Product Design | Flying Cat : B2C E-commerce Service & Product Design
my Role
End-to-end Product Design Lifecycle
UX Research | Desk research, user survey/interview, problem definition, ideation, iteration
UI Design | Branding, wireframing, prototyping + QA
Type
Mobile-first Web / App
(Launched on iOS & Android Market)
Tools
Adobe Xd, Illustrator, Photoshop / Zeplin / Whiteboard & Papers / Notion / iMac
Team
Sole Product Designer at Service Development Team
Collaborated closely with the PM, 3 front-end developers, 4 back-end developers.
Overview
Flying Cat is a rapidly-growing startup specializing in cross-border e-commerce, connecting overseas sellers with domestic consumers in Korea by offering products at a price range between retail and wholesale. The company was gearing up for a significant project to recreate and launch a new platform, aiming to become a leading cross-border e-commerce organisation in the national market.
Joining the team as a product designer, my primary responsibility was to launch a new product. The goal was to increase user engagement, foster repeat customers and eventually drive revenue growth.
With great desire and passion, I thoroughly understood the business objectives and company vision, and then dove into the project.
Process
To identify the actual and fundamental problems, I kept the Design Thinking principles in mind and tried to understand user frustrations, problems, and needs. Once I had pinpointed the pain and gain points, I threw lots of ideas on the table and narrowed them down with the team to share viewpoints and come up with feasible solutions .
As the team was re-creating new version of the product, we followed both the Lean UX and the Agile for iterative approach and continuous improvements in every stage.
User Research
identifying Problems
Desk Research
I started analysing the shopping habits and patterns of the existing users on the basis of our customer data for the last 6 months. I selected some existing users with high frequency of purchase.
I figured out that several common features of our regular users on the data and also found some interesting insights that can apply to a new product.
Most users tend to purchase more than 2 or 3 items at once
Most users tend to shop in similar categories
Spend money on hobby goods such as bikes and parts, camping equipment, drones, fishing/golf gears
Short-lived, fast-spending items such as seasonal or infant products are frequently purchased
Several hit items with a high surge in sale turn first buyers into repeat customers
Most new customers transitioned from other major shopping platforms as they clicked the lowest price
User Survey
I decided to conduct user survey to collect lots of data in a short time and for better comprehension with users. I selected users who shopped with Flying Cat more than 3 times over the last 6 months.
After completing the survey, I began analysing the insights and discovered that most users cited ‘cheaper price' as the reason for shopping on Flying Cat as opposed to other e-commerce platforms. Upon sharing this result with the team, a controversy arose surrounding the term ‘cheap’, causing a bit of a diversion from our intended path.
Despite encountering resistance, I persisted in emphasising the importance of listening to users and understanding their needs to drive the project forward.
User Interview
The user survey results prompted our team to conduct further research, affording us a wonderful opportunity to engage directly with our users and glean invaluable insights. We invited Flying Cat users to perform tasks while using our product, encouraging them to share their thoughts as they navigated through the experience during the interview.
This approach allowed us to gather a wealth of user insights and uncover hidden issues. The user interviews served as a pivotal moment for stakeholders to actively listen to users and gain a deeper understanding of their needs and perceptions regarding our product.
Goals
Understand how the users are using our product to shop items
Understand what features and services the users actually react
Discover the biggest pain points while the users are experiencing our product
Task
1. Please visit our website (www.myflyingcat.com) using your smartphone or open our mobile app (available only on Android at the moment)
| 1-a. Once you've accessed it, please browse the landing page. In the mean time, share your impressions with us if you had any.
2. Take your time and shop any 5 items (you are attracted / currently need / want / shop frequently), regardless of category.
3. Create a cart just like you would when shopping normally.
4. Browse through the recommended items and add at least one item to your cart.
5. Once you have completed your shopping, kindly finish the process before actually making purchase.
* Please share any immediate thoughts or observations that come to mind, as well as any inconveniences or constraints you may have encountered during the process.
key Insights & findings
Based on the result of the user interviews, we stepped closer to investigating the detailed problems. We analyzed the user insights and compiled them with the result of the data research. Also, formed the strengths(gains) and weaknesses(pains) of the existing platform and service below.
Gain points
Cheap/affordable price
Free shipping items (unlike other overseas-direct-purchase)
Brand goods selling at half price
Can purchase products that are not sold in the country
Extensive diverse products
One-click payment system
Easy translation (can use direct-purchase in Korean)
Convenient point policy
Easy to sign-up with SNS
Pain points
Never-ending scrolling (both on desktop and mobile)
No related/similar items
Search function not working well
Uncertain translation that related to issues with search function
Shipping delays
Risk of loss
Poor algorithm for item recommendation
Messy interface of selecting options
Difficulty of connecting to customer service
user Personas
The primary persona was created to show the main types of users our product attracts, focusing on what they need and how they use our product. Secondary persona added other details, showing different kinds of users we might have, and making sure our ideas worked for everyone. These user personas helped me stay focused on our users and maintain a clear direction while coming up with ideas and solutions.
PRIMARY PERSONA
SECONDARY PERSONA
User Journey Map
Solving Problems
—
our Challenge
How might we attract more and more one-time purchasers and turn them into loyal customers by redesigning our product,
and then ultimately drive it to find the product-market fit to increase revenue?
- Flying Cat Team -
browsing SOlutions
UI Ideas
Recreate entire design for User Interface
Remove limitless scrolling
Search bar must be seen at the top
Add filters to easily browse items/categories
Emphasize affordable prices
Display eye-candy banner/ads/items on landing page
Show recommended or alternative items in a horizontal row on item pages
Position shopping tabs at the top to navigate easily by purpose
(brand, price comparison, special deals, etc)
busienss/Service Ideas
Allow only verified purchasers to write reviews
Create special deals and show similar or related items on the landing page
Update delivery system - Fast Bundle Shipping
Offer random time-sale to attract consumers (service)
development ideas
Allow order tracking
Enhance search function in Korean
Offer random time-sale to attract consumers (development)
Competitive Analysis
I also explored and studied other products and the competitors on the market to benchmark and gather ideas to enhance our user studies. Among them, the three main products that I focused on the most were Wish, Coupang, and Taobao.
WISH
Share similar goals and values with Flying Cat, making it a valuable reference point
COUPANG
Stands out as one of the most successful e-commerce apps in South Korea — particularly relevant as many users are already familiar with it
TAOBAO
Half of our interviewees had experience using Taobao for shopping, so gathered insights and learned from the app's features and design
lo-fi Wireframes
Usability Test
Due to the extensive time invested in user research, our team implemented quick usability tests with the key wireframes. This approach allowed our team to assess the functionality and feasibility of the potential product and identify any usability obstacles before advancing to the visual design and development stages.
This stage received exceptional commendations, especially from the developers, because the team actually saved lots of time and effort.
Gained Insight
Add a ‘see more’ button for the item details
Item and item page should be sharable
Item recommendation in a horizontal row takes more time to code, but looks and works better (from developers)
Show earning points to promote shop
Display all the available item options
Advanced filters for the search page is currently unavailable — needs to be simplified for now (from developers)
Add the CS section to start live-chat in my page
Product Design Solution
—
Key Prototypes
* Please note that Flying Cat was originally designed in Korean and translated into English for this portfolio.
Success Measurement
After the launch of new product, our team posted online advertisements on Instagram and Facebook for a few days, including weekends. After promoting, our new product achieved a conversion rate of 1.9%, doubling the company’s initial goal. Moreover, we successfully increased the user retention through new social sign-in and sign-up features which simplified the registration process. We then began to focus on optimising the product to enhance the user experience for both existing and new users.
Iteration & Optimising
earning feedback
I tracked usage records to evaluate how our new product met user satisfaction and aligned with our initial objectives. Additionally, I collected user feedback for qualitative insights. By analysing the feedback and data, I identified existing issues and addressed them in every sprint to ensure continuous product improvements.
Our team’s top priority was the user value and we also focused on the features which were directly connected to the company profits or gathering customers. On this step, there were a few things that we added to the features.
Ideas For Improvement
Abandoned time sale as any significant interrelation between time-saled items and sales was not shown
Created free shipping items tab on top and gathered all the free shipping items into it so users can easily find
Added verified photo review on the review tab to give better credibility to potential buyers and to provide more points to reviewers
Rebuilt the entire interface of item option page to user-friendly design for seamless shopping experience
Added processing bar on top and showed the exact price and steps on cart and order process page to help customers enjoy better shopping experiences until completing their shopping
Developed images search function by adding item pictures to find uncertain items that searchers have no information
Refinements
* Please note that Flying Cat was originally designed in Korean and translated into English for this portfolio.
What’s next
User’s Shopping Preference
Ask new users their age, sex, and interest on the signing up page and create a shopping preference section on My page to show better-filtered items and deals to help their shopping experienceUser Community
Create a community tab that allows users to share real reviews, recommended items, shopping tips, and price information so that Flying Cat would always ensure customer satisfaction and competitiveness
What I Learned
My time as the sole product designer at Flying Cat provided invaluable lessons in independence, teamwork, and adaptability within a dynamic early stage startup environment. Juggling multiple tasks and responsibilities, I developed efficient workflows and established regular team sessions to ensure team cohesion and productivity. Collaborating closely with teams, we navigated challenges together, refining our approach to product enhancement and fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration. Despite of increased responsibilities and workload, I grew and learned extensively during this time. This experience not only strengthened my technical skills but also instilled in me a deep appreciation for the power of teamwork and the importance of adaptability in achieving shared goals within a startup setting.