A Virtual Solution for Sydney's Vegan Market

Client:

NSW Vegan Markets

My role:

Ideation

Concept sketches

Wire-framing

High fidelity screens

Research assistance

Overview

Running once a month, NSW Vegan Market is the ultimate destination for all things plant based, cruelty-free and vegan. Their stalls cover everything from fresh food to home wares, coffee and fashion. Alongside up to 130 committed vegan stalls, they programme a range of entertainment and activities and welcome over 10K visitors each month.

Business Problem

With the NSW Vegan Market temporarily closed due to Covid-19, customers are unable to enjoy the market experience, buy or discover vegan products in one place. The Vegan Market reached out to their followers for help, with the aim of supporting their stall-holders and the vegan community. Our team made contact to find a solution.

The Brief

To create a NSW Vegan Market digital experience that not only allows users to discover and buy vegan products, but also recreates the joys of the physical market.

Project Plan

Conducting qualitative and quantitative research into what inspires, delights and frustrates market goers

Analysing the findings and identifying trends in the research data

Identifying target user types from the analysis to guide the design direction

Ideation and design development for an immersive and interactive online market experience

Intuitive information architecture using familiar product categories for a vegan on a mission​

What do people love about their market?

We conducted 8 interviews and surveyed 34 vegans and market-goers to find out what made the NSW Vegan Market experience special and what frustrations they had.

We looked for general trends in the interview responses, by gathering insights from each interview, and arranging them in common themes.

Motivations to visit the NSW market

Based on our survey results, market-goers agree or strongly agree with the following motivations to visit the Vegan NSW Market:​

To discover new products

To feel part of a community

A social activity with friends

To support local business

Understanding our audience

We discovered two types of market goer based on the research insights. The shoppers who wander the market, taking in the atmosphere, browsing and discovering. Then those who have regular stalls and products that they go for, and prioritise their visits around them. These two primary demographics are represented by our personas of Brooke and Tessa.

Brooke - The market peruser

Motivations

  • Enjoying fun activities with friends
  • Supporting local businesses
  • Relaxing and enjoying the vibe

Habits

  • Browsing every stall before making a purchase
  • Feeling inspired by stumbling across unique items
  • Finding out more about different vendors and their products

Frustrations

  • Feeling pressured by vendors to buy items
  • Vendors that only accept cash payment

Tessa - The vegan on a mission

Motivations

  • Feeling like she’s part of a community
  • The market energy and atmosphere

Habits

  • Stocking up on her favourite vegan products
  • Exploring new vendors and trying new foods
  • stumbling across unique items
  • Finding out more about different vendors and their products

Frustrations

  • Finding that her favourite item is sold out
  • Crowds and long queues

Brooke and Tessa's market journeys

In order to identify the successes and shortcomings of the existing market experience, we mapped out user journeys for both Brooke and Tessa, illustrating their mood at different stages. We then overlayed our proposed (digital) journey to identify how pain points could be alleviated and successes replicated and enhanced.

Defining a solution

To address the issue of market closure and alleviate the pain points of the current market experience, we decided to create a digital platform for the NSW Vegan Market that not only allows users to discover and buy vegan products, but also incorporates the joys of a physical market and can be accessed from anywhere at anytime.

How do we bring the market to life?

We used insights from our research to create a list of features to integrate. These were then arranged in a matrix in order of desirability and viability. This process allowed us to prioritise how we directed our efforts. We focused on the essential features, but also made sure to include unexpected and delightful elements to mirror the unpredictable and serendipidous nature of the market experience that our users loved.

Ideation

Our user feedback required a design that captured the fun and atmosphere of the Vegan Market, so we took the approach of avoiding the standard layout of an e-commerce site, and explored alternative navigation pathways in our ideation.

The market walk and winding lane simulate a wandering journey through the market, with users encountering stalls as the scroll vertically down the page.

Map development - designing for both Brooke and Tessa

The interactive map recreates the market as a view from above to be browsed and explored. Users are able to zoom in to different product areas of the map, select a stall and make a purchase.

We also designed an alternative purchase pathway, allowing users to find items quickly and easily by product category. To do this we asked users to sort vegan products into their most logical and intuitive groupings.

The mosaic tile arrangement tested well and further embraced the market, rather than commercial, feel.

Interactive map
Product mosaic

Two pathways

The market behaviours of both primary personas suggested a need for two clear navigational pathways to be prominent on the site’s homepage. This was achieved using a minimal ‘folder’ feature, allowing for ‘browse by product’ and ‘browse by stall’.

Final prototype

In response to user feedback for a more immersive journey through the market, we added a function to explore the virtual market at eye level, stopping at stalls and checking out their products.​

Next steps

We presented our research and design work to Kate, the market owner, who was very pleased with the outcome. Moving forward we would look at the following steps:

  • Coordination with the Vegan NSW development team to assess the viability of the design.

  • Further testing of the final design with vegan market goers.

  • Further development of the walkthrough to allow items to be added to the basket straight from the market walk.