GIFTJAR
UI UX Design
Making wishes come true by sharing them with friends and family.
Eliminating waste of time and money by finding the perfect gifts for everyone.
PROBLEM
Do you remember that look on your mom's face when you got her the best birthday present ever? When a special someone's birthday is coming up, it's usually hard to find the perfect gift. You can wander around the mall for hours and search online stores but you never really know what the person wants or needs. Meanwhile most people keep wishlists or inspirational boards in many sites, lists that hold all of their secret longings.
SOLUTION
Giftjar is a social app that provides the users the space to search and save all their wishes, and then share them with the people they love. Whether a birthday is coming up, a wedding, new house or new baby, it's easy to make a dedicated wishlist and add potential gifts. Giftjar saves the time and effort of searching for gifts as well as saving money with a feature for splitting the cost of a gift with other people.
RESEARCH
The first thing I was trying to figure out was how many people struggle or feel discomfort around the issue of gift-giving. The issues they were facing were different - some had trouble finding the right gift or guessing what their loved ones would like, others had more complaints regarding the gifts that they receive, their size, color or practicality. In order to determine what the main uses would be, I also asked in what life events do people mostly give and receive gifts, and birthdays were the most popular. The most surprising finding was, to my opinion, that many people don't have a problem saying what they would like to receive or asking what others would like, and still encounter the same problems.
93%
Face problems when buying gifts for
loved ones
91%
Have problems with
gifts they receive
76%
Ask loved ones
what they would
like to receive
54%
Tell people what
they would like to
receive
PERSONAS
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LUKE
HAILEY
Environmental Lawyer from Connecticut
Age: Almost 30 years old
Status: Single
Practical | ecological | tech-savvy
GOALS / MOTIVATIONS
Indulges himself by owning top brands
Splurging on valuable items every now and then
Sharing special moments and partying with family and friends
FRUSTRATIONS
Hates storing unuseful
things. Feels disappointed
When close friends and
family get him gifts that
don’t suit him at all.
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Occupational Therapist from Connecticut
Age: 27 years old
Status: Married
Cheerful | perfectionist | competitive | active in social media
GOALS / MOTIVATIONS
Loves celebrating birthdays, holidays, anything
Finding meaningful gifts for loved ones
Practicing smart consumerism
FRUSTRATIONS
Having trouble keeping track of what everyone wants/needs
Trying to avoid repeating gifts/regifting
Hates letting go of unuseful gifts she received because of the
thought that was
put into them.
USER JOURNEY MAPS
WIREFRAMES
There was one main issue I've encountered before starting to sketch wireframes for the app: how will the flow start? Will people feel comfortable enough downloading the app on their own, creating a wishlist and sharing it with others? Which persona would meet the app first, the birthday celebrator or the gift buyer? The solution was an email invitation sent from the buyer(guest) to the celebrator, so he could create a
wishlist and share it. This made more sense because the targeted persona - the person searching to buy a gift for a loved one - is more likely to spend time browsing for gifts and inspiration and tends to engage more in social media to begin with.
To make it easier for users to toggle between their own wishlists and others' wishlists, I've decided to make only one type of view for both types of users.
SIGN UP
SCREENS
ONBOARDING - FIRST WISHLIST
SEARCH BAR
BARCODE SCANNING
TRENDING FEATURE
GUESTS VIEW
Guests can easily choose a gift that they would like to buy from the wishlist and reserve it. They can see who else was invited to the wishlist and may choose to buy a gift together. By default, the celebrator cannot see what gifts were bought. He is updated when a gift is bought and can choose whether or not to reveal the gift.
The app still follows the traditional way of giving gifts - guests will give the gift at the birthday party. A feature for giving the gift through the app may be in the future, for guests who live far away from the celebrator.
CONCLUSION
Giftjar was a good lesson for understanding research, layouts and flows. Sometimes the end result is not necessarily what you'd imagine at the beginning, but is true to the findings of the research and the evolution of the project.
A future feature would be a chat for guests, to explore the more social side of the app and expand it. The connection with Facebook could also lead to more users if there were an "upcoming birthdays" feature. And an add-on for browsers would be a useful feature as well.
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