My Vodafone App 12

My Role:

User interface designer, interaction designer, design system design

Team:

1 business analyst, 1 lead UX researcher, 1 UX researcher, 1 project manager, 4 product designers in MVA12 squad (myself included), 1 motion designer

Platform:

IOS and Android

Year:

2021-2023

Watch the video below to get a sense of what MVA12 is about šŸ‘€

Overview of MVA12 (Draft 8.0)

Note: There are tons of user stories and features that Iā€™ve worked on, but here I will only focus on Marketplace.

Case study

Establishing Marketplace MVP design in MVA12

Context šŸ“•

Vodafone wanted to evolve the user experience from a bill-checking app into something thatā€™s beyond just checking bills, something thatā€™s more integrated with its other services. There are several major reasons why Vodafone wanted to push to MVA12 from MVA10:

  • During the pandemic, the behaviour and revenue have changed dramatically the way Vodafone users interact and purchase, walk-in sales are down an average of ~30% (even post-pandemic) while our total revenue is still growing across all markets (minus Italy), which means digital revenue took a large chunk of physical retail revenue share in the pie chart even after the pandemic ended. Vodafone wanted to utilise the space in retail to be something more useful such as a VR test for its 5G speed, home-office equipment products, etc. instead of displaying SIMs and Mobile phones where users can buy via the app and delivery.

  • Vodafone Turkey has adopted a similar marketplace approach (through our Flex/Fix/Free) and sold third-party items for the past 3 years, and has proven to be successful in driving up revenue by taking a small cut from third-party vendors selling items via the Vodafone app.

  • Home hub apps (GPS tracker, security cameras, WIFI routers, and internet settings, etc) that are developed or powered by Vodafone are currently hosted in different Vodafone apps, therefore, forcing users to download multiple Vodafone apps whereas MVA12 wanted to bring all those experiences together.

  • Inconsistencies in design and user experience from one Vodafone market to another. MVA12 wanted to centralise the interface and experience, so users in markets where Vodafone operates can have standardised experience.

So, in this case study, weā€™ll take a look at specifically how Marketplace exists within MVA12

double diamond process diagram

Process

In this case study, weā€™re focussing on the development stage of solution space.

Phase 1: Identifying users journey šŸ’¬

My MVA12 squad leads the design whilst collaborating with each Vodafone market design team to design the initial design based on the MVP features above. And we wanted to see if our business cases raised for MVP, assumptions, potential pain points, and design are met by testing a number of key journeys with potential end users in order to gain their feedback.

The user testing is intended to address key screens and journeys around Purchase, Checkout, and Review. This includes:

  • Dashboard - Access and explore the marketplace from the main dashboard

  • Finding a product (including utilising search and category tools)

  • Product detail page

  • Adding products to the cart

  • Cart views including upsells

  • Finalising the purchase and checking out

  • Providing a review of your purchase

In this journey, we will be focussing on third-party marketplace journey

journey map for marketplace

Designs from the initial iteration in a journey

Phase 2: Establishing user testing objectives šŸŽÆ

Gain insights on usersā€™ real experiences with Marketplace Apps and review/rating behaviours. Through these, we want to understand if the needs and desires for specific Marketplace experiences are well-placed and welcomed. 

  1. Evaluate concept elements of the Marketplace section, Purchase to Checkout Journey, and Rating & Reviews with users. Specifically, capture experience insights and usability feedback around the journeys, uncovering any issues around navigation, interaction, or comprehension.

  2. Collect user sentiment towards the marketplace journeys based on evaluation of the prototype concepts and analysis of standardised exit feedback.

  3. Improving designs by detecting & solving usersā€™ pain points.

  4. List all key elements well-valued by users that should not change.

Testing sample for Marketplace

Although, MVA12 marketplace will be released in multiple markets where Vodafone operates, the initial samples for user testing was from UK and Spain.

Phase 3: Synthesising research findings šŸ§Ŗ

3.1 - Top-level findings:

The presence of a Marketplace in the My Vodafone App was a surprise to users but generally viewed positively.

