Cora Research
Objective
Interior Designers are struggling to find a platform that services their needs. For a client, my team of three designers was asked to strengthen the design of the Cora Home website. The main pain point we were focused on was how to design a universal shopping cart combined with interior designers receiving tracking information immediately after putting in their orders.
Team: Shalonda Forrest, Tyler Callahan, Marc Burnett
Role: Designer, Interviewer, and Researcher
Tools: Figma, Sketch, Miro, and Xtensio
Missing Components of Competitiors
The research tool we used to find some of our direct competitors was a site called Owler and previous information given by Cora's CEO. Through research, we discovered that Interior Designers have a hard time finding a platform that satisfies their need to save time, find unique vendors, and to keep track of their orders in one place.
Recruiting Issues for Interviews
Due to the busy nature of Interior Designers and interview deadlines it was very hard to get designers to agree to a 40 minute interview. So, for our user research recruitment, we decided to send out a survey to potential users. I suggested a survey to the team because it allowed us to reach a mass of interior designers without them having to do a forty-minute interview. The survey also gave us more responses within a few days. The survey was valuable because we were able to pinpoint the target interior designer at a faster pace.
User Data & Key Insights
In the first round of interviews, we expected to have 10 interior designers to interview. Despite the fact, that we did our best to engage interior designers we only interviewed three designers. Due to the lack of information, we came up with an alternative way to continue the design process.
Time
Spend too much time with data entry rather than sourcing.
Project Management
Majority are using things such as google sheets for project management instead of utilizing a platform.
Product Quality
Having a “Yelp” for vendors, providing info such as lead time, ratings, portfolio, etc
Legitimate Outreach Platform
Designers wishing for a more “legit” outreach platform, other than social media they already use.
" Split between shipments when buying other information."
— Sara Taylor-Demos CEO of Cora Home
Empathizing with the User
Creating a User without adequate User Data .
As a team, we decided a proto- persona was necessary because we wanted to validate our target user with our client. Despite us not having enough information to create a quality persona.
Problem
Interior Designers need a platform that offers all their needs because they are tired of the lack of universal shopping carts, constant damaged items, and long-outdated vendor applications.
Thought Process Ideations .
During the ideation phase, I chose the 6-8-5 sketching method because it allowed me to get out my ideas in 5 minutes for each square. I was able to come up with a flow and potential routes we would like to go with the website design.
Challenges
Lack of users to interview.
2. Trouble connecting with their target audience.
3. Creating a universal shopping cart.
4. Tracking information through website resources.
Med-Fi Wireframes
Final Suggestions
Consider a product-first view of vendor pages (right), perhaps with bio information where the unnamed products in sidebar currently are.
2. Add a brief intro overview or tooltips to guide the user through the ordering process.
3. Change thumbnail scale feature to hovering feature.