Sprout
Responsive e-commerce app
Everything you need to give your little ones everything they need.
How many sleep onesies do you really need?
The Challenge
In August 2022, my wife and I welcomed our first daughter into the world.
As we prepared for this life-changing event, we wanted to know: what do we really need to keep this tiny human alive, healthy, and well?
As first-time parents, mindful of the impact of use-it-and-ditch-it baby items on both our budget and the planet, we needed a guide to navigate the overwhelming mountain of newborn, baby, and toddler purchasing decisions.
The Solution
A mobile e-commerce app that will allow users to buy new or used clothing and home goods for newborns, infants, and toddlers. Users will be able to research items, shop, and build registries easily, anywhere and any time.... whether it’s 3:00pm when baby is down for a nap, or 3:00am when they are up for an early morning feeding.
The Approach
Sprout was designed with new parents’ needs at the front and center. From target user definition through brand style guide development, prototyping, and final mockups, each phase of Sprout’s design process was organized with the goal of making the new parent shopping experience as simple and straightforward as possible.
Step 1: Target User Definition
Who is Sprout for?
Sprout users are parents who want high-quality clothing and home goods for newborns, infants, and toddlers – without spending exorbitant prices on items that they will quickly put aside as their child grows.
As parents of young children, Sprout users need to make the most of every dollar and every minute.
What will Sprout users be able to do?
• Search products via filters, includin: category, price, material, age range.
• See user reviews.
• Use shopping guides based on child’s age.
• Collect items to shopping cart or baby registry.
Step 2: Brand Values Definition
Keep It Cozy
Cozy means making the shopping experience simple and easy enough to do in your bathrobe at 3:00 in the afternoon, or 3:00 in the morning.
Stay Sustainable
Sprout’s access to pre-loved items means more sustainable budgets for families of all means, and more sustainable lifestyles for users who want to break the cycle of use-it-and-ditch-it fast fashion.
Build Trust
Sprout builds user trust through transparent product reviews, seller approval processes, and a no-questions-asked return policy up to 30 days after purchase.
Step 3: Visual Branding
With Sprout’s target user group, key functions, and brand values defined, I designed a style guide to create an aesthetic that would be whimsical yet trustworthy.
Step 4: User Flows
User flows were mapped for each of Sprout’s key functions including an onboarding experience, searching for products, utilizing shopping guides with categorical filters, and adding items to either a shopping cart or baby registry. Each user flow was then connected into a master blueprint via Figma.
Step 5: Low-Fidelity Wireframes
I then moved on to the development of low-fidelity wireframes for the user flow that sets Sprout apart: Sprout’s shopping guide, which gives parents a tool to plan appropriate purchases for each key milestone in their child’s life in monthly increments. Screens were hand-sketched in Procreate.
Step 6: Mid-Fidelity Wireframes and User Testing
Mid-fidelity wireframes were generated in Adobe XD and loaded into InVision to produce an interactive prototype which was tested with a small user base. Users were asked to complete a simple task and provide feedback regarding the prototype’s usability and likability. This feedback was instrumental and was used to further refine screens in the final product mockups.
User Feedback:
👍 Warm branding
👍 Clear value proposition
👎 Search categories unclear
👎 “Shopping” vs. “Guides” is confusing
👎 Pink logo color reads as specific skin tone
Step 7: High-Fidelity Mockups
Finally, it was time to bring everything together in high-fidelity product mockups. User feedback was implemented in this last stage, and branding elements such as color palette, photography guidelines, and brand voice were incorporated as well.
Ꝏ The Future of Sprout
With its focus on easy-to-use shopping guides and embedded parenting advice, Sprout has the potential to build long-lasting consumer relationships that grow alongside families.
Next steps would include development of shopping guides by Venn diagram categories, in-app social groups for parents, and investigation of partnerships with local stores to reduce the carbon footprint of long-distance product shipments.