DoYouWeekend is a website that offers deals on activities during weekends. From hours up to two days range.
Our assignment is to design the experience for the merchant hub that is for the business owners.
Role: UX designer and researcher, advocate for design thinking
Stakeholder: Founder of DoYouWeekend, business consultant
What did you do last weekend? It’s the same old routine, or have you had a new experience? Do you ever complain about the little things to do or places to visit in your area when you stay after 2-3 years?
Meanwhile, the local business owners have difficulties getting themselves to be known by their neighbors. There is a famous Boba tea shop in my city, but I didn’t realize it was only one block away from my home for 2 years after I moved in. Now I almost pay a visit once a week.
The goal of DoYouWeekend is not only to provide a market platform for local businesses but also to build a sustainable business model. Implanting the sustainable concept into every step of the design process is vital for this project.
It may seem easy to create a deal on an online marketing platform. But without careful consideration, many business owners could lose a lot of money when offering a coupon. As for reference, Groupon's reported retention rate is 22%. That means 176 customers will pay a second visit among 1,000 vouchers sold.
Based on the data from Margins by Sector, the healthy profit margin for a small business is between 7% to 10%. This diagram is based on Groupon's 50/50 deal and 10% profit margin.
To cover the loss for the 1000 vouchers, the business needs to get 6500 visits. That is 37 visits per the 176 return customers. With this model, businesses can easily end up losing money. In the worst scenario, the business will be worse than before after the campaign end.
- Business owners don’t like Groupon.
- Fake review is a big problem.
- Business owner is looking for a different method of promo.
We interviewed three business owners for this project:
- Co-owner of a Recreation bar, 63 years old, 1 year of business.
- Owner of a local Pizza restaurant, 54 years old, 11 years of business.
- Owner of two murder mystery game lounges, 31 years old, 2 years of business.
- Want to communicate more with their customers.
- Don’t want to spend too much on online marketing.
- Groupon is worth trying.
- Don’t know which promotion method to use.
- How to stand out among the more and more competitors .
- Busy weekend and empty weekdays.
- Senior business owner feels difficult in doing online promotions by themselves.
Easy Access
The primary function should always be accessible during browsing.
Show process steps
User should have a clear idea of the overall process.
Always have an overview
Provide an overview of every campaign to help users track their business.
Leveraging your data
Let the data tell the pro and cons.
DoYouWeekend will give suggestions based on the user's goal using the data science analysis, such as discount percentage, voucher cap number, marketing tools, etc.
Clearly state the process steps will improve the experience, especially for senior users. With numbers and icons, the left sidebar is like a progress tracker.
Based on the business profile and goal of the campaign, each campaign will get a customized deal suggestion. At the end of the first section, there is a total income estimate for this campaign to help the user better planing the business. This feature could help users find the balance between discounts and profit.
Users easily get lost when filling in the submission, even with the warning sign. By graying the background, the unfinished field popped up.
This is the place to add more personalization to the campaign. Users could add more descriptions about the deal and their business. The tag system will speed up customers' search process, especially for those customers looking for certain activities.
After uploading legal documents and signing contracts, here comes the last step before publication - review. Users will have a preview of the deal on the customer's page. Before final publication, know what the business looks like from the customer's side. Users could always go back and edit the deal before clicking the publish button.
Same as the "my campaign" page, each campaign has an overview. The subjects are focused on the deal's performance to provide a reference for marketing strategy. DoYouWeekend also provides recommendations based on the performance data.
Let the data tell you which method works best. Your data could tell you your strengths and weakness. Data science can provide forward-looking insights and knowledge. Users could get access to this informations on their dashboard. Furthermore, users could pay for a deeper analysis of their business.
Due to the time and work scope, sometimes I have to give design options when other aspects are uncertain. Finding the balance between a detailed design and a generic suggestion becomes vital. I have to face this challenge in every design stage. This project enhanced my ability to make design decisions. Most of all, the client is delighted with this design.