Product Designer
Interaction Designer
Hailey Motooka
Rituparna Roy
Natalie Schade
The goal is to empower Zazzle to be a creative platform that encourages people to explore and experiment in the universe of creativity. more
Our research revealed the need for guidance to jumpstart creativity and a creative space for people to collaborate. more
We designed a new tool, Zazzle Play, and prototyped activities within the tool to inspire gift ideas and help build user's creative confidence. more
However, how might Zazzle Play work systematically within Zazzle’s ecosystem to maximize the value of people’s creative experience and Zazzle’s business potentials? Check out our final solution.
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The proposal of Zazzle Play and Build & Browse sets stepping stones for Zazzle to reach the goal of promoting creativity as a lifestyle. more
- Domain & User Research - constructed and facilitated both in-person and remote research to dive deep in the field of domain as well as to examine and validate user needs
- Ideation & Validation - Illustrated ideations based on the key user insights derived from the synthesis of both quantitative and qualitative data and client goals; validated idea, prototypes through multiple rounds of user testings
- UI & Visual design - was in charge of key screen designs and created design templates; also designed project related icons, illustration and research artifacts for both UI, presentation and client reports.
- Planning & Scoping - planned weekly by setting short-term and long-term goals according to client-side feedback; adjusted plans flexibly according to the direction of the project
- Documentation - organized and outline design process to ensure every step was trackable; was in charge of designing and content creation for client reports, presentation and project website
Zazzle is an online marketplace that allows designers and consumers to create their own customized products.
The patented technology they’ve developed for their creative tool, Zazzle Create, gave them the greatest advantages in the market that sets them apart from the competitors; a tool that helps average users to create simple designs for physical products by using templates, elements, uploading their own assets, and etc.
However, Zazzle Create is underutilized along with other amazing Zazzle tools. Thus, we started our project by exploring creativity in a new perspective and understanding the whys behind the underutilization. Ultimately, achieving the goal of emphasizing the creative side of Zazzle and provide simplified, and fun gift creating process for an average individual. To make creativity invigorating instead of exhausting.
How might we rebrand Zazzle as a creative lifestyle brand?
To start, there is no single, or conspicuously identifiable problem with creativity. Every person is capable of creative expression, which differs in medium, in output, in process, in experience for each individual, every time they create. We dove deep into the problem space and conducted extensive research to discover an opportunity among user pain-points and turn that around to Zazzle’s success.
A vast array of concepts that could benefit Zazzle were explored through various research avenues. From competitive analysis to practicing empathy, parallel domain research to design research workshops, we expanded the horizon of what could be. After rounds of research and ideation, we narrowed the scope and identified a universal problem people encounter during the creative process, which is the Blank Canvas Dilemma.
Experience map suggested two frustration loops that can potentially prevent people from continuing the creative process
The map shows the emotional highs and lows of a Zazzle user while they are creating a personalized gift. The loops seen on the map show the portions of the creative process that are iterative. As a user moves through the process, their confidence levels are subject to change.
We found that individuals can become trapped in the first loop (during brainstorming phase) of internal proposition, analysis, and rejection surrounding this singular question of "What should I do?". Immediately following the brainstorming phase, is the creation phase, in which people encounter the literal blank canvas and follow a very similar cyclical thinking pattern that can be difficult to overcome. The question then turns to "How do I do it?"
Survey study supports that the brainstorming phase is a common challenge
Key takeaways:
How might we help people overcome challenges encountered while brainstorming?
People really value structure in creative processes. We can think of structure in terms of something that can help increase the quality of the output, such as templates or guided walkthroughs. But we can also think of structure in terms of something that can help to lower individual expectations about the output, such as time constraints or specified rules to follow.
More research process
For more previous research process, please check out the tabs down.
Zazzle Ecosystem - Zazzle's creative components
By doing competitive analysis and interviewing our clients, I gathered and synthesized the information to compose a simplified version of Zazzle's ecosystem.
For this project, we focused primarily on the tools Zazzle Live and Zazzle Create, and how customers and designers utilize these tools to manipulate the content, which includes templates, guides, elements, digital photos, and others.
Directed storytelling - stories help construct a miniature world of creativity
Affinity diagramming - identifying themes amongst tales
Total:
White: ~ 1000 notes
Blue: 121 notes
Pink: 36 notes
Green: 7 notes
The affinity diagram synthesis gave rise to seven overarching themes that encompass common idiosyncrasies (from interviewees) that can be generalized to Zazzle users.
Key takeaways:
1. Narrowed down the domain space into seven themes
2. Further interviewed field experts and practiced empathy to refine specific hypothesis for design research
Design research - validating hypothesis to narrow the scope of the problem space
The generated hypotheses, from the affinity diagramming activity, served as potential starting points for future project direction. I structured, scripted and conducted two design research: Emotional Ties and Shared Laughter. Both of them have helped narrowing down the scope of our problem space
Key takeaways:
The overall design research insights and findings proved to be crucial to ideate for potential solutions and carried through as evidence for future user testings.
