Gift Giver

A company has developed a new kind of technology that allows systems to make product recommendations to people based on numerous data from people’s purchasing behaviour to their personal interests. It will also remind people of important events such as birthdays. It’s a very complex algorithm but very accurate.

My role in this project was to design a consumer facing system for this new technology focusing particularly on gifts recommendations.

What are the main problems that people face when it comes to buying gifts for someone?

What are the main problems that people face when it comes to buying gifts for someone?

I recruited participants who are regular online shoppers and those who have bought gifts in the last few months.

I’ve identified 3 types of shoppers. All three are online users but not everyone uses it for the same reasons.

Some users only shop products they have seen in store or have purchased in the past. Some will search exactly what their friends have asked for, and others search for recommendations.

PERSONA 1

Anna, 24

Business Analyst

“I don’t want to disappoint so I buy specifically what my friend asked for.”

Anna is a business analyst in the hospitality industry.

She’s tech savvy and can spend over 6 hours daily on her devices.

Anna’s best friend lives in a different country so it’s important that they keep in touch. Whenever they get together, they always have a little present for each other.

Though, her friend is very picky and knows exactly what she wants.

To avoid disappointment, Anna makes sure that she always buys things that’s on her best friend’s wish-list.

ANNA’S GOALS

• Find the product she’s after.
• Make her friend’s happy.

PERSONA 2

Sofia, 31

Marketing manager

“I could really use some help to narrow down gifts ideas.”

Sofia is a marketing manager for an events company.

She regularly buys online for work or for herself because it’s more convenient and there’s much more options.

Sofia considers herself as a bad gift giver. She never knows what to buy so she tends to ask around for recommendations.

It’s a real struggle so she tends to leave it until the last minute.

It’s a real struggle so she tends to leave it until the last minute.

SOFIA’S GOALS

• Receive personalised gifts recommendations.
• Buy the gifts she wants.
• Remember her friend’s birthdays

PERSONA 3

John, 27

Field Engineer

“I need to see the physical product first before buying it.”

Remember her friend’s birthdays

John has 2 brothers, a big sister and 2 nephews. He loves spending time with his family and always bring a gift to his nephews when he goes visiting them.

John is not used to buying online. He prefers seeing the products himself and buy straight away if he wants it.

He had previously bought online products he already purchased in the past or because it was highly recommended by someone.

JOHN’S GOALS

• Receive quality recommendations.
• Offers something that he knows is good value for money.

In the activity diagram below, I mapped out the journey that Gift Givers take to buy gifts online. There’s 4 main steps in the path in which users encounter 3 decision nodes.

Now that we I have the first screens ready, I iterated the system to incorporate the gifts recommendations stage which first comes into play at the beginning of the journey. Users can then navigate back to this specific by selecting the Friends icons in the bottom menu.

Here is the activity diagram with the additional step.

Once the users has finalised their purchase, the journey is complete for the users. They feel satisfied.

For easy navigation through the functions of the system, I created a side menu, accessible at all time by tapping on menu icon at the top left.

Users can view their saved search i.e. friends list, calendar of events, and saved items.

The wireframe below shows the interaction through the calendar. The system will show events by category.