A Look Back on Look-back — Chapter 3: The Process
By: Thuy Le
Tags: Vinid, UX, Product Development, Product Design, Year In Review

Data

Data is an indispensable part of our Look-back series. Without it, our feature wouldn’t have come to fruition. But it would have been impossible to evoke emotions from our users if we just merely used raw data as they were. The team responsible for defining our data logic did not only include the Product Owner and Data Analyst, but our UX designer also got on board early on this whole data business.

When the project kicked off, all of us were new to this game, so figuring out how to reconcile different perspectives and maintain a smooth workflow were parts of our challenges as well. Various heated discussions between involved parties (and possibly some verbal fights too, but trust me — no one was harmed in the process 🤫) had been made on how we should optimize the power of our rich database. Several points of contention were:

How can we assess which data would best serve our users’ needs in exploring themselves and encourage them to share it without fear of disclosing their personal information?

How can we make these dry numbers more interesting? And by “interesting,” we don’t mean resorting to visual or textual means — the data itself should stand in the spotlight as well.

Unit Conversion

Initially, we strictly used whatever data we had, without putting much thought into tweaking them into something more revealing and unexpected. After various iterations and demo sessions on the feature, we decided to put more effort into the calculation and conversion. For example, instead of using default SKU units from the VinMart database, we converted them into smaller UoM (units of measurements). Here are a few before-and-after examples of how we spiced up seemingly dry and unexpressive numbers:

20 rolls of toilet papers -> 200 meters of toilet papers

10 cans of oil -> 30 liters of oil

How we convert the standard UoM in the original SKU database from VinMart into more interesting and insightful units and numbers

This method of conversion allowed us more freedom in creating engaging content to accommodate this new type of data as well. We knew this new conversion formula succeeded when it piqued our users’ curiosity. A lot of users were pleasantly surprised at how much groceries supplies they have bought, or question, “Oh my god, how come VinID knows so much 🤣?” You have to admit, that’s pretty cute!

Final Title Calculation

Another highlight in our way of implementing data logic was to finalize how we should classify our users into different groups and assign each of them a label. This label needed to be as diverse as possible to cover all of the different behaviors, but also not too overwhelming and confusing to our users.

Staying consistent with our user-centric approach, we started to examine our users’ behavior with quantitative data for best-selling product categories and subcategories at VinMart. This helped us determine more than 30 representative products that would serve as our base for label classification. We then built formulas that automatically helped us distinguish different user segments and assigned an appropriate label for each. These formulas were very dynamic. They could be adjusted based on the feedback we received after each demo session so that we could review all iterations before settling down for the best.

Design

Adopting the agile mindset, we kicked off our design process as soon as the project initialized. The development time constraint (1-month) did not grant us the freedom to wait for the finalized data flow and logic. Thus, our product design team started working in parallel with the product and data team from the get-go. Our UI designer started experimenting with different layouts, typography, and colors; our UX writers brainstormed various storytelling scenarios and concepts, and our artist team sketched several illustration ideas.

Here is a friendly reminder of the product design team structure at OneID. Our nearly 30-member team spans 4 expertises: UX Design, UI Design, UX Writing, and Visual Art. As such, one or more members from each team could join a business/product domain and work on its specific feature. For New Retail, our core team consisted of 5 members, in which I was responsible for managing the overall design process.

Before getting into the details, you should have a quick glance into what we were doing on some nights 😌