depop redesign
Redesigning the Depop interface to improve experience of existing buyers and reduce drop-off rates.
Project Type
Unsolicited redesign
Roles
UX Researcher & Designer
Tools
Figma, Miro
introduction
Why Depop?
In addition to supporting sustainable fashion, I’m passionate about designing for platforms that enable small business owners to expand their reach and capabilities. As a long-time user of Depop, I’ve watched the app go through countless updates that never seem to quite meet my needs as a seller and buyer.
Scope & Focus
My goal as the UX/UI designer was to identify significant user pain points in the Depop app and redesign over-complicated and cluttered user journeys within the app. The focus for this redesign will be centered around the buyer’s user experience, not that of the seller.
empathize
Competitive Analysis: I first wanted to understand Depop’s competitors and the features that make them unique. I created a checklist to compare and contrast each app’s unique features. Depop had every feature, more than all of its competitors.
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Target users: As of 2021, Depop has over 30 million users worldwide, with 90% of those users being under the age of 26. Depop users must be at least 13 years old to create an account, so my research and final design solutions are geared towards 13-26 year olds.
User interviews: I started by determining my research goals to guide the direction of my interview. With these goals in mind, I created an interview guide to conduct 5 in-depth user interviews of people who use the Depop app to buy items.
goals
What are the main activities/goals of Depop users?
How do our users navigate through Depop’s tasks/activities (scrolling, searching, saving, purchasing etc.)
What pain points do our users face when trying to complete these tasks/activites?
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Affinity Mapping: After conducting the interviews, I noted significant/interesting observations and created an affinity map to find common themes and relationships between user goals, tasks, and pain points.
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define
Project Goals:
5/5 interviewees liked the scrolling aspect / social media feel of Depop
goal:
maintain natural scrolling flow throughout redesign
4/5 interviewees found it difficult to search back through their liked or saved items
Current user flow
goal:
improve ability to revisit saved / liked items
5/5 interviewees only check the “Style Edit” page when they use the app
Current user flow
goal:
put user needs at the forefront of desiimprove drop-off rate by allow for alternative exploration
Persona: Once my research was complete, I compiled my research data to develop a persona to better understand the type of user I would be designing for.
ruby
Age: 20
Education: Bachelor’s
Family: Single
Occupation: Student
Biography: Ruby is a college student that loves to shop. She cares about her impact on the environment so often goes thrifting or shops on second-hand clothing apps to avoid fast fashion.
Goals:
Scroll through cute, unique clothing on the app
Revisit previously liked items to purchase
Find vintage / sold out / very specific items
Problems:
Many of the edits do not appeal to her taste so only looks through personal style edit
Struggles to go back and locate specific items in likes/saves to purchase
ideate
Wireframes: With my project goals in mind, I started designing ideas of new layouts for the homepage, search page, and profile screens to improve the user journey.
Homepage: The interviews show that users rarely look at the explore page so this redesign is aimed at how users spend most of their time on the app - the style edit. The style edit in the old UX becomes the “For You” page and is the first screen upon opening the app.
current UX
redesign
Search page: The current search page does not help the user complete any of their goals. In the interviews, every user said that they liked the scrolling aspect of Depop. In this redesign, I targetted that user need by transforming the search page into more of an “explore” page, allowing users to find more items now in a more enjoyable way.
current UX
redesign 1
redesign 2
Profile page: Our users were split on using the “like” feature vs the “save” feature but all had difficulty revisiting items. The redesign combines the two features and allows users to search, filter, and sort through their liked items.
current UX
redesign
Likes vs Saved: Some users said they liked to keep their items saved for privacy reasons so my redesign gives users the option to make their likes private.
prototype
High-Fidelity Prototype:
Homepage: Previously the “Style Edit” under my DNA, “For You” is now the starting screen on the homepage. This redesign makes the screen where users spend most of their time more easily accessible.
Search page: The redesign for the search page is based on users’ goal to scroll through the app like they would with social media. This transforms the previous “Explore” page into an experience that is more enjoyable for users and allows endless exploration.
Profile page: This redesign allows users to easily revisit their liked items with a filter and sort feature. Users also have the ability to search for specific terms within their likes.
Try it yourself!
iterate
Next Steps:
Although this is the end of this case study, from here I would conduct a usability study to test if users’ pain points have been effectively addressed. With that study, I would go back to my prototype and iterate on my design. I would also conduct more user research and determine new areas of interest to improve Depop’s design.