Wish Redesign

Understanding the Context

Illustration from Wish Blog Post

Before starting the redesign challenge, I first started researching about the company to have a better understanding of Wish’s mission and business model. Wish’s mission is to make shopping more accessible and affordable for everyone by connecting people to retailers, empowering small businesses at the same time. Since Wish’s business model heavily relies on small businesses, I decided to further research about the Wish Local program to see if there were opportunities for improvement.

Wish Local allows users to purchase on the app and instantly pickup items from local stores, freeing Wish users from paying extra shipping costs and helping businesses gain more foot traffic. However, because of the current COVID pandemic, numerous traditional retail stores are closing down and people are feeling reluctant to go to stores due to social distancing. Now, people mainly use two options to receive items they’ve purchased: delivery or curbside pickup.

Recently, Wish has launched their Local Delivery service, where small business owners can deliver purchased items for a cash bonus. However, I wasn’t able to find any information or features about the local delivery service on the app, so I saw the need to further inform users about this new service and focus on improving Wish Local.

Empathizing with Current Users

To further understand problems that current users are facing on the platform, I decided to research by reading reviews on the App Store and conducted user interviews for more detailed insights.‍

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‍App Store Reviews

Currently, Wish's delivery service generally takes over a week and a half to be delivered to consumers, leading to many complaints and showing a need for a faster delivery service. Since Wish’s local pickup and delivery service provide faster options, I saw this as a business opportunity to use Wish Local as a way to help increase engagement among consumers and drive more sales at local stores under current circumstances.

User Interviews
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I conducted Zoom interviews with 8 people and asked them about their browsing experience in the Local tab section. I limited the time to 6 minutes to see if they could intuitively find items that they’re interested in buying in a short period of time.

Here is the feedback I got:

“I couldn’t find what I wanted to purchase from the Local page because there weren’t any filters to categorize the products.”

“It took a long time to browse by store because I couldn’t instantly tell what each store is selling.”

“I wanted to find more detailed information about each store in the Browse by Store section, but I couldn’t find anything.”

Pain Points

1. Online Shoppers wait for a long time to get their orders delivered.

2. Users struggle with navigating the current Local page because items are not clearly categorized.
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3. Users face difficulty in finding detailed store information in the current Local page.

Possible Solutions

Actively inform users of the new Wish Local Delivery service.
Create a more convenient and efficient pickup or delivery service system by allowing users to reserve specific time slots.

Possible Solutions

Add filters for categories that can help users narrow down their choices.
Add filters for specific distances to allow users to have a personalized experience.

Possible Solutions

Use a list view to show more detailed information about each store.
Use a grid view to display the stores in the same format as the items.

Wireframes

After conducting the interviews, I observed that there is clear need for a more detailed navigation and filter option, so I iterated multiple layouts to see which one would be the most effective solution.

I decided to go with Version 3

Proposed Solutions
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1. Customizable Location Search Filter

Current

no option to choose specific distance
limited selection of stores and items

Redesigned

Added customizable filter option to allow users to select specific distance from the entered Zip Code
wider selection of stores and items to choose from based on user preference

2. Better Filters & Local Store Information Display

Current

difficult to view full names and specific information for each store
difficult to view multiple stores in one view
items not curated or categorized according to users’ interests

Redesigned

Added a list view to help users understand detailed, relevant information (store name, category, opening hours, address, popularity) for multiple stores in one view
Added filters to help users further narrow down their search process to their interests
Added visual icons that help distinguish each category items
Ordered filters based on general user preferences and interests that were shifted due to the COVID pandemic

3. Reserving Pickup or Delivery Time Slot during Checkout

Current

Displays general pickup or delivery options
No specific guidelines for pickup option

Redesigned

Added option to reserve specific time slot for pickup or local delivery
Added location and reserved time slot summary and removed detailed store address from checkout page

4. Informing Users about Wish's Local Delivery Service (Additional)

Using the current banner section to promote Wish's Local Delivery Service can help users instantly learn about the new service and stay more engaged.

Prototypes

1. Finding a Store

2. Using Filters to Search for Items

3. Reserving Pickup
Time Slot

Moving Forward

Learning how to design under unique circumstances
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Since the COVID pandemic is continuously influencing consumer behavior and our economy, I realized that it’s so important to have a thorough understanding of how consumer needs have changed and how Wish has been impacted as a business. Reading articles about the impact of COVID on small businesses and current consumer interests definitely helped me a lot in designing a solution that fits the current consumer and market needs.

For next steps, I’d love to conduct user testing to see if the solution that I’ve designed is effective. Also, since Wish is in a two-sided marketplace with online shoppers and retailers, I am curious to see if the solution I’ve designed for the consumer side aligns with the retailers’ needs as well. In particular, I hope to see if the pickup time system can be practically implemented on the retailers’ side and further understand the pros and cons of this system in the perspective of both the consumers and retailers.