CONTEXT

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COVID-19 has impacted all our lives in a significant way. Some of the most severely impacted economically have been those who own or work for small businesses. Companies across sectors and industries face a multitude of challenges, with revenue top-of mind. Not only are they not able to maintain larger teams to maintain production needs, spending on non-essential expenses and transitioning to shelter-in-place models are pushing everything remote. As a result, brick and mortar establishments are relying on delivery services and online orders, and many are rethinking how they can iterate as a way to keep the lights on.

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This started as a group Hackathon project where my team and I developed the business concept behind Kits & Classes and a low fidelity prototype of the checkout process. After the Hackathon, I continued to work on the project individually and created the chatbot and final mockups and prototype on my own.

RESEARCH​

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Through some initial research, my team and I learned that restrictions that limit customer interactions have been particularly devastating to restaurants and other service industries that depend on customers coming to their physical locations.

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On the flip side, we thought about the potential opportunities of most of the world being stuck at home, many of whom have more free time on their hands and are desperate for social interactions.

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My team conducted a quick survey to get a better sense of whether people would be interested in learning something new, given the current situation, and what types of activities they might be interested in.

The data showed an overwhelming majority of people would like to use this time to learn new skills and want to support their local businesses.

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With that information, we came up with the idea for a platform for local businesses to connect with customers by offering activity kits paired with online classes. Businesses are already doing some of this on their own (zoom fitness classes and bar cocktail kits) but our platform would provide a streamlined website for customers to identify and support local businesses in their neighborhood while engaging in a social connection and learning a new skill through a group class.

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We followed this up with a competitive analysis to better understand the competition’s offerings and see how we could create something unique. Although there are many companies providing similar services and products, we realized no one is focused on supporting local business or emphasizing virtual social connections through their product offerings.

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We drafted out what the customer journey would look like and In just a few hours we were able to put together a prototype to demonstrate what the website might look like.

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REFLECTION

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It’s incredible what you can come up with in a short amount of time for a project you are passionate about. I also really loved the team aspect of this project and then having the opportunity to turn the concept into a tangible design on my own. It was invigorating to work on a problem that is so relevant and widespread and such a great feeling to be able to use UX design to help my community.

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If you're interested in seeing how this work was developed further, take a look at the article I wrote about designing a chatbot for the platform featured in chatbotslife.com.