Gift-giving feature on Postmates
Overview
Postmates wanted to add a gift-giving option to simply bring joy to someone and show friends and family that they were thinking of them, especially in this pandemic situation. They can send anything from their favorite restaurants, cafes, or retailers to their loved ones.
Role: Research and UX Design
Timeline: 80+ Hours
Project Type: Mobile iOS
Tools: Figma
What’s the problem?
Currently, Postmates doesn’t have a gift-giving option while its main competitor, Door Dash has this feature.
Gift givers have a hard time choosing what to give because of too many options.
Gift givers don’t know if the recipient is available to receive the gift. They need to inform the recipient or ask someone to make it a surprise.
There are possibilities that people tend to forget to prepare a gift.
Due to Covid, people are cautious visiting family and friends' celebrations. They try to avoid being in a crowded environment.
What’s the solution?
A gift-giving option where the user can see the list of a friend’s favorites.
An option for the user to ask the recipient to schedule the delivery.
How it works:
Click the gift icon on the navigation bar
Tap View Friend’s Favorites to see your list of friends
Choose a friend you want to send a gift to
Choose from your friend’s favorite list and tap “send as a gift” - You’ll see a “recently purchased“ info if it was recently purchased for the week
Add to cart
Add a digital card and personal message
If the user doesn’t know if the recipient is available to receive the items, you now have the option to ask the recipient to schedule the delivery. (The order will be placed after the recipient confirmed the delivery schedule.)
Check a gift link preview to see how it looks like
Place order
Confirmation page
Process: Here’s how it was done
Empathize : Research
Before jumping to any design decisions, I did some research regarding gift-giving.
“Giving an expensive gift is not necessarily the way to someone’s heart.”
“You might think that surprise gifts will delight your friends and family, But, no, research suggests the opposite: They prefer to receive gifts they’ve requested.”
“Picking gifts that are useful, experiential, or desired will likely make the people on your list feel happier, grateful, and closer to you.”
I also made a heuristic evaluation of its main competitor that currently offering this feature.
Competitive Analysis
Heuristic evaluation of the direct competitor (Door Dash)
Recognition rather than recall
The gift-giving option is shown after selecting a food. This feature is hidden, and users might not know that DoorDash is offering a gift-giving option.Error Prevention
For delivery questions, the Dasher can contact the giver or recipient. Giving the dasher contact info is a good solution if there are problems with the order.Match between system and the real world
Sending a digital card makes it special, just like receiving an actual card.
Indirect Competitor (Elfster)
Elfster is one of the popular apps during the holiday season. It’s a gift exchange website or app to make gift-giving easier. It’s an app to see each other’s wishlist and where to buy it exactly.
Recognition rather than recall
Birthday and address can be viewed publicly so you can send them a gift on their special day
How Might We…
I listed some “how might we” questions after doing the heuristic evaluation. At this early stage, I wanted to discover how to level up Postmates’ gift-giving feature.
How might we inform users that they can send a gift through Postmates?
How might we easily show the gift-giving feature on Postmates?
How might we make it possible for Postmates to contact the giver and recipient if there are problems with the order?
How might we make the recipient know that an order is coming her way?
How might we make it extra special and surprising?
Provisional Personas
Research
At this point, I recruited 4 participants who are using food delivery apps to discover their experiences. I listed the research objectives, questions, and assumptions before doing the interview script.
Research Objectives
We want to discover what motivates people to send gifts.
We want to learn the pains in sending a gift.
Understand how/what would make it easier for both parties to send and receive gifts.
Research Questions
How do we make gift-giving special using a delivery app?
How do we make it hassle-free for both parties?
How do people decide on what to give other people?
What are the reasons/motivations for gift-giving?
What are the usual problems people encounter when sending items to someone using a delivery app?
Assumptions
People have a hard time deciding on what gift they would give.
Right now, sending something via a delivery app takes a lot of communication from both parties.
When sending gift cards, it takes time for the receiver to use it, sometimes never.
Reasons for buying a gift:
Occasions (ex. birthday, mother’s day, father’s day, valentines, holidays)
Sending a token of appreciation
When someone is sick
As a way of saying sorry
Just because… - random gift-giving
1-on-1 Interviews
To gain some insights from users, I conducted a zoom interview with 4 participants. I wanted to discover their motivations and pains in sending a gift. The questions were divided into 2 topics, food delivery apps, and gift-giving.
An Interview Guide was created to help with the user interview process.
Here’s what the participants were saying
Empathy Map
I broke down the key statements of the participants and sorted them out to help me identify the main goals, needs, and frustrations of the users.
