PROJECT
Spred
ROLE
UX Designer
DURATION
Sep 2018- Sep 2019
TARGET
B2C LATAM
About Spred
Spred is a web platform where users can publish Ads on their favorite newspapers and magazines.
The research
Understanding why the company is trying to solve the problem is my first step. After knowing what my mission in the company is, I do a market research.
In Bolivia, newspapers are the #1 source of legitimate news. They hold 87% of audience looking to buy or hire. As in 2019, newspaper’s digital platforms, are only interactive to readers.
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The problem
That means that every time a customer wants to post an Ad on any newspaper, they need to physically go the nearest newspaper’s office and pay por the ad. This service works physically, not even by phone.This process repeats every time an ad needs to be made.
Traditional flow​
User Personas
Conversations and surveys were made to understand how their problem can be solve
Common user pains
Newspaper’s working hours
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Users need to go physically to the newspaper’s office.
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Finding parking is an issue
The average time of publishing an Ad is 20-30 mi.
1st SPRED operational flow solution
Solution optimization
24/7 online publish tool
Online payment w/ order tracking records
Price comparison with other newspapers
Users can publish from any device and anywhere around the world
No more typos
Site map
Initial wireframes
I wanted a tech feel for the user but at the same time I needed to transfer the fee of the traditional way to publish ads.
Customer support was not a choice, we created videos tutorials, downloadable templates for each type of ad.
As a plus on the experience, I created a “preview” mode.
Internal usability test
For the first prototype, we were able to show the feel that we wanted. Sometimes is very hard to test the experience with a wireframe or MVP.
Testings were tracked and timed.
The conclusions after internal testings, were:
-Users seem to not know where to start
-All dropdown menus were available at first, this made the user think too much
-Preview mode was not understood by user
Spred as a solution
After analyzing the internal usability tests, I created a new flow were we only had to improve the UI for the launching of the product. These changes were re-tested by old and new users and the service was understood at first.
In order to give the user a simple and intuitive flow, we first needed to optimize some things on the back. I worked closely with the logistics team and the software engineers to create a new flow.
Final flow
Refining the design
It all starts with a click, choose a newspaper!
I changed the design for the newspapers from the initial wire frames to a carousel type. This will help the admin to add as many newspapers and in the future categorize them. I got the inspiration from Netflix, I figured users are already adapted to this interaction from them.
Choose a type of Ad. Image or text
I had to fully understand how the ad operation works for each newspaper in the market.
My conclusions were that, we can divide all ads in two types of ads.
-CLASIFICADO (Text): where you can use the tool to write your ad.
-ANUNCIO (Image): where you can upload any ad in form of JPEG,PNG or PDF
Reducing the margin of error
On the test we saw that users either got lost on where to start or they spent too much time reading every dropdown menu.
I came up with a design that helps the user and works better with the backend.
The first thing you see is the newspaper’s name that you chose.
-And only one drop down menu. You can’t do anything else. Until you select an option from the dropdown menu.
-Depending on what you choose from every dropdown menu, users will only see what they can do.
-The final step before the typing box comes out, is the calendar, users choose the dates they want.
Preview
As soon as the user starts typing, three options appear with live preview.
Each with a “i” info icon that shows exactly how the option looks in real life.
Price comparison
After choosing one of three options. Users can compare the price of their same ad in different newspapers.
With only a click, they can publish the same ad on the chosen newspapers.
I had to design this section on a way that did not look too much, and not saturate the page with too much info.
User’s dashboard
Users will be able to see all ads history and publish again.
Responsive
All actions are responsive to any device.
Takeaways
It was a complete pleasure working on this innovative solution with such an incredible team. Before this project I have never published an ad in a magazine or newspaper, but as soon as I spoke with a few prospect users, I wanted to solve the problem right away. Spred is a startup, so in order to hurry things up, Adobe XD was great for prototypes.