IKEA App
UXUI Designer
Sketch, Zeplin
1 week
[Personal Project] Creating a space in the IKEA app for creatives to share their DIY ideas
IKEA offers furnitures and goods in wide spectrum with different ways to DIY and personalize each product that best fit the space.
In this make-believe scenario, IKEA wants to introduce a feature in the existing app where creative minds can share and inspire DIY projects.
Challenge
Today where individuality is celebrated more than ever, IKEA wants to create a space inviting creative minds to share and inspire how everyday items can be uniquely interpreted. In this make-believe scenario, I am tasked to add a new feature on IKEA’s app for users to share DIY ideas.
Goal
Meeting the business objective while also considering how to encourage participation and also retain the engagement level by developing a deeper understanding of the target users.
DIY-ers Unite!
I reached out to 7 DIY enthusiasts with various backgrounds to ask what about it excited them to pursue this practice continuously. Key insights revealed the target audience’s values, pain points, and other tendencies to better tailor the feature to them.
Values:
Getting the Creative Juice Flowing
100% of the interviewees responded how they enjoy the process of design thinking and the wide possibilities of the outcome.
Being Inspired and Inspiring Others
The DIYers saw value in the cycle of inspiring others while others being inspired by the creations or ideas. It gives them a sense of community and a motivational push.
Creating a Meaningful Outcome
More than half of the DIYers sought more than just a creative experience but a purposeful one with a real outcome. This included products they could purpose, and/or give meaning to like gifts.
Pain Point:
Not Enough Resources
The primary pain point for the DIYers was the monetary issue or lack of resources. They expressed passion in carrying out more ambitious projects if the resources allowed.
Behavior:
Pinterest is my Best Friend
They all found themselves several times in a week navigating through social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram for DIY ideas or inspiration.
Exploring Opportunities
The key insights guided in exploring opportunities to potentially amplify the DIYers’ pursuits in their creative needs and want.
How might we…
Bring out and help explore the DIYers’ full creative potential?
Encourage the DIYers can inspire one another?
Remove the “resources” problem in the process?
Proposed Solution: DIY Challenge
Why a challenge?
What would encourage users to participate more in sharing their ideas? Understanding that the users are highly motivated by the works of others, I hoped the ‘challenge’ aspect would spark their interest. In addition, it created an opportunity to add a stronger incentive — a reward for the winner.
Reward System: a Win-Win?
This event would involve DIY-ing from a list of products selected from IKEA — under-rated or overstocked items. Challengers would be asked to sketch out their DIY vision - potentially removing the resources problem — and non-challengers could participate by exploring ideas uploaded and an option to purchase the item.
In the end, a lucky participant would win an opportunity to showcase their DIY idea in real space (in IKEA).
Constraints
Some constraints to be further developed included:
Disadvantageous for participants who can’t draw well?
> Emphasize the importance of expressing creative ideas rather than the drawing itself
> Other alternative ways to showcase ideas: mood boards, etc.Will a challenge spark DIY lovers’ interest?
Will there be any participants?
App or Website?
I believed this feature was best suited for an app for the accessibility reason. This way, I could easily check any updates on my posts as a challenger, as well as explore other posts without being restricted by time and space.
Design Process
After defining the trajectory of the project, the design process followed to translate concepts into design solutions. Some of the design fundaments I had for this process included:
Clearly define and communicate the goal of the DIY Challenge
Form a clear guideline on how to participate and engage
Seamlessly integrate the design to the existing brand identity
Make it easy to understand and use
Inserting a flow to an existing one
In this new feature, there are two main actions that the users can take: 1) enter the challenge and 2) explore other contestants’ posts and purchase the products.
Wireframing Interfaces
I focused on separating interfaces and portray a ‘step-by-step’ guideline in order to minimize the cognitive load by avoid placing an overwhelming amount of information on one screen.
Once the framework was done in mid-fidelity, I equipped them with IKEA’s existing brand image - the color, font, and the illustrations/icons.
