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Zazzle Play
Creating a new design tool for Zazzle's custom merchandise platform to improve user's custom designing experience and increase customer engagement.
Overview
About
Zazzle is a marketplace for purchasing products or merchandise with custom or pre-made designs. In Zazzle's pursuit of becoming a pioneering platform for creative exploration, we assisted Zazzle to build a platform that supports its layman users to create their own designs via easy mechanisms and tools.
Our team created Zazzle Play -- a new design tool that kickstarts and supports a user's design process by reducing friction in creative exploration. Zazzle Play also serves as a gateway to other creative resources on Zazzle's platform and helps rebrand them as a creative company.
Final remarks from Zazzle's Chief Product Officer:
"The level of excellence here is totally A+ work"
Role
Product Design
User Research
Project Management
Tools
Figma, Mural,
Usertesting.com
Duration
January 2020 - August 2020
(8 months)
Team Members
Timmy Chiu, Xueting (Alice) Li,
Hailey Motooka, Nat Schade
Problem
What hinders people from freely exploring creativity?
The Blank Canvas Dilemma is one of the biggest obstacles in creativity. Be it a seasoned designer, artist, soccer mom, or student - most people struggle at the very start of the creative process.
What is the Blank Canvas Dilemma?
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Difficulty in figuring out what to create
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Not knowing where to start designing
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Lack of knowledge on how to make
A survey result where users chose the stage where they require the most help for creating a memorable gift
Our extensive research exploration made it very evident that users struggle the most in the brainstorming stages.
Findings suggested that everyone's creative process is different but the majority of them struggle at producing ideas.
Individuals require different kinds of help in creativity from a guide, inspiration to know-how, and more.
What hinders Zazzle from becoming the gateway for creative exploration?
The current environment on Zazzle is of a marketplace focus. It prompts users to browse existing designs.
While these may spark inspiration, it doesn't support users in producing personalized designs.
Curated and pre-made designed products for sale based on holidays
Pre-made designed products for sale based on groups of people
Current Zazzle website as a Marketplace for purchasing custom/pre-made designed products
Zazzle provides its users with resources for creating custom designs but those tools are not at the forefront of the platform. The tools also don't support a user's 'getting started' experience and the highs and lows of the creative process.
Variety of elements & artifacts to choose from but no guide on what to create
Product-based custom design for layman users starting with a blank canvas
Zazzle Create: an easy-to-use design tool that allows users to create their own designs
Hence, our project saw the following opportunity for Zazzle
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How might we support users to start their creative process easily?
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How might we position Zazzle as a creative platform for custom designing?
Solution
Introducing Zazzle Play
A collection of activities that facilitate brainstorming for creative projects by connecting users to relevant prompts, cues, and resources at the right time and overcomes the blank canvas dilemma
We demonstrated two of such brainstorming activities that can help users kickstart their creative process
This activity provides an easy way to create digital assets for someone by remembering one's fondest memories
This activity engages a group of individuals in a brainstorming session via fun and humorous tasks
Time Trinkets
Triggers like memory recollection become a powerful and effective resource to generate ideas. Time Trinkets help evoke emotions, manifest stories, and build upon experiences to create a meaningful design.
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INPUT
OUTPUT
Key benefits for users:
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Inspiration through memory
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Ready-to-use assets
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Low-effort & high-quality outputs
Team Whirl
Group collaboration helps draw inspiration from others, gaining new perspectives and ideas. Team Whirl provides a fun guided experience for a group of people to collectively ideate.
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Key benefits for users:
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Fun & collaborative brainstorming
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Relevant design suggestions
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Flexible Engagement
Zazzle Play also provides a gateway to Zazzle's other creative resources supplementing the user's design experience. We incorporated supporting features to unify the existing tools & increase their relevant discovery.
Allows users to access all tools flexibly
All assets created in each tool gets saved and can be accessed while using other tools
We introduced a Navigation Bar to highlight the main workspace for creative projects.
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Allows access to all tools in one place
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Optimized for all Zazzle Tools and adapts as per the tool selected
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Rebrands the visual identity
Ex: On kickstarting some ideas on Play, the user can switch to another tool as per their need
Assets created on Play gets saved automatically
Suggestions panel provides creative ideas and helps visualize them on products.
The suggestions panel also guides users to a relevant tool for exploration.
Lastly, we bring a new concept of 'Build & Browse modes' to Zazzle's platform
-- Giving users the choice to direct their experience on Zazzle.
Browse mode:
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Allows browsing for pre-made designs on products
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Provides inspiration & ideas from pre-made designs
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Supports an integral part of Zazzle's revenue
Build mode:
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Provides clear intent for creation and ideation
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Easy navigation and flexibility between creative tools
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Onboarding support for choosing the right activity
Users can switch between the modes and within them, they can switch between different tools & resources of Zazzle as per their needs of custom designing or purchasing pre-made designs
For my design process and more research & design exploration, please get in touch :)
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