Persona Justification: Vinted
The application I’m conducting this UX case study is Vinted. Vinted is an online and application marketplace for the buying and selling of second-hand clothes, shoes and other accessories. I decided to study this app and interface initially as it’s something I’ve used myself - from this knowledge, I conducted research on a persona that best represents Vinted users (much of this justification is mentioned in this writing to provide background to the application). From being a user of the application, I’d generally become very familiar with its features and other users I’d communicate with, which helped inform my research throughout the process.
Vinted was a Lithuanian startup founded in 2008 by Milda Mitkute and Justas Janauskas. In an online profile about Mitkute by Anano Shalamberidze (for Numero magazine), she tells the story of Mikute at only 21 founding Vinted, inspired by her excess of fashionable clothes in her wardrobe with no place to go. Vinted on their own website tell us their ideal user: someone who is ready to “declutter their closet” (indeed, just like Mitkute had wanted when she began the company 15 years ago).
Vinted’s community is functionally very simple. Users can function as both a seller, a buyer, or both interchangeably. One opens an account, photographs an item they want to list for sale (or items), answers a number of questions which narrow down the item’s quality, brand and condition, before it is posted to the Vinted community. The most complicated part of the selling process in most popular selling apps is shipping: Vinted streamlines this process by prioritizing the seller and their personal convenience. When a customer buys an item through Vinted, they have to buy their own shipping label which is generated and sent to the seller, ready to attach to the wrapped up item and secured for shipping. The seller receives all the money they post for the item, and no shipping cost is deducted from the money they receive. Another key part of Vinted’s application are its community features. The application allows sellers and buyers to communicate with one another, bargain, and receive more information before making a purchase.
According to similarweb.com, 62.1% of Vinted’s users are women, and Vinted’s most popular user base are within the age distribution of 25-34 years old at 31.7%. This is closely followed by 18-24 years old which stands at 20.6%. Generally, research recognizes that the Vinted customer is interested in fashion and apparel, as well as shopping. Vinted targets an audience which are interested in sustainability, and want to buy clothing on a budget.
I decided to interview someone within this target demographic, a 23 year old athlete and art history grad (I have named her “Izzy” after me, to protect their privacy). Unlike when I initially conducted research into creating a perfect persona, this research actually focuses
specifically on the buyer's end of the Vinted process. My persona research had focused only on what the experience was to sell an item on the Vinted platform. What I noticed from this research is how much the buyers have been somewhat misrepresented - the Vinted experience is mostly catered to the seller, and incentives or selling strategies for buyers are somewhat underdeveloped.
Upon entering the Vinted out, my test subject opened up the homepage. The homepage was confusing to the first-time user, it has options which slides both horizontally and vertically. The user was skipping over multiple items that existed on the horizontal plane to keep scrolling down in the traditional instagram or Tik Tok “for you page” style. This two-plane approach to advertising items on the site is counterintuitive and it threw off my user. Once scrolling down this homepage, they were not able to find what they wanted. The way to fix this is to create a singular vertical plane which the user will continue to scroll through. This will imitate the “continuous scroll” of other social media sites. It’s more recognizable for the primary audience of Vinted, who in research are shown to gravitate towards social media sites such as instagram or pinterest (two sites which have a for-you-page style swiping mechanism).
Instead of tapping on the special primary navigation bar option “search”, they tapped the “search” button on the top of the home page. The repetition of this search function feels meaningless, and the existence of both puts into question whether they have different functions. After asking the user why they didn't search at the primary nav button, they cited that it was confusing and unclear what this search function on the primary navigation was intended for. Indeed, when she eventually explored it to see that this search function allowed you to select through pre-selected criteria which narrowed down preferences and interests, this was confusing. If there is a function which allows users to better personalize their for you page, this should be cited at the start of the homepage, rather than elsewhere (where it is then unclear what the function is). This can be resolved by taking the search button out of the navigation bar, and transferring it to the start of the homepage. The start of the homepage can also show the preference options which are offered when you click on the primary nav of the original site. If it’s delivered in this way, the user can decide their journey - scrolling through a traditional for you page, or catering their search to items they may already have in mind.
The last issue the user came across was the profile page. The user I interviewed was struggling to work out how to edit their page and create a personalized experience, as well as edit a bio which their friends would see from a public view. In order to edit your profile, you have to click “profile”, click “view my profile”, then click the three small dots in the top right corner which shows you a drop down list in which you can see the option “edit profile”. It should not be this difficult to make edits to a profile which is accessible to the public.
These have been my focus for my three redesigned screens. In the screens, I showed the experience of scrolling my new home “for you page”, which integrates both the ability to put in preferences as well as scroll down for new and infinitely generating content. Once you see something you like your page transforms to that item, and a related page of other items which are similar or related to that one. This way, even if the item the user has clicked on isn’t what they want, they can keep scrolling to see if another item works better. This is particularly useful for things like shoes, where a user needs to find shoes which are their size. If one item they click on isn’t successful, they should be able to keep scrolling in a way which allows them to find something that is suitable for them. This will keep their engagement and better serve the user to find something they want.
The final screen design was a new “me” icon, and profile section. In this section, the user can see their profile as well as options to redesign their profile and edit, as well as see a public view of their profile. This can allow users to access their profile from their personal and public perspective, as well as allow them a clear path to edit.
Before presenting the more polished screens I designed on Figma, these were my sketches of my ideas:
The redesigned pages are consistent with the color schemes and options that are available on the original page. However, I have condensed options in a way that allows the user to not be oversaturated with options which confuse the on the right route through the application. With my redesigned app, a buyer will find a more user-friendly and fun exploring experience where they can find convenient and affordable options to buying clothes.
The one change I made since my rough draft was to keep a navigation menu on the button at all times. This will allow the user to move through seamlessly from one page to the next as they want, or escape from a for-you-page hole they may be in and unable to navigate out of. Another change is having bigger icons for the women, mens kids and refrigerator icons (which represents everything from housing to appliances to entertainment).