Auufa
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Auufa is a B2B platform that connects architects with product manufacturers. Architects can find the products they need, and manufacturers are given a platform to showcase their products.
The Task
When Architects look for products to use in their designs, there are many factors that need to be considered (product dimensions, material, cost, code alignment, etc), but are difficult to find at times. Because there are so many factors to consider, Architects primarily use the manufacturers they're familiar with. Our client, Auufa, tasked us to design a system that would allow Architects to easily find new products suited for their needs, while also granting exposure to more Product Manufacturers able to fulfill these needs.
Role
UX/UI Designer
UX Researcher
Tools
Sketch
InVision
Keynote
Team
Peter Ku
Christina Tai
Amy Freid
Timeline
2 Week Sprint
User Interviews
Through cold outreach and utilizing our existing connections, our team reached out to 10 architects. We focused on the data we gathered from 6 mid-senior level architects because they had dealt with manufacturers more directly, but all insights we could gather into the world of architects was important.
Key Questions:
"How do you currently decide on which products to use?
"What do you need/ask from manufacturers when you communicate with them?"
"Can you tell me about the last experience you had when talking to a manufacturer?”
Primary Insights
Through affinity mapping, my team and I found very strong trends across all of our users. While not all of the trends were "in your face" pain-points, they were consistent enough to make us think of ways to improve on the process architects go through to purchase products.
Through these insights, we knew our users needed credible manufacturers, in-depth information, and convenience. For all of the users we interviewed, the first thing they did when they needed products was to contact manufacturers they had used before. There was no online platform that rivaled the credibility and convenience that a previously used manufacturer could bring, and so we knew that we had to design a service that could do this.
The User
In order to build empathy for our users (for ourselves and our stakeholders), my team and I created Rafaela as a representation of the architects we interviewed. We didn't want to view our users as just statistics we gathered from insights, we wanted to give them a voice and keep them in mind for the rest of our project.
Competitors
While we were considering solutions to include in our platform, we researched sites that had the primary purpose of providing products to Architects. We wanted to see how easy they made it for users to find products, how much detail was provided for each product, and if they had a way to show if a product was credible or not.
By conducting a competitive analysis, we discovered that:
None of the sites we looked at provided an opportunity for manufacturers to reach out to Architects.
Specification details provided were limited and didn’t include key details our users needed
Many sites didn't have an indicator of if a product manufacturer was credible or not
The Solution - Improving Rafaela's Journey
From our insights and competitive analysis, my team and I knew that in order to create a great platform for our user, we’d have to include as much relevant product details as possible, show credibility, and find a way to connect manufacturers to architects. Shown below are the solutions we proposed and an overview of how Rafaela's journey would play out with our platform.
Helping Architects:
Provide in-depth filters that give Architects an easy way to find products that fit the dimensions, price, style, color, and other specifications required for their project
Allow Architects to make product bid requests where they can upload pictures and specifications of the products they're looking for
Helping Manufacturers:
Any Manufacturer that may not be as well known, but has the products that Architects are looking for, can place a "bid" with their products towards a request. This allows all manufacturers with the right products to gain exposure
Wireframes and Testing
Our team sketched out our ideas on whiteboard and then designed medium-fidelity wireframes for testing. What we wanted to discover was if the users would be able to navigate through our prototype easily and if the information we presented was clear.
Overall, testing went smoothly, but we discovered that our users had some difficulties understanding visual hierarchy of information, and expected easier ways to sort through project bids. As we developed hi-fi wireframes, my team and I created more separation between the information presented, added a filter for users to sort through latest bids, price range, etc, and made more important pieces of information evident.
Final Designs
In-Depth Filter
Product previews are provided where users can easily see who/which architecture firms have used the product before - lending credibility to the manufacturer
Users are provided with an extensive filter where they can filter by:
price
style
material type
state requirements
Product Page
Users can see exact dimensions, a product description, and contact information of the manufacturer.
They can also download a spec sheet and the catalogue page of the product.
Product Bid Request
Architects can create product bid requests for manufacturers to reach out with items that might be a good fit.
Architects describe the projects they're working on, and the type of products they need with pictures to serve as examples.
In the expanded project page, the type of product needed is shown on the left hand side of the screen, and bids that manufacturers have placed are shown on the right.
Next Steps
Testing with Architects was a great success overall. Our users said that the site was easy to navigate through and that they would want to use our platform to find products. Our users said that they really enjoyed the idea of a product bid page and felt that it would be helpful for them to easily find what they needed. A few minor issues that our team could improve upon in the future would be:
More specific research into all the filtering options that our users would like
Only show the firms that have used the product (our users said they cared about this more than the architects that had used the product)
Working on this project for a client and space that I knew little about, taught me many things. I learned the importance of working with your stakeholders to gain insights, while also conducting your own research to validate problems. I also learned that coming into a space that you don't know much about isn't always a detriment. My team and I were foreigners to the interactions between Architects and Manufacturers, but because of this we were able to come into the project with new perspectives and ideas.
I also learned that under time constraints, it's important to narrow and define the scope of project. Our clients were extremely passionate and ambitious in their goals for this project, but due to our limited time together, my team and I had to focus on the core of their vision to create an MVP for launch. If we had more time, I would love to have continued to expand on the platform and fulfill the ambitions of our clients.