Play is characterized by two activities: Teamwhirl and Time Trinkets. While both activities seek to facilitate brainstorming and jumpstart creative projects, they do so in very different ways. As a result, diagramming the user flows prior to designing was necessary in order to demonstrate the similar purpose, yet differing value of each activity. Both activities went through numerous rounds of iterations in transitioning from sketches to high-fidelity interfaces.
To ideate activities that surround collaboration and memory recollection, the team began by playing around on paper. In the end, not one singular idea was chosen to move forward with. The activities are a culmination of beneficial components from multiple sketches.
Based on the foundation of collaboration, Teamwhirl (originally called Pass It On) leverages the knowledge and perspectives of others as sources for inspiration.
We diagrammed the user flow to consider how a Zazzle user would set up the activity, invite collaborators, and encourage invited collaborators to, ultimately, create.
Based on the foundation of memories, Team Trinkets (originally called Interactive Journey) uses throwback items from the past as vessels to carry memories from user-inputted digital media.
This user flow, in comparison to Teamwhirl, is more repetitive and therefore more straightforward. The goal was to emphasize low-effort for a high-quality output.
For our low fidelity prototypes, we made mockups based on the sketches and the user flows created. At this stage, the designs were made in gray-scale to focus attention on the activity flow and concepts as opposed to the visual design. Keeping in mind the goal of rebranding Zazzle as a creative platform, we tried to implement a web-app feel through the addition of a collapsible side bar to navigate through the activities.
While both of these activities assist users in brainstorming ideas for creative projects, we also realized that the incorporation of Play activities provide additional values for Zazzle internally. For Teamwhirl, invited collaborators present the opportunity to increase Zazzle user-base. For Time Trinkets, the flexibility of outputs can allow users to experience other Zazzle tools.
Emphasize the opportunity for group creativity engagements in Teamwhirl
Highlight ease of access to other tools in Time Trinket
In order to demonstrate the additional values of the prototypes — not just for the user, but for Zazzle — the goals for each activity user flow had to be more targeted.
Goal:
Goal: Highlight fluidity of Play through ease of access to other tools
The iteration of our low-fidelity screens to get to medium fidelity mainly consisted of:
Having users experience the prototype in its medium-fidelity state was instrumental in gaining other perspectives on the usability of both activity prototypes. Think-aloud protocols were held over Zoom, in which participants were asked to go through the prototype based on a series of pre-determine tasks. The tests helped to inform four main usability findings.
Something we wanted to keep in mind while prototyping Play, was how it would fit into Zazzle’s existing ecosystem. We didn’t want to add another tool just for the sake of adding another tool. For this reason, we diagrammed a user flow that demonstrates how going through Play activities help guide a user to other tools such as Create and Live. The line in pink indicates the current way a user experiences Zazzle.,
While creating this user flow, we quickly realized that inserting Play earlier in the flow to funnel users to other tools made little diference if the path to get to Play was not salient. In fact, the path to get to most tools on Zazzle is unclear. This is because the starting point for (new) Zazzle users is the Marketplace. However, the Marketplace is a tool itself.
Users need transparency of tools available to them
Tools as the highest level in the information hierarchy make it difficult to move between them.
The path in moving the prototype from medium fidelity to high fidelity is a long winding road that can go on continuously without making some tradeoffs. While there were numerous design choices that were scrutinized over for lengthy periods of time, we want to emphasize certain aspects of the prototype. These aspects were not only informed by research, but also help both users and Zazzle accomplish their respective goals.
Goal:
Acquaint users with all of the tools available on Zazzle to allow them to make an informed decision on which tool best suits their needs.
Design Choices:
Segmenting the page in half, based on Build or Browse, allows users to more easily find a tool that can help them accomplish their goals.
Goal:
Allow users to quickly set up Teamwhirl activity through minimal input on the organizer end.
Design Choices:
Providing theme-based question prompts to choose from when setting up questions minimizes effort on organizer's part.
Goal:
Foster opportunities for bonding by viewing other collaborator contributions.
Design Choices:
Transparency into collaborator contributions can illicit further conversations between collaborators.
Goal:
Prompt users to reference their own artifacts or memories to spark brainstorming ideas.
Design Choices:
Use of 'vintage' trinkets fosters nostalgia. Each of the trinkets require a specific input that the user most likely already contains, or easily has access to, by recalling memories.
Goal:
Motivate users to continue activity by showing finished output in advance.
Design Choices:
After each stop, the trinkets are visualized on the card to demonstrate how going through the steps contributes to a finalized digital 'gift'.
