WIBO Works
E-Commerce Platform

A mobile e-commerce marketplace that showcases goods and services from Workshop In Business Opportunities (WIBO) program graduates

Note: This project was completed as part of the Beginex UX Career Program. I worked within a 3-person team to execute. My individual role within this project was specific to homepage information architecture and design, navigation & item menu layout and a large percentage of the visual UI throughout the product. We all conducted research, surveys, and testing.

The Challenge:
The organization was in need of more support and the program alumni felt disconnected

The WIBO Board of Directors was looking for a way to gain more support for their 16-week program, promote its participants and spread more awareness of the organization overall.

After conducting personal interviews and online surveys, we learned:

1. Graduates of the program felt they were disconnected from other alumni in their areas

2. Alumni were looking for ways to promote each other better

The Ask:
Design an e-commerce platform that allows WIBO Works graduates to showcase products and services while promoting awareness & support for the WIBO organization

The board of directors (stakeholders) requested a digital marketplace to solve the challenge. They were looking for a solution that could achieve several goals:

1. Enable the alumni to stay more connected with each other

2. Boost profits for these businesses

3. Optimize site traffic to create awareness for the WIBO organization as a whole

How does a product feature cupcakes, lawn care, accounting services and soap while maintaining a cohesive layout and simple navigation?

I started brainstorming ways to execute this:

How would the product array be organized? What about navigation? I conducted a comparative analysis on multiple websites to gain some insight. I found Amazon (Small Business), Kiva and ETSY to be great examples. All of these sites offered a variety of types of products. Kiva was a great source for a product that included both sharing stories and a checkout transaction on the same interface.

The Solution:
Design an e-commerce platform that allows WIBO Works graduates to showcase both products and services
I mapped out the information architecture and figured out the hierarchy of the navigation.

Dividing the content into two main categories on the homepage made the most sense for the primary tier. These categories being “Products” and “Services.” Secondary and tertiary tiers followed with specific category menus and business details pages.

Key elements of the homepage based on stakeholder needs:

1. Include a section that explains the WIBO mission
   I executed this as a collapsable banner at the top of the page so it wouldn’t get buried but also wouldn’t push the hero content down too far.

   
   

2. Share business owners’ stories to gain interest
   The hero of the homepage showcases businesses with a content carousel that links to the business details page to tell the owner’s story.
   
   

3. Display products and services to boost sales and revenue
   I designed this as a visual menu with product imagery that could rotate based on the businesses being added to the marketplace
   
   

4. Include a section that explains the WIBO mission
   This section serves as an entry point for WIBO alumni to list their business on the WIBO marketplace
   

5. Provide a map that shows all WIBO Alumni-owned businesses within a location
   For this section, I designed a simple banner placement on the homepage with a map. I felt keeping the banner very minimal was best and still solved the problem without adding length to the page.

Watch The MVP: