• Overview

    TownUs is a group buying platform that makes it easier for university students to purchase goods collectively in an easy way. Town Company was planning a new platform not only for college students but also as a ‘Group buying platform for all organizations' commerce platform, and I participated in storyboarding, creating user journey map, and UI design for the home screen.

    townus.co.kr

  • Client

    Town company

    My Role

    Wireframe, UX improvement

    Platform

    Web application

    Year

    2017-18

Undestanding

TownUs 2.0: A group buying platform for all organizations

The Town Company has started the TownUs 2.0 project to become a group purchase commerce platform for all groups as well as college students. There was a lot of planning to change to reflect business strategy changes in service. Among them, new UX improvements in the purchase room opening and buying process were needed.

Opportunity

Complex Group Buying, How to make it easier?

It is simple to purchase products from most general commerce websites. You can select a product and purchase it. However, purchases in TownUs are not possible without going through a"purchase room." It is a virtual space where customers bring people to buy products at the lowest possible prices.

We use a purchase room to create a virtual space for customers to collect their products at the lowest possible prices. To buy products, customers first enter the purchase room.



There are two ways in which a customer participates in the group buying process. A customer can be a “host” who first launches a purchase room and then gathers people to proceed group buying. It is also possible to participate in an already established purchase room as a “guest.”

We concluded that launching a "purchase room" should be much more friendly for a host. If a host can launch a room easily, they will eventually bring more users into the platform.

To find a better solution, I created a user journey map to analyze the overall UX flow and find any painpoints.

Research & Problems

Customer touchpoint analysis of existing group purchase process

We investigated every touchpoints on the user journey map and discovered a lot of problems with the existing purchasing procedures.

One way buying process

Select a product > Custom design > Launch room with the design > Start group buying > Invite guests > Proceed group buying

As-is

The buying process was very long and complicated, as it provided only one route for hosts to proceed to group buying.

As-is

(1) Select a product - (2) Custom clothes design
(3) Launch a room with the design - (4) Start group buying


Users needed a lot of patience to follow the entire long flow. We concluded that we need to create more routes for users to initiate group buying.

Solution

Providing the host with many routes to start group buying

I created three variations of the existing group buying process. My intent was to give more choice and convenience to users who might have different needs.

To-be :
Three routes of the group buying process

To-be

  • Variation 1

    A user launches a room and then adds a product to proceed with group buying.

    Target user : Return customer

    This host has already completed a group purchase in TownUs and wants to launch a room again.

  • Variation 2-1

    A user chooses a product first and then launches a purchase room.

    Target user : Novice

    This host doesn’t have basic knowledge of the group buying process on TownUs. They normally expect to buy products without going through a "purchase room."

  • Variation 2-2

    Before choosing a product, a user tries to design their own clothing using the t-shirt customization tool.

    Target user : Experimenter

    This host wants to create their own design before selecting a product for group buying.

Final Design

Group purchasing starts from the home screen

  • Promotion Banner
  • Process banner shows the ongoing promotion on the home screen.
  • Launching a room button
  • The direct route for host to launch a purchase room on the page.
  • Product category
  • Like other general e-commerce sites, product categories have to be displayed on the main page.

1. Launching a room first

I placed the button for launching a purchase room on the home screen so that users can open a room without having to go through product categories.

2-1. View a product and launch a room
2-2. Use T-Shirt customization tool

Users can either choose to launch a room with the product or to use the customization tool before launching a room.

Takeaway

Beyond the e-commerce user experience

Because the UX of TownUs is very different from that of ordinary commerce, it was necessary to bring in the common UX of the existing commerce, but still make use of the features only offered by Towus. It was a challenge to communicate new concepts to users, such as a "purchase room."

We spent a lot of time investigating every painpoint of users on the user journey map. In the end, we were able to produce a home screen UI that implemented the solutions to these problems. Partnering closely with the commerce team ensured successful delivery of the project and also resulted in increased renewals.

Next TownUs UI Design and design system