My Role
UX/UI, Visual Designer
Tools
Marvel, Photoshop, Illustrator, Slack
Timeline
8 Months (Mar - Nov 2019)
Overview
With 127 million acres of agricultural land, Texas is one of the top producers of sheep, goats, cattle, horses and other animals in the country . Most of the animals are being sold through platforms that were not designed for this purpose or don't request the proper information needed for these transactions. To address this inconvenient, Barngate was designed to offer the best platform possible in the market to sell or buy farm animals.
It features an advanced search functionality with applied filters to each type of animal. In this way, sellers and buyers can categorize their publications. Once a buyer selects an animal of interest, they can contact the seller through their account.
Context
Barngate is a website that I designed , from conception of the brand to execution. The goal of the project was to design the advanced search functionality with applied filters to each type of animal that would function well and look easy to understand across all breakpoints and devices. I also included marketing strategies to position the brand against competitors and the possitility to boost advertasing. Barngate is an e-commerce websites where the users can list the animals for sale and other can bid on in auctions.
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Design Process
Research
Competitive Analysis
My design process started with researching similar Cattles for sale or horses for sale websites currently in the market. This will allow me to understand the functionality, identify their strengths and better opportunities for my client. I did an analysis of two competitors: The Cattle Range buyer and Horsefinders.
Interviews
We connected with ranch owners, horse buyers/sellers, meat processors and distributers and other farm animals' afficionates. We conducted interviews to better understand their buying and selling process and the best way to achieve a successful transaction.
User Persona
After completing a competitive analysis, I recruited and interviewed 7people from different areas who were interested in selling or buying farm animals. I then created user personas based on my user research that helped me understand a realistic picture of users’ goals, needs, and behaviors
Ideate
Concept and Strategy
Creating a simple account , adding a first post using all the filters available, will lead possible buyers to find the right animal they are looking for. Same with buyers looking for an specific type of animal with very detailed characteristics. To avoid miscommunications and misunderstands between buyer and sellers, Barngate provides a platform where the user can decide if there's a perfect fit of what they're looking for, they can reach out to the buyer for more information or to do the transaction . It allows users to have a quick response and money once the user approves the offer. One of the benefits of advertised publications is that the sellers can pay more to include more information, photos, videos of their animals and even place them in the front page.
User Flows
To communicate the concept and information architecture, I generated site map, user flows and worked together with the client to determine how the services will be provided.
Develop
Lo-Fi Sketches
I sketched multiple options for each screen, continually referencing the target audience, company mission and objectives to share key information from each post to the customers.
Hi-Fi Prototype
During this phase I optimized the design based on Lo-Fi validation findings. I learned more valuable information that was still confusing around how to search per animal types. Therefore, I focused on improving the above while finalizing the UI design.
Looks & Feels
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Barngate is all about simplicity and functionality.The main goal is to have easy to follow steps to sell or buy farm animals. Colors and symbols are used carefully to maintain the corporate identity and some accents do display the actions. The logo was designed inspire in the Lone star state colors and symbol.UI elements and typography are kept simple, undistracting by using a structured patterns.
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I used a Style Guide as starting point and developed a more detailed design language document. The purpose of this guide is to ensure consistency and communicate the actions to the developers.
