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Lofistory
UX Design
A Cutting Edge Sneaker Marketplace
Skills
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User Research
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Product Design
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Prototyping
Context
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University Group Project
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Aug 2024 - May 2025
Tools
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Figma
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Adobe Photoshop
Intro
Over the last semester, I was lucky enough to participate in my first fully fleshed out case study. Through the User-centered design course at University of Central Florida. Two classmates and I were challenged with creating an original user experience concept. After some discussion, we realized we all had a common interest and set of frustrations in sneaker shopping. We wanted to craft a more transparent way to shop for shoes that didn’t stack the deck against users. I was assigned to be the primary User interface and user experience designer. Together, we created a modern shoe marketplace that puts the customer first.
Research
Market Analysis & Matrix
Our research began with what was already on the market. Each of us picked a range of existing services and conducted market analysis to best identify gaps. I studied competitors like Goat, Grailed and Flight Club. What struck me during my research was how unfriendly their design language was. There was rarely a clear indication of what was a good price for any given shoe, and the cluttered interfaces made navigating the sites difficult. It was hard for customers to find what they wanted,d and even if they did there was no guarantee it was the best deal. I listed out my takeaways as strengths and weaknesses.
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Using the data from those findings a market matrix was compiled to keep track of our findings
Interviews & Surveys
After identifying perceived strengths and weaknesses in the current market, we went to collect feedback from potential customers and users. I created an interview targeting common pain points in the sneaker shopping experience. The topics included price, frequency, commonly used sites, frustrations, practices, and more.
To compliment the interview I created a survey that allowed participants to gauge their feelings on a scale of 1 to 10
Use Cases & Personas
Using existing data about the market and insight from the interviews I defined a suite of user personas. These personas let me narrow down what potential customers and stakeholders might be looking for in our service.
I furthered this emotional exploration by defining specific use cases for each persona. These use cases provided insight into the user's goal while interacting with the platform. These use cases let me consider the similarities and differences in their habits and contemplate what design decisions would be needed to meet all their expectations.
Design
Process
With my objective in mind I created a Data dictionary to catalog and define systems necessary for the platform's design. These included features like profile, email, password, payment, notifications, trending, featured, reviews, price point comparison and more. Using this dictionary I mapped out a detailed Information Architecture to help sort out the organization of the data and features.
These plans were shown to some of our potential users to gain feedback before I began designing interfaces. We received some great suggestions and made updates to our outline accordingly.
Low Fidelity Prototype
With the help of my data dictionary, Information architecture and some stellar user feedback I created a low fidelity prototype for Prizekicks in Figma. This prototype’s goal is to demonstrate a stylized version of the typical Prizekicks shopping experience starting with a sign up/ login, Followed by the home page, and demonstrating features like the profile, featured selections, search, product pages, filters, checkout, price comparison and order confirmation.
Feedback (Think Aloud)
We showed the lofi prototype to a few of users to conduct a video think-aloud protocol. The users through the prototype and relayed any thoughts that occured as interacting with it. We took notes on these thoughts and cataloged potential issues. This let us pinpoint any friction in the design and make changes to iron them out before creating a High Fidelity Prototype.
Style Guide
To keep my artistic vision on track I created a style guide for Prizekicks complete with logos, fonts, typography, colors, buttons and design ethos.
Final Prototype
Utilizing the user feedback and my preparations, I created the final fledged out prototype complete with stylization. This prototype went through one more round of User testing and was tweaked using that fresh feedback.
Final Prototype
I enrolled in this course to explore User-Centered Design to a far greater capacity than I ever have before. I am immensely grateful for how much it taught me not only about the field but about myself and the ways I can connect to users. I had a blast and am filled with newfound confidence in my understanding of design principles. Here are some key reflections.
Restraint:
Our initial plan for Prizekicks was far grander in scope, but after some deliberation, we realized that a fully functioning marketplace would be unfeasible with our current time and resources. We instead focused on key functions and features that differentiated us from the market and demonstrated the product's value. I learned how important it is to realistically gauge a project's size before embarking to complete it.
Adaptation:
I constantly found myself surprised by user feedback, comments, and the way they interacted with our designs, but I believe that should be the norm. It’s impossible to be prepared for every possible issue on the first go around, and that’s what makes the design process so important. It takes adaptability, patience, and refinement to build a platform that responds to users' needs.
Responsibility:
I’m so glad I was able to work with a team of fellow talented students in creating this project. Working with them exposed me to the exchange of ideas. We treated each other with respect and took our collaboration seriously. I learned to embrace the responsibility that comes with a role like this. I learned to both rely and be relied on by my team.
Tools:
I’ve spent a healthy amount of time with Figma, Photoshop, Excel, and the other tools I utilized to create this project but I came to understand their capabilities to a far greater degree. It wasn’t always easy; I had to learn quite a bit and problem-solve on the fly, but a better understanding of how I can leverage their strengths and the resources available from their vast documentation and communities will help me tackle future projects with more grace.
Prizekicks is a milestone in my user experience journey. There’s always more for me to learn but I am proud of the work my team and I did on this project and the growth I exhibited as a designer!
View the full project here
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