Solution
Like I said, our focus was on minimizing the gap between buyers and sellers. I and my team had a few ideas in mind about what we wanted to have in the application, but that’s all there was, ideas. We brainstormed all the ideas and created a strategy and timeline of how things shall be proceeded.
The strategy went like this:
- Firstly, compete structure of the application should be created with all the landing screens and navigations.
- After having a clear idea of what the application will have, landing screens and navigations, the designing part of the application will begin.
- Once we have a fully functional UI & UX of the application, with all the landing screens, content as well as navigations, the development process should begin.
We had a clear head on what we want to do, hence my team didn’t have to think twice for the software that we want to use for the structure, UI and UX of the application. Since we wanted a complete application experience, the software that suited our motive the best was Adobe XD.
Starting with the application structure, my team came up with an application structure that had me going nuts. We created a structure that included ideas and navigations of all screens, from splash-screen to logout screen.
We created an idea of an interface that had separate versions for buyers and sellers. The user could either sign in as buyer or seller. If the user skips to sign in or sign up, they’ll be taken to the buyers’ section by default. Speaking of signing up, users will be asked whether they want to continue as a buyer or a seller.
Let’s talk about the buyers’ section first. The buyers’ section has a home screen where we decided to keep number of things including featured ads and categories of ads. Our web-portal for Izydaisy has a lot of thought and intention put into it. Hence, we wanted to give the application a feel that matches the aura of the website.
We took care of everything that had significance in the homepage of our website, like E-Marketplace, Popular in city and more.
Similarly, we created landing screens for five options that we kept in the static footer for the buyers’ section. First of those five options was Home, which I just told you about. Home is followed by Favorite Ads, Hot Ads, Messages and My Profile:
- Favorite Ads display ads that the user has liked and added as favorites. The add-to-favorite option is available in all the ads they browse.
- Hot Ads is my favorite part about the whole structure of application. This one shows you the ads based on your preferences. The interface and experience of this section is super convenient for the buyer.
But the part that sold it to me was, when a buyer likes their ad, the seller gets a notification that lets them know that someone is interested in their ad. Bridging the gap between buyers and sellers is the main focus of this project, and that is what this section justifies.
- Messages section naturally holds all the messages and conversations that users have with the sellers. Here too, we added options for users to send attachments like images, documents and location. We also added options like favorite a message and follow the seller.
- My Profile section is the place from where users can view and edit all their information including name, username, address, payment method, etc. And last but not the least, from here, you can switch to the sellers’ section.
Switching to the sellers’ section, here too we added a static footer that had five options, which are Notifications, My Ads, Post Ad, Messages and My Profile:
- Notifications section is where the sellers will see the notifications for when a buyer shows interest in their ad(s). They can also get a notification for when a buyer posts a requirement that matches their product(s).
- My Ads section is where the seller can see all the ads they’ve posted, including active ads, expiring ads and expired ads. Note that the expired ads are stored in our database for 40 days after the inactivity. If users don’t renew the expired ads within 40 days, they will be removed from our database permanently.
- Post Ad section is the place from where they post ads. Firstly, the seller has to select the suitable category and subcategory. After selecting the category and subcategory comes the customized form for that particular category where the seller is asked to enter the details of their product.
- Messages section is the same as buyers’, having options for attachments such as image, document, etc. With these options, sellers can easily send quotes to their customers.
- My Profile section is again the same as buyers’. You can view and edit your information and switch to the buyers’ section.
That was the first step we talked about, the application structure. To tell you the truth, being able to execute this first with this much conviction, that’s where more than half of the job was done for us.
Why I say that is because we had taken care of all the tricky parts of application functions in this step. From navigations to landing screens, from popups to placement of options, we covered every bit in the app structure itself. All that remained to be done now was a design finish.
If I haven’t mentioned already, I have a superiorly creative team. The designing team hit me up with the perfect user interface and user experience. Based on the theme of our website, the app UI screamed the motive of our platform from every angle.
Now, two steps of our three-step-strategy are completed and we’re all prepared to dive into the third step, the development, and the development team is all drawn up, ready to strike at the signal.