Sneakerdeck_User Interface Design | Branding
In the summer of 2016, I consulted with a startup out of the Ryerson Fashion Zone Incubator. I worked closely with a brilliant team led by the founder, Owen Osinde. Our goal was to create the visual that emulated the company's mission and values, while creating a familiar interface that users could engage with.
What Is Sneakerdeck?
Sneakerdeck is a social commerce shopping platform for sneakers and their sneakerheads.
Sneakerdeck allows you to discover new kicks in the market, connect with people around the world who love kicks, resell, and buy it all in one place. Sneakerdeck gives you the power to buy from an endless list of online stores, and resellers all in one hub. We are providing a sneaker-centric platform for people to engage & curate content to share with the sneaker community.
**The website has since been re-branded, therefore there is no preview available.**
CHALLENGES
Sneakerdeck is a service with a very specific target market. The aim is to create a "familiar" interface that caters to self-acclaimed sneaker lovers and traders, roughly 15 - 25yrs old, who know the lingo and are well versed with the current modes of social media and its attributes. In a sneaker reseller market, trust and reputation are key. Our task was then to create an interface that allows for users to socialize, rate one another and self-promote.
SOLUTION
This project relied heavily on user research, as such, our process was split into phases that would allow us test, over time, trail and error, how intuitive our decisions were and find out the general perceptions of the platform, all the while, creating marketing collateral for the brand. The first phase was to design for brand coherence, this is when a brand always feels familiar and intuitive when experienced. The result:
An interface inherent of present day social media.
The second phase became the task of managing user generated content. Their interaction with the dashboard was a vital aspect as the Sneakerdeck brand aims to make each interaction feel like socializing. The platform strives to create community before anything else. As such, we sought to create a dashboard that felt like shoe locker. This is where the user would have shelve(tabs) to put their content, based on the purpose that content was meant to serve. DECKED would be the "dream shoe collection", RACKS would be the users inventory and they would manage their posts and keep track of responses in MY POSTS and ACTIVITY respectively.
The most recent phase has been technical improvements. A beta site launched in 2017.
THANK YOU FOR READING!
THANK YOU FOR READING!
