Digitally Transforming Site Services
In 2023, I led our Design Team to create a customized, 2-sided marketplace for ASAP customers, such as Amazon, differentiating them as the digital leader in their industry.
In accordance with my non-disclosure agreement, I have omitted confidential information in this case story. The information in this case study is my own and does not reflect the views of this company.
My Role
- UX Research
- Stakeholder Workshops
- UX/UI Design
- Design Systems
- Information Architecture
ASAP Marketplace’s customers include homeowners to builders, contractors and event providers including Amazon and Walmart. ASAP needed a highly customized website that would provide an unparalleled e-commerce marketplace experience for their site services partners and customers. With Wordpress as their platform of choice, they required custom code to enable specific search parameters and check-out options for their users.
Bridging the needs of both renters and vendors, we used familiar UI hierarchy and user journey patterns. Prioritizing clear navigation and responsive design ensured cost-savings from both business and customer perspectives.
The Challenge
A Centralized, 2-Sided Marketplace
ASAP takes pride in vetting and maintaining lists of site service vendors that customers can trust. In order to facilitate simple digital bookings for their end users and to benefit both local and national vendors, ASAP set out to create a virtual marketplace for site services.
They needed this site to serve a few distinct customer groups: businesses such as construction companies and event providers that require site services, vendors (or "haulers") providing these services, as well as ASAP's own employees facilitating these rentals. The task was to create a centralized marketplace for site services including everything from dumpster rentals and recycling to fencing and portable toilets that would seamlessly connect end users to multiple vendors, allowing them to compare and order multiple services at once.
We performed a reverse card sorting exercise, called Treejack Testing, to ensure potential customers were getting served the right information through navigation and through search. We conducted an unmoderated online test with 32 people, mocking up a customer journey with the current site when getting information about the company and its team members, which then informed the iterated site map and user flow, especially when designing empty states on the search results flow.
Distilling and re-categorizing products and services from spreadsheets to a clean site map
The Solution
5,000 Vendors in 1 Search
The centralized marketplace had to make it easy for people to search for the items they wanted based on locale, then compare the items they wanted to rent across 5,000+ commercial and residential rental providers.
I led Power Shifter's Design and Development team to create a highly customized WordPress and WooCommerce site that would allow customers to price shop from multiple vendors in one place. This also empowered ASAP to more easily manage vendors' products and services within the site administration.
The Process
Defining Flows in Forms
When UX Design transitioned to UI Design, our early-and-often approach collaborating with clients directly in the Figma file allowed for refinement of the form design customers would use when checking out. A complex process that involved phone calls and Account Representatives had to get distilled into easy-to-use forms, while stakeholders insisted on using the Cart as an opportunity to upsell with Add-Ons ("like UberEats", they said).
In fluid, reverse double-diamond fashion, we simplified the customer experience and user flow during the UI Design stage, with a Customer-First Mindset: making it easier for ASAP and its vendors to manage sales and leads, taking cues from best-in-class marketplaces such as Expedia for easy comparison features.
The Outcome
Designing a Differentiated Marketplace
Prior to ASAP Marketplace, most site service bookings were made the "old-fashioned" way, with prospective customers having to individually call vendors and providers. POWER SHIFTER helped to digitally transform ASAP, placing them at the forefront of a much-needed change in their industry. Now, the customer experience is simpler than ever, and customers can place multiple orders at once from their smartphones or computers.
When managing clients with “must-have” requirements late in the design process, and encouraging Design Team members to problem-solve and adjust designs, I am often reminded of Bruce Lee’s quote: “Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it.”
