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CASE STUDY:
PRICE PATROL

Redesigning the ubiquitous price comparison app for a fighting chance in the crowded Play Store ecosystem.

DESIGN SPRINT

9 business days from project kickoff to high-fidelity prototype, plus everything in between.

TARGET PLATFORM

Designing for Android 6 in consideration of Google’s Material Design standards.

TOOLS & SOFTWARE

Sketch, Illustrator, Keynote, InVision, Dry Erase, Post-It Notes, Pen & Paper, Local Mall Directory

COLLABORATORS

Monique BoedionoResearch

Hye Park - Interface Design

Ralf Wiebeck - Info. Architecture

PROCESS OVERVIEW

User Personas
Design Direction

Sketches & Ideation

DEFINE

Digital Wireframes
Preliminary Style Guide

Interactive Prototype

DEVELOP

Usability Testing
Visual Design

Polish & Iteration

DELIVER

Heuristics & Usability
Competitive Analysis

Secondary Research

DISCOVER

MISSION & CONTEXT

Create a cohesive and well-aligned brand identity for Price Patrol, and bring their app to life with targeted improvements to user experience - so as to differentiate from competitors.

WHAT IS PRICE PATROL?

The latest venture of a local startup, Price Patrol is a consumer-facing mobile app that helps shoppers to make sensible purchase decisions on everything from clothing and toys to food and electronics.

 

By tracking product prices with a 'radar' feature, and integrating with Google Maps and GPS locations services, the platform is able to keep tabs on nearby deals—and notify customers when their saved items fall below MSRP.

WHY REDESIGN THE APP?

While Price Patrol has some great ideas, its current design is not sufficiently equipped to compete in the crowded mobile ecosystem, where similar price comparison tools have become ubiquitous.

 

Surveyed users expressed an overwhelming desire to access in-app resources, but were ultimately deterred by frustrating search functionalities, missing or illegible store details, and an ill-fitting brand identity often perceived as childish or unprofessional.

WHAT WERE THE GOALS?

The newly revamped Price Patrol concept was intended to provide an intuitive Android experience for savvy shoppers in need of practical cost-cutting resources. As PM, I delineated the following objectives for the redesign:

  1. Carve out a niche market strategy through design research, and reposition the app for success on the Play Store.
     

  2. Realign the company's branding and visual style, so as to create a product that better appeals to its target demographic.
     

  3. Improve the overall product experience by satisfying unmet needs and alleviating existing pain points.

CHARTING THE EXISTING LANDSCAPE

After receiving nominations to act as Project Manager, I contributed to research efforts through comprehensive competitive analysis, in addition to heuristic evaluation and usability testing of the app's existing design.
 
I then assisted our lead researcher in evaluating secondary findings from psychologists Herbert A. Simon and Barry Schwartz, synthesizing these insights so as to begin formulation of an overarching design direction.

Above, screens from the original Price Patrol app. Note the strange treatment of the landing page, the duplicates in search listings and related items, the missing product info, and finally, the indecipherable store details page.

DESIGN RESEARCH

In my first act as PM, I led our kickoff meeting with the goal of establishing a shared working agreement. From there, I developed a project plan and production timeline.

 

My largest concern was overstepping my authority, so I planned for Agile development with a collaborative mindset, bringing in the team at every step to contest and validate my direction.

In an effort to quickly establish preliminary design goals, I delegated research tasks by discipline. I made the mistake of assuming basic competency with topics like usability, heuristics, and analysis, which delayed our progress by a number of days.

 

Conducting Comparative market research revealed an uncomfortable truth: Price Patrol's value proposition wasn't particularly unique, and would require focus and specialization.

Given mobile's Red Ocean reality, we identified brick & mortar retail as a serviceable niche, and set boundaries for the experience, especially where new features were concerned.

Synthesizing the data from our heuristic evaluation with pain points unearthed in usability testing, we prioritized the app's landing, radar feature, and product detail page as areas for significant improvement.

 

Secondary research illuminated consumer mental models and alerted us to the psychological implications of overwhelming choice. But we'd first need to develop personas in order to take advantage of these new discoveries.

RESEARCH SUMMARY
KEY INSIGHTS & TAKEAWAYS

While more detailed findings can be found in the relevant process articles, the following big picture items proved integral to subsequent ideation and development.

BRICK & MORTAR SPECIALIZATION

With the majority of competitors fighting for the online shopping space, I believed a strong focus on brick & mortar retail might be Price Patrol's best shot at differentiation.

IMPORTANCE OF
BRAND IDENTITY

While conservative branding was exceptionally common, one notable rival made the case for distinct personality - attracting a devoted user base with its unique and entertaining tone.

MAPPING &
METAPHOR

Price Patrol didn't speak its users' language. From the unformatted time and date info used on store detail pages to the clip art submarine logo, the app's value was often lost in translation.

LACK OF MOBILE
INTEGRATIONS

Unlike the majority of competitors, our app wasn't taking advantage of platform resources. Price Patrol's limited functionality kept its experience feeling more in line with desktop web. 

I. DISCOVER
II. DEFINE
III. DEVELOP
IV. DELIVER
NEXT STEPS
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