Needs
3 out of 4 participants wanted to have their gifts to be sent at a specific time and date
2 out of 4 participants said live tracking link is always helpful
2 out of 4 participants wanted to know if they would like the gift or not
1 out of 4 participants find it helpful that the delivery person was able to contact the recipient when there was a problem
Frustrations
2 out of 4 participants are worried if the recipient would like the gift
2 out of 4 participants had to ask someone so they can make it a surprise
1 out of 4 said that having a lot of choices is the hardest thing when deciding on what to give
1 out of 4 participants is concerned about how the recipient can track it
Define
Persona
To capture the user needs and requirements, I created this persona based on the research findings. This is a good reference to keep the user in mind.
Ideate
Task Flows & User Flows
I made four task flows based on the feature roadmap. These are the high-level steps a user would take to be able to see a friend’s favorites. After doing the task flow, I made a user story to help me visualize the decision points and screens that a user would take. I find doing these flows helpful for ensuring that I am designing sequentially and thoroughly.
User Interface
The branding needs to be consistent with the current style of Postmates.
Before moving to high-fidelity wireframes, I collected the current UI elements, styles, and colors of the Postmates app so that the new feature would be seamlessly implemented.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
After presenting the mid-fidelity wireframes, some challenges were encountered.
Challenges
We needed an alternate path for users who doesn’t have a Postmates app.
We needed to show the total experience - in-app, and out-of-app.
Challenge: What if the recipient doesn’t have a Postmates app?
Solution: An alternate path - Users can skip checking their friends’ favorites. They can just simply put the recipient’s address and select a store from the curated gift-giving screen.
Challenge: What if the user turned off notifications from Postmates, or if they don't have Postmates account?
Solution: Out of the app experience - The recipient will get a message and be able to reply via text message to schedule the delivery.
Prototype
Working prototype
Using the wireframes, I used Figma’s prototyping tools to make a functioning mockup for users to interact during usability testing.
Steps:
Click the gift icon on the navigation bar
Tap View Friend’s Favorites to see your list of friends
Choose a friend you want to send a gift to
Choose from your friend’s favorite list and tap “send as a gift” - You’ll see a “recently purchased“ info if it was recently purchased for the week
Add to cart
Add a digital card and personal message
If the user doesn’t know if the recipient is available to receive the items, you now have the option to ask the recipient to schedule the delivery. (The order will be placed after the recipient confirmed the delivery schedule.)
Check a gift link preview to see how it looks like
Place order
Confirmation page
User Testing & Iterations
I recruited 4 participants to test the added new feature. I conducted a moderated testing via zoom, wherein they shared their screens with me as they completed the tasks given. Each participant was given three scenarios and tasks and a short interview to get more feedback. After the testing, I transcribed and summarized what the participants were saying and looked into common patterns and difficulties. The testing helped which screens need iterations and improvements.
User Testing Findings
Successes
The participants said the new feature is useful, convenient, doesn’t keep the giver guessing what items to give, practical, a new concept
All participants said that they would use the new feature
Difficulties
No purchase history - 3 out of 4 participants had difficulty choosing which gift to send because there was no specific date on when was the last time the item was bought.
"Recently Purchased" tag looks like a button - participants thought that the "Recently Purchased" tag is a button
It took a while for participants to see the new delivery option - 2 out of 4 participants took a while to see the option to "Ask the recipient for time confirmation."
Participants didn't notice the gift link preview - I have to discuss with 2 participants what will happen next after they place the order.
Iterations
Before:
No purchase history - 3 out of 4 participants had difficulty choosing which gift to send because there was no specific date on when was the last time the item was bought.
"Recently Purchased" tag looks like a button - participants thought that the "Recently Purchased" tag is a button
After:
Info icon was added on “Recently Purchased”
It was explained in the modal that the item chosen was recently purchased this week. Users can pick other items or continue sending it as a gift.
Before:
It took a while for participants to see the new delivery option - 2 out of 4 participants took a while to see the option to "Ask the recipient for time confirmation."
After:
For visibility, a tooltip was added to the new option.
Before:
Participants didn't notice the gift link preview - I have to discuss with 2 participants what will happen next after they place the order.
After:
Gift link preview was also added to the confirmation page.
Final Thoughts
From this project, I learned that it’s crucial to deeply study the existing design and flow of the app to add the new feature seamlessly. Also, to consider the out-of-the-app experience and different alternate paths.
Next Steps
Walkthrough steps on how the gift-giving works
A similar item/restaurants to the favorite items
The possibility of the recipient changing the delivery address
Retest to validate the changes made