Custom platform design for the "Etsy of creative service providers" that led to a 10x increase in conversions
picture this
An early-stage startup with a strong social media presence, a mission to bolster the careers of up-and-coming creative service providers, and no website. I joined I Have This Friend to lead the design of their marketplace MVP, enabling the concierge team to field 10x the service requests.
my role
Founding UX/UI Designer
when
2023
see it live
I Have This Friend is a curated directory where you can discover and connect with up-and-coming creative talent offering high-quality, fairly-priced lifestyle services.
In this project, I designed the MVP flows for I Have This Friend. We intended to harness IHTF’s chic, but approachable vibe and create an easy-to-use platform that amplified the “gotta have it” feeling and really let the talent shine.
This case study focuses on the consultation booking flow, which allows clients to reserve time with IHTF's vendors online.
Clients couldn’t browse and book talent online.
IHTF's customer experience team had to work as intermediaries throughout the entire booking process, serving as a concierge to recommend vendors to clients, moderating the booking process, and managing payments.
No preexisting designs or design system, only a short brand guide.
Limited user research - only three user personas.
Small budget for design and development.
I wasn’t able to interact with the development team to learn what would or wouldn't work for the project, as they hadn't been hired yet.
I was the first UX/UI designer and collaborated exclusively with Ingrid Hung, the co-founder.
I saw Ingrid & Emily, IHTF's Founders, on TikTok in their very early stages and immediately thought, "this sounds like my dream company." I reached out and told them we share a career mission of empowering young creative entrepreneurs, and I’d love the opportunity to work on their platform.
Ingrid reached back out to me when they started scaling IHTF to pitch to venture capital funds. Their primary business objective was to become a marketplace, not a customer service provider.
Arguably, the biggest challenge in this project was strategizing user flows for complex use cases and diverse users.
We could have broken down the information architecture in a number of ways, but settled on vendors filtered by category (i.e., florist, personal stylist, private chef, interior designer, etc.) on the listing pages, which led to vendor profiles that include their list of services.
I suggested we organize the platform this way to put focus on the person behind the service, rather than breaking things down by service or product type and losing the personal touch.
This project required large-scale systems thinking. As we analyzed the user problems, we began brainstorming the various service lines.
To reduce the development burden, keep user flows consistent, and balance the needs of clients and vendors, I suggested we plot out the highest-level filters possible for the booking flows.
Initially, we split the flows between in-person services and remote services. As I started designing, I realized we would need three separate booking flows:
Consultations and remote services
In-person services
Physical products
I added calendar functionality to the flow so that vendors could block off dates when they are unavailable. This reduced scheduling time and unnecessary back-and-forth between clients and vendors.
I gave vendors the ability to add a questionnaire for each service, which would populate at the end of the booking flow. This way, they have all the context they need to decide whether to accept a booking and can streamline their onboarding process.
I decided to direct clients to the messages screen after they submit a booking request, rather than having a modal confirmation that would direct them back to the homepage or vendor listing page. That way, they can add additional notes and reference files for the vendor and speak with them directly.
wireframes
Except for the vendor profile page, this flow hasn’t been built yet due to budget constraints. Given that there was a 10x increase in booking requests from the launch of the vendor listing page, vendor profile pages, and service detail pages, it is reasonable to assume that the flow has immense potential for increasing conversions and revenue, in addition to reducing the burden on the concierge team.
prototype
I learned about the value of a product manager and being able to scope and prioritize a full project.
As a team of two, we covered at least twenty user scenarios. It was both of our first times designing a marketplace, so we didn't scope or prioritize very well, but it was a case of 'we don’t know what we don’t know.
I went into this project without knowing how much we’d cover, and, at the time, I wasn’t experienced enough to know to ask the founders about their priorities for building and what could be built within budget. I ended up designing a number of flows that were de-scoped because they weren’t truly essential to the MVP. The founders had high aspirations (rightly so), but they weren’t realistic for the stage of their business.
