Square Business, an Inventory and Order Management Tool

Industry project | Square & Georgia Tech, MS HCI

Problem Statement

How can we create an omni-channel experience for small business owners who wish to sell their products online on various social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram?

UX Process

Keeping the end-users at the center of our design process, we worked closely with Square’s Product Team for a period of 4 months (16 weeks) to create an innovative solution that was tailored to the user’s needs.

Research

Identifying Users

With a clear understanding of our problem space, we discovered that even though our goal was to empower small business owners, there was another set of user group which we had to take into consideration, namely, their end customers. Hence, our design had to take into consideration both user groups - Business Owners and Customers.

Interviewing Business Owners

Once the two user groups were identified, we recruited participants. For interviews, we recruited 8 business owners who were willing to share their business journeys. They owned a variety of businesses, including jewelry, grooming, dairy, food, and stationery products. Our objective was to identify their business practices and challenges. A list of sample questions that we asked them during the interview is included below.

Surveying Customers

While interviewing business owners gave us helpful insights, we wanted to learn about the buying experiences of their customers. Since we wanted to reach out to a wider group of users, we published a survey that would help us collect quantitative data. We wanted to learn about their shopping preferences and practices. A list of sample questions from the survey is included below.

Research Analysis

Affinity Mapping

With the information that we gathered through our research methods, we conducted an affinity mapping session to identify recurring pain points and develop design ideas.

User Needs & Pain Points

By mapping the affinity diagram, we identified the following paint-points and the needs of the business owners and customers.

Design Implications

We analyzed the findings from business interviews and customer surveys and came up with the following design implications.

• Design should make sharing products on multiple channels easier
• Design should allow to keep track of inventory regardless of channel
• Orders placing and payments should be integrated with channel
• Design should not require intense adaptation for customers

Design

Divergent Design Ideas

Translating our research findings to design, we brainstormed design ideas that focused on messaging aspect of selling products on social media that leverages the power of messaging by making it interactive. We created three divergent design ideas and listed out the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Divergent Designs

We proposed divergent ideas to Square's leadership team. They suggested us to take interactive messaging one step further by automating inventory and order management.

Model Design

Having a clearer design direction, we designed this model that enables business owners to manage their online stores across various social media channels. Leveraging interactive messaging, Square for Business allows business owners to create and manage their online inventory, track order status and connect with customers through a single hub. Since this app is business facing, it does not interfere with the shopping experience of the customers. They continue to shop as regular through their preffered channel.

Square for Business

I designed the Square for Business app that enables business owners to create and post their products across social media platforms, manage product inventory and keep track of customer orders.

Create and Post Products

Manage Inventory

Track Orders

Customer Experience

For customers, I designed the experience of placing an order through interactive messaging on social media platforms.

Browse Store

Interactive Messages

Place Order

Evaluation

To evaluate our designs, we conducted usability tests. We recruited 6 business owners and 3 industry experts. We deployed a System Usability Scale (SUS) which consisted of 10 questions to determine the ease of use, desirability and overall satisfaction. Below was the score we obtained on the Square for Business app. A SUS score above 80 is considered excellent in form and performance and users love it. We also conducted a Heuristic Evaluation with 3 experts. During this evaluation, we identified few issues that we incorporated in our design iterations.

Take Away

Overall, I was very satisfied with the way this project turned out. We went above and beyond for coming up with a solution that works not only for business owners but also their customers. While interactive messaging is an unprecedented idea, it is only a matter of time before it becomes a commonplace feature on these platforms.