The kick-off.

The discovery sessions kicked-off in Vancouver with our client who had flown in from New York. We learned that Sneaker Con is an event built by and for sneakerheads, with the hustle of New York running through its veins. More than just an e-comm app, we were building a stock-market inspired space for vendors and hustlers to buy, sell, and trade some of the world's most sought-after footwear.

Setting objectives.

As we dug into the business requirements the complexity of the project became apparent. Our business development, project management, and product teams came together to distill the vision into clear objectives:

01 Create a highly customized e-commerce experience based on deep insights into the niche user community.

02 Transform Sneaker Con into a digitally-lead business and technology leader in the sneaker industry.

03 Grow their market share and generate new revenue streams by opening up new market opportunities.

Planned approach.

We started to dig into the world of Sneaker Con using a variety of research methods to better understand our users and the problem space. We planned a rollout of the project that incorporated a continuous cycle of prototyping and usability testing.

Core user needs

We distilled our discovery research down into three key pain points for users, which presented a unique chance to engage them:

01 Their selling marketplace was spread over many different platforms - they wanted one central platform that answered every need.

02 They had no way of showcasing their collection digitally and selling directly from it - they wanted a digital closet that doubled as their 'shop'.

03 It was frustrating to wait all year for the event to get sneakers authenticated - they needed a way to authenticate sneakers all-year-round, and with every trade on the app.

Immersive research.

With such an established event we knew we had to experience it first-hand. It wasn’t long before I was on a plane to NYC to attend the event on its home turf. After immersing myself in the event it became evident to me the sneakerhead community is discerning, tech-savvy and very devoted. It wasn’t just an event we were digitizing, but also a brand, community, and culture. To help reduce risk we recruited a group of sneakerheads in New York to conduct usability testing through-out the build.

Architecting the experience.

Working with our business development team, we defined the business requirements for the project. I worked with the Director of Product Design to architect and wireframe the high-level features for the client to sign-off. I then took the helm to build out the experience.

Complexity and risk.

It was a complex project from the onset, with six 3rd party integrations, a live marketplace, and a backend CMS. We were tasked with implementing social sign-up, content feeds, a payment gateway, NFC technology, and US-wide delivery. With no buffer to allow for contingency, I was in constant contact with our partners to research the integrations and ensure I was designing implementable functionality.

Disrupting with NFC.

Sneaker Con's events are the go-to place for traders to get their shoes authenticated and 'LEGIT' tagged by experts. To make this virtual, we added NFC stickers to the shoe's LEGIT tag. This allowed users to activate three unique experiences by tapping our app to the tag. The NFC activated features I designed allowed users to instantly identify shoes, upload verified shoes to their virtual closets, and activate an immersive web experience.

The 'Trading Pit'.

We then set about taking their legendary ‘Trading Pit’ experience virtual by creating a live marketplace that would cater to rapid bidding and buying. I painstakingly optimized every flow for sellers and buyers, removing friction at every point by eliminating typing and steps wherever possible.

The interactive feed.

To make this app truly epic and immersive for the Sneaker Con community, we integrated with 3rd party CMS providers to create an interactive forum featuring three unique content channels. I worked closely with the development team and client to ensure the integrated content had a cohesive look-and-feel.

Beyond MVP.

Our team worked under immense pressure to bring this app to life. In just seven sprints I had created a staggering 47 user maps that our dedicated developers managed to implement, test and deploy in time for launch.

An epic experience.

This app went well beyond an MVP to become an industry-changing experience, the high fidelity screens are below. The bold, cartoonish branding was combined with a minimalist interface to allow the sneakers to take center stage.

160K users & growing.

I collaborated with the Sneaker Con team to design vibrant App Store screens that were distinctly on-brand. The Sneaker Con app exceeded our wildest expectations when it exploded onto the app store, with 60K users in less than three months, and over 160K since the last count.

VanUX Awards.

After being nominated for the 2018 VanUX Awards in the ‘Best UX for Product’ category, I had the honor of co-presenting a flash demo of the app to the UX community at Microsoft HQ. At the awards ceremony, we were ecstatic to win our category, but blown-away to also pick up the supreme award for ‘Best UX’.

Recapping objectives.

01 Create a highly customized e-commerce experience based on deep insights into the niche user community.

02 Transform Sneaker Con into a digitally-lead business and technology leader in the sneaker industry.

03 Grow their market share and generate new revenue streams by opening up new market opportunities.

Take outs & learnings.

Did we achieve what we set out to? One of the biggest strengths of this project was that the design was firmly rooted in a continuous cycle of usability testing with end-users which fixed countless issues along the way, and meant the product was completely tailored to this niche market. The success of the app has allowed Sneaker Con to become a technology leader in the sneaker industry and has opened up a lucrative new revenue stream for them that shows no signs of slowing down.

One of the biggest challenges was how feature-heavy this app was from the start, more like a finished product than an MVP. With so much complexity having more ramp-up time to build out the architecture would have helped the team to work more efficiently. With that said, under high pressure, our team showed grit, pulled together and made magic happen!