PROJECT SCOPE

For my first ever project, I wanted to create a solution that resembled one of my hobbies. I had to ponder for a bit, but then I noticed my array of sneakers beside me and everything started to click. I felt like combining my love for sneakers with my recent passion for design would be a perfect introduction for me in the design realm so here I am!

PROBLEM BRIEF

Ajax Resell is a personal business of mine that my brother and I founded near the end of 2019. Growing up, we weren’t able to have the special Jordan shoes that were available at stores like Footlocker as they were out of our price range. This was a personal pain point for us and hence, we wanted to start a business where we can give back to the community with steals and deals. Over the past two years, we have been selling shoes on our Instagram page, as well as Facebook Marketplace, but I knew that change had to be done in order for us to stand out from the other resellers that are starting to pop up recently. In addition, the pandemic has caused many big shoe shops to close in-person shopping and their corresponding websites were getting wiped by bots, so many people were getting frustrated as they wanted to get new shoes as soon as possible.

How might I assist sneaker lovers in finding and filtering their favourite shoes online without having to pay ridiculous customs fees from abroad?

MY SOLUTION

I decided to create a website mockup that allows anyone from anywhere to purchase a sneaker from my vast inventory.

USER RESEARCH

To get a better understanding of the situation and how to approach it, I began by creating a survey about the world of shoes as I was curious as to where people got their kicks from. I attached the link to my Instagram page, where 100 people completed it. From this, I was able to get vital primary research and metrics out of it, which helped me figure out where to start. Some of the takeaways from this included the following:

• 63% of the participants believe that finding exclusive shoes has gotten difficult over the past year

• 42% of the participants purchase a minimum of one shoe each month

• The majority of the participants believe that resellers and bots are ruining the market

  • Popular shoe websites include:

    • Footlocker

    • Champs

    • StockX

    • Goat

PERSONAS

With the personas, I was able to get a better understanding of the wants/needs of my primary users (personal buyer and sneaker reseller), as well as the pain points that they might have. This is important since it allowed me to see if either of the users addressed any common concerns.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Before starting to think about what type of platform to use, I decided to compare different shoe sellers.

USER FLOWS

After getting a better understanding of our primary users, I went ahead and developed the information architecture. At this point, I was already thinking of possible features so I integrated that into the flow to demonstrate what would it be like when a user uses my application for the first time.

WIREFRAMING

Based on our user flows and the research that I obtained, I developed low-fidelity wireframes for different parts of the website so I had a general understanding of the layout in front of me.

NEXT STEPS

Now that I have a final prototype of the application ready, I am currently performing a client review process by interviewing three different resellers in the Greater Toronto Area to get feedback on how to improve the website. So far, some of the feedback that they told me included:

• Adding a sell your shoe option so that users are able to sell their shoes to me directly from the website instead of having to direct message me on either Instagram or Facebook

• Including potential bot protection so that when I do have sales on the website, the stock does not instantly sell out. This will provide the community with an equal opportunity to purchase their preferred shoes.

• Making the website live with the help of several developers and incorporating google analytics to track data

• Creating a corresponding mobile app so that the ecosystem is seamless