From my research, I learned that there are many inventory tracking systems trying to market business owners.

PERSONA

Before starting to design, I conducted several small business owners to understand their behaviors and what their needs are. Then I developed a user persona based on the customer interview research.

Meet James. He is a typical small business owner who wants to spend time growing his business instead of keeping track of his inventory. His greatest frustration is spending too much time tracking inventory and receiving inaccurate inventory count that will directly correlate to losing business revenue.

After accessing who the users would be for the inventory tracking app, I researched further on what features the users would find to be helpful to manage their inventory.

Essential features would be the ultimate goal of the app, however, for this project, I narrowed it down to these features that would play a major role in the most basic area of the inventory tracking app.

THE PROCESS

To understand what the process that the user will go through, I created user flows and task flows. The goal of this app is to make the process of entering the inventory as easy as possible. Let’s look at how the user will add an inventory.

TASK FLOW

As you can see, the task flow is very straight forward. From the Home Screen, you can add your inventory simply by pressing Add button from your mobile device. The process should be intuitive where anyone with this app should find it easy to add an inventory.

Now, let’s look more in detail of what exactly the user will go through.

USER FLOW

RESPONSIVE WIREFRAMES

After understanding the process of what the users would go through, I started to design wireframes. I started with simple log in page.

Then, I thought about how an inventory will get recorded. I started to design a wireframe for an inventory that will get recorded. The goal for this screen is to make the design simple and informative with the feature to add inventory very intuitive.

DESIGN

I started my design process by creating mood board. I knew my user is a business owner so I wanted to research on what colors schemes would work best. Here are some of the visual concepts that gave me inspiration.

MOOD BOARD

As you can see from the mood board, the color schemes are blue and green. I looked at these colors because those colors provide a sense of trust and reliability. Then, I started to explore style guide for my inventory app.

STYLE GUIDE

I designed the logo with simplicity and visibility in mind. Given the context of being an inventory app, I found inspiration in the term "Tory" derived from "Inventory." This would make it easy for the users to remember.

I researched on the colors and learned that green stands as the world's second most favored color, radiating positivity through its associations with growth, harmony, freshness, and progress. Taking inspiration from these qualities, I opted for a green shade to resonate with the Tory logo.

For the typeface, I chose Helvetica. The Helvetica font was deliberately selected for its clean lines and streamlined efficiency, ensuring compatibility with diverse content without compromising the overall design. Its widespread popularity as one of the most renowned and frequently used typefaces globally adds the advantage of familiarity for users, enhancing the overall user experience.

Hi-Fi WIREFRAMES

Once the style guide was completed, the next step involved the development of high-fidelity wireframes. This allowed me to preview and assess the visual representation before progressing to the full development stage.

Smooth Log-In Experience

I designed a login page that feels warm and user-friendly. With the app being exclusively for mobile use, my main goal was to create an inviting and delightful experience, hoping to leave users with a positive impression and encouraging more sign-ups.

That is why, I've added a "Skip for Now" option. This gives you the flexibility to choose whether or not to provide your company information at this stage.

AFFINITY MAP

ITERATION

Look and Feel

Creating a friendly atmosphere for the app was a priority for me. I incorporated gentle shades of popular colors like blue and purple to infuse a warm and inviting vibe. Through my competitive analysis, I observed that many inventory apps felt cold and challenging to navigate. To counter this, I opted for rounded corners in the design, contributing to a friendly and approachable user experience.

PROTOTYPE

I developed a prototype with the goal of refining design accuracy for the user and optimizing user interaction. To fine-tune the user experience, I honed in on testing the three most pertinent scenarios:

1. User will add an item to Tory app

2. User will add a folder to Tory app

3. User will edit/update an item using Tory app

USABILITY TESTING RESULTS

I used Maze to conduct a usability test specifically focusing on the three most utilized functions within the Tory app. A total of 10 users participated in the test, yielding valuable insights. Here are some key findings from the usability test:

All participant users were successful in adding a folder to the app

Following the usability testing phase, I created an affinity map to systematically organize and categorize the findings. This method gave me a clearer understanding of user feedback, allowing for more effective identification of patterns, insights, and potential areas for improvement within the Tory app.

From the findings, I learned that users had a positive experience with the app. The insights gathered from their experiences also provided valuable information about certain pain points. This constructive feedback inspired me to explore and implement enhancements, ensuring a more seamless and enjoyable user experience for the future.

After carefully examining the pain points, I made changes to improve its usability. This involved addressing specific issues raised during the evaluation process, with the aim of creating a smoother and more user-friendly experience for all app users.

I first looked into the login screens. I felt that these screens were important since they are the gateway to a mobile app. Since this is the first interaction that the users would have I felt making improvement here would be crucial

LOGIN BEFORE & AFTER ITERATION:

From this iteration, I was able to make the login/ sign up page

• Be inviting to the users

• Provide cleaner look & feel of the Tory app

• Offer a quicker option to sign up to reduce the time

Another main functionality of the Tory App is adding your inventory. During the usability research, I found that although adding an item was easy to do, it was bit confusing due to the wordings.