IMVU is a social platform where members use 3D avatars to meet new people, chat, create and play games with their friends.

Visit IMVU Web / App Store / Google Play Store

Project Overview

Improve current Shop behavior by introducing a Global Shopping Cart
Add functionality by adding categories

Role

I led the design of the shop experience in 2017 for web and later iOS and Android in 2018, collaborated with other designers on shop category and cart PiP features.
In addition, I worked closely with web/mobile engineers, QA, researcher, product owners and product managers on this project, from initial idea to execution.

Problem

Shoppers want to better find/discover items that they seek to buy that are unique, original, and best suited to the activity and look they have in mind. Currently, users complain about difficulty in finding what they desire in Shop.
Creators want to gain more prominence and recognition in Shop. Skilled creators want to get their products to be viewed by shoppers that seek them.

Old flow: no global shopping cart; flat category hierarchy; Static 2D image of product card, couldn’t try on

Approach

Add a global shopping cart
Increase Credit Sinks through introduction of new categories.
Increase retention through engagement via "completing" the IMVU experience through Rooms & Furniture.
Simplify and consolidate the product categories that were contrived by Creators via Core in favor of IMVU-official categories. Move categorization hierarchy closer to what e-commerce sites so that users can more intuitively navigate to desired products for purchase.

Some e-commerce sites/apps I have studied:

Item	User Story	Notes
Shop	User can add items to Cart User know when item is added to Cart User can view applied filters
Shopping Cart	User can proceed to Checkout User can access items in Cart between sesstions and platforms User can view items in Cart User can distinguish items being considered for purchase vs. inventory items being worn User can remove one item at a time from action sheet User can batch edit the list of items* User can delete all items at once* User can preview 3D avatar wearing Cart items User can access action sheet from More option and view Product Card* User can play actions of unowned items User can undo and redo certain user events	need better access to Wishlist
Product Card	User can buy the product User can add the item to Cart User can preview their 3D avatar wearing the item User can view detail of the product User can report the product User can gift the product to another user User can add the item to Wishlist	Future: Reviews, Creator description
Checkout	User can purchase User knows grand total User knows if purchase was successful or not User can retry if purchase was unsuccessful User has an option to save a new look upon successful purchase
Inventory	Currently there is no pathway from Inventory to Shop. Create CTAs under each subcategory of Inventory pages, e.g. if I'm in Hairstyles in Inventory, post a tile to "Shop More"
Categories	Categorization of each product runs at least three levels deep, eg Women→Clothing→Tops with each product assigned to only one category.	Future: Give exposure to common IMVU themes such as gothic, horror, furry, etc. as quicklinks, possibly in featured section

*mobile feature

Shop Experience Flowchart (Web)

Responsive Grid Layout

Pages with Feed

Pages with Other Content

3 column grid: 1000px <= {browserWidth} < 1160px
4 column grid: 1160px <= {browserWidth} < 1320p
5 column grid: 1320px <= {browserWidth}

Lightboxes & Cards

Design Specs

Cart Use Cases

Cart Drawer Animation

Experiments

Final Animation Effect

Desktop & Mobile Web Variations

Product Card

Shopping Cart

Web Shop Experience

Shop Experience Flowchart (Mobile)

Mobile Grid Layout

iOS

Android

Shop Detail

iOS

Android

Product Card

iOS

Android

Shopping Cart

iOS

Android

Actions Sets Interaction Experiment

User Testing

Round 1 : General market research of online shoppers
Round 2 : Invision prototype test (with staff)
Round 3 : User test with prototype (via usertesting.com)
Round 4 : User test with QA mode (via usertesting.com)

Mobile Shop Experience

Result

App has been rated as #5 Top Grossing Social in Play Store (raised from #7 in 2 months; based on a total of 20K ratings)

UI/UX everything else about