Ideation- base on user insights
With multiple rounds of sketching, sharing of ideas, and voting, we propelled ahead to validate user needs behind those ideas. Using remote technologies to reach out to varied user base, we conducted speed-dating sessions to gather data on user needs and preferences.
As we continued to narrow down on ideas that would help move our project ahead, accounting for client expectations was also important and throughout the process of narrowing down ideas, we worked collaboratively and collected feedback from our clients.
Crazy 8's - shooting for the best idea
Speed dating - rounds of iterations and validation of user needs
Key takeaways:
After rounds of evaluation of ideas, we finalized our direction as to help people create memorable gifts for their loved ones through fun and unique activities.
This idea has the potential to positively impact users in terms of utilizing memories and nostalgia to form new memories with loved ones. It also has the opportunity to evoke inspiration, have novel interactivity, and high personalization. We went ahead for another round of ideation and started prototyping.
After a series of sketches for brainstorm activities, we defined and prototyped two: Time Trinkets and Teamwhirl, targeting different creative needs
We first mapped out user flows for both of the activities and created low-fidelity prototypes. By conducting usability test, we refined the user flow and developed medium-fidelity. Both of the activities were developed parallel. I was mainly in charge of Time Trinkets activity from ideation to high-fi prototyping. The tabs below shows the development of the prototypes.
Low-fidelity prototypes - turn the abstract idea into concrete designs
Med-fi prototype - conducting the usability test and refining the concept
Low-fidelity prototypes - turn the abstract idea into concrete designs
Med-fi prototype - conducting the usability test and refining the concept
Key summary from usability testing
Setting the design templates for high-fidelity prototype
Our team has picked out two most complicated page from both of the activity and I created the design template for the Time Trinkets activity and set the design style for the Teamwhirl activity
Later in the process we found people need transparency of Zazzle tools and we need to allow fluidity between tools during the creating process. In fact, the path to get to most tools on Zazzle is unclear. This is because the starting point for (new) Zazzle users is the Marketplace. However, the Marketplace is a tool itself.
Thus we reinvented Zazzle's website structure into modes of Build & Browse.
We identified 5 tools in Zazzle: Live, Create, Marketplace, Ideas and Heart. On the left is Zazzle's product-driven framework and on the left is what we proposed, action-driven framework. Although this product-driven framework can be effective in selling products, it does not necessarily spur the most inspiration. If an individual is satisfied with a pre-designed product, there is no need to explore beyond what they are comfortable with, resulting in tools that become underutilized tools. Our proposed behavior pattern is to take action first, be inspired by that action and then become motivated to take more action. Thus, we recategorized Zazzle tools into Build & Browse, and redesigned the landing page to encourage the new behavior pattern.
The new upgraded action-driven landing page
Introducing Zazzle Play!
What is Time Trinkets?
An easy way to create digital assets for someone by remembering one's fondest memories.
User Input:
Respond to prompts that helps walk user down the memory lane by uploading photos, videos, recording, drawing and etc.
Activity Output:
A couple of ready-to-use digital assets and an interactive card for the receiver that highlights memories between giver/receiver.
User benefits of a quick inspiration:
What is Time Trinkets?
An easy way to create digital assets for someone by remembering one's fondest memories.
User Input:
Respond to prompts that helps walk user down the memory lane by uploading photos, videos, recording, drawing and etc.
Activity Output:
A couple of ready-to-use digital assets and an interactive card for the receiver that highlights memories between giver/receiver.
User benefits of a collaborative ideation:
Supplementary design features
Let's take a peek at the preferred future of Zazzle!
The new landing page helps users digest the myriad of possibilities on Zazzle by segmenting the tools based on user's goals. The galactic design seeks to inspire feelings of curiosity and exploration.
Benefits:
- Prioritization of creative tools
- Flexibility of exploration
- Promotion of action-first
- Goal-oriented user experience
The visioned business potential
Complete milestones & follow the product roadmap
Reflection
During the 8-month close collaboration between teammates and clients, I have grown so much maturer as a product designer and shined as a lead applying my analytical thinking and strong research skills. From deriving actionable design guidelines to client facing coordination, I've learned that every decision making requires tradeoffs and weighing between tradeoffs requires evidence-based insights. It is especially important to step outside of the comfort zone when encounter ambiguity. By taking bold moves, I've not only developed an eye for details regardless of doing research or creating mockups, but also the confidence of showing the north start to the team. From the experience, I've learned to ground the project based on the restrictions between user needs, stakeholder goals and technical limitations. I am grateful to have the opportunity working closely with Zazzle and present them the potentials of our product.
Our team received high praise from both clients and the program!
