by Bank of Cyprus
The first Digital Economy Platform in Cyprus
My Role: UX/UI Designer
Team: two UX/UI Designers and Head of Creative
Tasks I Tackled: Competitive Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, Interaction Design & Visual Design
Platform: Mobile
Tools: Adobe XD
Overview
Jinius is the first Digital Economy Platform in Cyprus that empowers and accelerates the digitalization of the Cypriot economy. It helps users to simplify and organize their business. Within the platform’s ecosystem companies can digitalize invoicing, make and receive payments as well as grow their network and connect with current and new partners to enable new business connections.
The problem
Bank of Cyprus has created the platform for companies to help them manage their business. It now needs to build a digital marketplace where companies will be able to connect and network with existing and potential customers, receive orders and sell their products and services.
Challenge
Our team has been tasked with creating an e-commerce iOS mobile application that would provide an easy, intuitive online shopping experience and make it convenient for users to navigate the digital Cypriot marketplace and find the products they're looking for.
Competitive Analysis
Examining current market situation
Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, we've analyzed some of the most successful e-commerce applications in Europe to pinpoint the best practices used in their design. We've focused primarily on the use of UI elements and patterns as well as interactivity. We also carefully examined the navigation system and information architecture that have been implemented in mobile applications, such as Zalando, Amazon, Ebay, ASOS and others. That helped us determine which features and flows users expected to find and what is the general navigation structure that's most intuitive for them. This process allowed us to get actionable insights about design mistakes to avoid, helped us better understand the digital market and make better design decisions when creating the Jinius app.
Determining Core Features
The insights we have gained from the conducted competitive analysis helped us determine and sketch out some of the core features of Jinius App that would help to create an enjoyable shopping experience that would allow to grow and retain a loyal customer base.
Once we have determined which features will have the biggest impact, we have put them into the story board so that they could be wireframed and tested.
Site Map
Having reviewed various e-commerce applications and having certain features in mind, we have created the basic structure of the Jinius app.
Sketching and Wireframing
Creating wireframes helped us create the general look and feel of the app. The process made it easier to determine how the different elements should be identified and structured and what is the best way to present information to the user in order for them to find it and complete a task.
At this point in the design process, we've recruited four participants and conducted user testing, which helped us identify potential pain points early on, during the wireframing stage.
Style Guide
The style guide used for iOS Jinius application is based on the brand’s style and color palette used on the main Jinius webpage at https://www.jinius.com.cy.
Typography as well as iconography and the general style of the components have been inspired by Apple Design Kit for Adobe XD to ensure the consistency of design, which helped us create an extensive design system for the application.
We took great care to ensure that the principles of accessibility have been implemented in order to make the Jinius app inclusive of all users. We've placed special focus on creating ample color contrast for ideal visibility, establishing a clear hierarchy, allowing for adequate spacing between elements and making sure that their size is large enough to be easily clickable.
Prototyping
Once the prototypes have been refined and completed, we have conducted user testing with four participants, which helped us validate design decisions, identify potential problems and areas of improvement before we handed high-fidelity mockups to the client.
Landing page and and categories
Jinius landing page has been centered around a clear objective of getting customers to complete a set goal of finding a product and making a purchase.
The pages have been designed to help focus and guide the user’s attention with minimal distractions. They have been personalized to match the buyer’s intent and encourage customers to browse and discover more items similar to those they're already looking for.
Content includes high quality images, concise copy and detailed descriptions for individual products.
Product search
Using the best e-commerce practices, we've placed the search box at the top of the screen making it easy to spot. While entering the query, users are given the list of recent searches as well as suggested searches, which makes searching for products more efficient and helps provide users with a seamless shopping experience. Customers who use the search usually already have a specific product in mind to buy when they visit a store – an accurate, fast
search is necessary to direct these shoppers to the right products.
Seller pages
Seller pages have been carefully designed to present the seller's information and prodcts in the most efficient and clear way. We have created a very staight-forward list of subcategories allowing users to browse the seller's products, familiarize themselves with the brand and their policies, read the reviews left by other customers as well as contact the seller, should the customer wish to do so.
Cart and Checkout
According to Statista.com, nearly 70% of online shoppers worldwide have abandoned their shopping carts in 2021.
One of the influencing factors have been too long/too complicated check-out process and inability to calculate total
order cost upfront. Keeping those statistics in mind, we have designed the cart in line with the best e-commerce
practices to make purchasing products as easy as possible for customers. We took great care creating “Added to Cart” interaction, adding and reusing customer and address information, picking shipping options, creating payment flow and methods as well as designing order review and order confirmation.
Key Takeaways
As the overall e-commerce landscape continues to evolve, it is important to provide users with seamless, enjoyable and straightforward digital experience that will match, and even exceed, the expectations that customers have when approaching a digital marketplace. While designing the Jinius app, our team focused on using the best e-commerce practices and introducing the core features that will serve as the foundation for further platorm growth. With the prototypes approved for development and currently being implemented by the software engineering team of Bank of Cyprus, the application is expected to be released in the coming months.