  • The UK had a more positive sentiment towards the Marketplace than Spain. The UK perceived the Marketplace as a Vodafone customer-exclusive area with associated benefits and offers. Spain saw it simply as an Amazon competitor. This difference in perception is mirrored somewhat in system usability scores.

  • Task success was generally high. We expect most people to be able to successfully select products and checkout with few problems.

  • The PDP was positively perceived and easy for users to understand. However, some information should be moved up the hierarchy.

  • Checkout is easy for users to complete but is perceived as somewhat laborious by some.  Additionally, the delivery screen presentation is also perceived as busy.

  • The ratings and review journey did not match userā€™s natural mental models for providing feedback and was also perceived as too much effort. This resulted in some task failures and abandonment around seller ratings.

3.2 - Findings on System Usability Score (SUS) & Customer Effort Score (CES)

Key finding for top-level findings

ā€œSurprised yet positiveā€

Users are surprised yet positive about the idea of the Marketplace. The sentiment is higher in the UK as Vodafone customers imagine the Marketplace as a customer exclusive benefit with the possibility of deals and offers.

Ensure the marketplace tile and supporting copy are maintained on the MVA dashboard. It was a key call to action for the Marketplace and worked well at quickly explaining the breadth of the proposition.

Consider clarifying in proposition messaging the exclusivity (or lack of exclusivity) in customer access to the Marketplace. If the proposition is not exclusive it feels important to explain to people why they should buy from Vodafone rather than Amazon.

3.3 - Detailed testing results on specific journeys

The areas where weā€™ve successfully designed the journey and users feel positive about.

In summary, we were able to pinpoint the areas where we needed to reiterate our designs based on the research data and capture the feelings of users toward our new service Marketplace that has never existed in a phone provider app before. The feedback we capture goes beyond just impacting the design and user experience but our business case as well to ensure what weā€™re offering aligns with usersā€™ expectations.

Whilst the findings were positive both on the top-level and detailed findings, we tried to zero in on the areas where we need to improve; from findability, content, checking-out experience, etc.

Phase 4: Reiterating designs šŸŽØ

We quickly reiterated our designs to address the feedback we had received from our research.

Compromise šŸ¤Ø

There is one key area where we had to compromise on, and that is the payment system. As you may have noticed, we split 2 tabs in payment for ā€œVodafoneā€ and ā€œOur partnersā€, originally we wanted to keep the payment system to be one single experience, with Vodafone and third-party vendors going through the same payment but due to legacy system and regulation we had to separate the payment for Vodafone and third-party vendors. We are currently still working on how to make the payment system but as of right now, the payment system has a split payment system.

Whatā€™s the current situation? šŸ¤”

Whilst we achieved what we aimed for MVA12ā€™s Marketplace MVP, there were a few things that were not ideal or did not go as planned. As you are aware, in late 2022, we are still experiencing a market downturn impact. The direct impact on MVA12 was our third-party vendors holding partnerships for MVA12, and business analyst forecasted the demand for Marketplace is dwindling due to high inflation and cost prices going up. While originally we aimed to launch Marketplace in all 20 countries, currently we only launched in Turkey and Spain where it still has strong demand. We donā€™t know when the rest of the markets will continue with the Marketplace launch.

Interaction design Iā€™ve done in MVA12

  • Responsible for pull down to refresh collaborating with motion designer

  • interactive background on special seasons & pull to refresh (see the demo below šŸ‘‡)

  • Instagram story-like interactions

  • Auto-suggest search functionality

Pull to refresh with dynamic background

Other Challenges

Varying degrees of testing results differ between different countries to ensure flexibility and uniformity are met

  • Being flexible yet cohesive in experience and interface

  • Localisation for each market, language, and content to make it still relevant

  • Different regulations in payments (EU in particular)

  • The legacy payment system thatā€™s hard to get rid of as well as replace (fixed and implemented with significant transactions)