YoLocal · Volunteer design challenge · 2020

A local marketplace to help neighbourhood shops through lockdown

In five weeks, a fully remote team of eight researched, designed and tested a marketplace that connects residents with neighbourhood shops closed by COVID-19. I worked on the research, the personas and the seller side of the app.

Covered: research, product design

My role: UX/UI designer: user interviews, card sorting, personas and the seller screens.
Team: Eight volunteers who had never met, working remotely with mentors.
Timeline: Five weeks, during the spring 2020 lockdown.
Result: A tested high-fidelity prototype, a brand and a launch plan.

The problem

Lockdown closed non-essential shops overnight. The ones with no online presence had no way to reach their customers.

Residents wanted to help, but did not know which shops needed it or whether their support would reach them. Our question: how do we connect people with local businesses that are closed?

The research

311
survey responses on shopping, eating and information habits: 16
interviews with local shop owners: 14
interviews with residents

Trust was the barrier. People wanted to help but needed to know their support reached the shop.

Shop owners already had social media and websites, and saw little benefit from them.

Residents often chose large stores for convenience and range, so local had to be just as easy.

We turned this into two personas: a shop owner whose income had dropped and who wanted to become more digital, and a resident who wanted to help her neighbourhood recover.

The solution

YoLocal is a marketplace for neighbourhood shops. Residents find shops in a list or on a map, buy from them, and can add a contribution to help a shop stay open.

Shops that are open act as collection points for shops that are closed. On the seller side, which I designed, an owner registers, adds products and offers, gets verified, and tracks daily and monthly sales goals.

YoLocal seller onboarding form on mobile — The seller registration screen I designed. A shop owner signs up free with one form. Scroll to see it all.

Hand-drawn storyboard showing the shop owner journey — Storyboard for the shop owner: hearing about the app, registering, adding products and receiving support.

YoLocal order journey wireframe and final contribution screen — Left, an early wireframe. Right, the final design: after buying, a resident can share the app or contribute a set amount or one of their own.

What testing changed

We tested the flows with residents and shop owners before the final design. Three things changed because of it.

A clearer name for giving

"Donate a coffee" confused people. It became "collaborate", with fixed amounts or one you choose.

No prompt at checkout

Asking for a contribution during payment felt intrusive, so we removed it.

Private totals for shops

Owners did not want the amount they had received shown in public, so it became a percentage of their goal.

YoLocal checkout before and after usability feedback — Checkout before and after. The wireframe on the left asks for a "coffee" donation above the total. The final design on the right keeps to delivery and payment.

What I took from it

The project ended as a tested prototype with a plan for launch. It was a five-week challenge, and it did not go live.

It taught me to test assumptions early, and that a team of strangers can move fast remotely when people trust each other. Both have shaped how I run research since.

Read the team's full write-up on Medium