Giftbomb

An App That Keeps On Giving

Giftbomb is a mobile gift card app that supports local businesses. It was designed to allow users to be able to send a gift card to anyone within the supported area instantly. This would allow the recipient immediate access to the gift card to use wherever and whenever they choose. The app also strives to support local businesses by highlighting smaller companies rather than large conglomerates.

With the app just in it’s early stages, the client wanted to research possible areas of concern and brainstorm solutions. They believed that there may be some areas within the app worth looking into and wanted to dive deeper into why those areas existed in a problem space. Working alongside both the business and development teams, our research group was able to deduce several key insights behind these pain points, and rapidly produce prototype ideations for those pain points.

Through competitive audits, journey mapping, rapid prototyping, kano analysis and wireframe feature cards, I was to uncover pain points, as well as possible opportunities for the client to help improve their product.

These opportunities were based off of business and user goals.

The Problem

1. In its early stages, the app had several areas that could be improved upon.

2. The Client wanted to open up each avenue in the app to explore to get an over arching umbrella of research on user experience.

The Proposal

1. In an effort to gain more insight into users interactions with the gift bomb process, and human to human to interface action, feature cards were created and to present to the client.

2. Kano analysis of the chosen feature cards brought possible solutions into scope.

The Solution

1. By adding the “in house” Giftbomb rating system, it creates awareness of local businesses, loyalty to customers since they can respond to one another within the app, and most importantly builds a significant amount of trust with users.

Research

In order to properly assess what other competitors are doing, our research team took to the internet to find what it could. We were looking to identify trends, difference makers, user comments on what worked and didn’t for them, as well as any outliers.

Once we figured out what items to include, we created a competitive analysis that allowed us to look at the information and break it down further.

Journey Map

Based on the information about the app it was time to take a walk. More specifically it was time to create a Journey Map scenario of a user on the path of discovery, and use of Giftbomb. This map pinpointed steps, actions, emotions, and thoughts which produced several user goals and opportunities that would need to be addressed.

Kano Analysis

After sending out a survey with specific feature related questions, our team preformed a Kano Analysis. This helped to reveal features that leaned towards being high attractors, or low risk performances in which to focus on.

Ideate

It was time to create rapid prototypes. Each of the UX Designers create 5-7 annotated ideations or Feature Cards, and then grouped them together around the space. The client and development team then came through and notated each one giving them a possible scope into budgetary needs and constraints.

It was important to keep the user and business goals in mind while ideating which features to focus on. To do this, we had our client and development team come in to assess each card and rank them in priority (A-C) and viability due to cost / time.

Goals

Business Goals:

• Increase user engagement

• Convey the value of the merchant

• Include a sense of human emotion

User Goals:

• Gain more insight into the digital gift card culture by interacting with the interface, language and layout of the app

• Develop trust with the app by participating in a community especially designed for Giftbomb customers

• Further deepen loyalty for avid users by participating in the incentives Giftbomb has to offer

• Discover and explore local businesses and merchants via the reviews and ratings system, which will also double as a means of engagement

Prototype

Once all the deliberation was complete, it was time to apply what I had learned during the sprint and come up with a proposal for the client. I also created a rapid interactive prototype to give the client a small window into one of my proposals, and how it might work.

There are several key opportunities that Giftbomb has yet to explore, and while my proposal focuses on paramount features, this app is headed into a really good place. With focus on users, and local businesses Giftbomb is sure to become a fan favorite in no time.