cycle
While looking at these insights, I realized these values could also all be grouped as one category of Freelancer Matchmaking. I created a cycle chart to interpret these values as ongoing steps in the Freelancer Marketplace process.
Freelancer Marketplace Values: Convenience, Empathy, Criteria, and Reputation
Persona
Cheryl is an entrepreneur in the food business, and constantly develops new products in a very competitive industry where there are lots of choices and competitors. Cheryl regularly needs creative work done to compete in a competitor saturated food market.
Journeymap
Cheryl's experience using a Freelancer she found on the marketplace leads to delays and ultimately an untimely delivery from what she had expected. The experience worsens because she constantly notices details that are not allowed, but may not have been expressed in the criteria. Ultimately Cheryl has a bad experience regardless of where the blame may lie.
Comparative & Competitive Analysis
To focus my design phase I created a Comparative and Comparative chart to observe what features are unique to goodgigs, which features Users may expect, and other used features that can be considered in future development. This was meant to gauge how goodgigs as a product will compare side by side with other marketplace platforms.
DESIGN
User Flow
With insights from my Usability Testing, I created a redesign of the User flow for Business Owners like Cheryl. This took more features into consideration that would give Cheryl the ability to easily focus on the task at hand, understand how she can interact with the site, and have an expectation of what the next steps will be.
User Flow redesigned to reduce confusion
Wire Flow
Based on the redesigned User Flow, I drew out a summary concept of the pages that would be drawn for the Low Fidelity Prototype.
Low Fidelity Prototype
With a Wire Flow drawn out to guide the prototype concept, I continued to draw out the full Low Fidelity Protoype of the Business Owner User Flow. Descriptions were kept very limited to observe if Users could understand the interface intuitively.
Low Fidelity Usability Testing
The experience I wanted to create was one where Users could easily understand what they were looking at. Although the Information Architecture (layout) was easy to understand, whether they were looking at a list of jobs or freelancers was not easy to identify without description.
✘ Users had a mixed experience understanding the interface intuitively
Prototype Wireframe
I created a wireframe of the High Fidelity Prototype for two reasons. The first was to have a document prepared that would be easy for the Developer to see the structure of the entire process. The second was to have an easy high level reference to all screens for myself in future iterations.
Wireframe created in preparation for Developer hand-off
Sitemap
Because the Wireframe could only specifically describe the prototype, I also created a full sitemap of all pages that would be needed for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to handle basic functions of goodgigs. More User Flows will need to be added in to further develop the full structure of the web page services.
Established an expandable base architecture for future iterations of goodgigs
Summary Profile Design
Value matching integrated into User Flow
Dashboard Design
Easily identifiable User actions and functions
High Fidelity Prototype
NEXT STEPS
This redesign enables goodgigs to start a transition from Beta product into a Functional product for Business Owners to interact with. The immediate next steps to continue the goodgigs development would be to complete a Functional product for all Users that will be involved.
Freelancer's are stuck
Freelancer's on goodgigs face a lot of the same uncertainties that Business Owner's have after posting their gig. There is no specific kind of follow up identified, nor is there a dashboard the Freelancer can use to engage with the goodgigs product after submitting a form.
Enabling Freelancer's to have a functional product they can leverage directly can stronger engagement with Business Owners knowing they are matched based on mutual values/beliefs and a preference towards the goodgigs marketplace when they have a better experience working with their clients. Without a means to engage using the service, the value is very difficult to deliver to Freelancers that want to do quality work.
What about the Non-Profit user?
A big part of the unique value to goodgigs is how the marketplace engages with Non-profit organizations. Freelancers have an opportunity to do paid work for causes they support, while Businesses can support projects that match their values.
The problem is that Non-profits have no way to engage with Freelancers or Businesses on the goodgigs platform after submitting their project. Which leaves administrative pressure on the goodgigs administrative backend forwarding messages back and forth. Creating a dashboard for the Non-Profit user to interact with the marketplace place would simplify the process for goodgigs and the Non-profit.