Adzuki Smart Product Recommendation System

From Inspiration to Transaction: Adzuki's Vision of Seamless Shopping

Client
Adzuki

Sector
E-commerce

Scoop
Product Design
UX/UI

Toolkit
Sketch
Invision
Photoshop

Introduction

Revolutionizing Content Monetization with Adzuki - Adzuki emerged in 2016 as an ambitious start-up to be a game-changer in the digital content arena, offering content creators a seamless tool for product recommendation. Adzuki transforms any online image into an interactive shopping experience using sophisticated image-recognition technology. Each image becomes a gateway to a curated collection of products — an invisible, intelligent layer that only reveals itself when the user engages, making every image instantly “shoppable.”

Adzuki gives brands and webshops an opportunity to be presented at the exact moment consumers are inspired. Content creators gain the power to enrich their visuals with in-image, personal recommendations, engaging their audience at the very moment of inspiration. This not only enhances the content but also creates a subtle, more intuitive path to purchase. Adzuki shifts the paradigm from passive perusal to active discovery, making every micro-moment count, as consumers are merely one tap away from purchasing what they see in images.

My Role

As the sole UX/UI Designer for Adzuki, my role was central to shaping the user experience and interface of the platform. I led the design journey from conceptualization to implementation. My responsibilities spanned across various dimensions of design and collaboration.

Research and Insights: I did research to understand the needs and behaviors of Content Creators and End Users. This research formed the backbone of all design strategies. Francesco Maccari from the Marketing team provided significant support during this phase, offering valuable insights and expertise that enhanced the depth and breadth of our user research.
Interaction Design: I developed the interaction design, defining how users engage with Adzuki, crafting wireframes, prototypes, and final designs that emphasized intuitiveness and a seamless user journey.
Visual Design: I was responsible for the visual aspect of Adzuki, creating a sophisticated and inviting interface that resonated with our high-end user base through careful selection of colors, typography, and layout.
Usability Testing and Refinement: I implemented a rigorous usability testing regimen, gathering extensive user feedback and refining the design continuously to enhance functionality and user satisfaction.
Collaboration and Communication with Developers: A crucial part of my role involved close and continuous collaboration with the development team. I communicated the design vision and specifications clearly, ensuring a smooth translation from design to functional product. I worked alongside developers, adapting design solutions to fit technical constraints and possibilities, maintaining the integrity of the design while ensuring feasibility and effectiveness.

ACTORS

The Pillars of Adzuki: Understanding Our Key Players

In the Adzuki ecosystem, three primary user groups interact seamlessly to create a dynamic, interactive shopping experience: Content Creators, Final Users (Content Consumers/Potential Buyers), and E-commerce Platforms. Each group plays a distinct role, contributing to the fluidity and effectiveness of the shopping experience.

End Users

Content Readers / Buyers

Final Users are the consumers who interact with content integrated with Adzuki's smart product recommendations. They include a wide range of online audiences, from individuals casually enjoying content to serious shoppers looking for products that inspire them. Adzuki enhances their browsing experience by providing instant access to products related to the content they are viewing. This seamless integration of content and commerce empowers users to make informed, inspired purchase decisions without ever leaving their content journey, thus enriching the overall user experience with convenience and relevance.

Content Creators

Writers / Bloggers / Publishers

Content Creators are at the forefront of the digital content revolution. This group includes bloggers, influencers, digital marketers, photographers, and online publishers who produce engaging content across various platforms. Adzuki empowers these creators by enabling them to transform any image into a shoppable experience, thereby monetizing their content in a non-intrusive, user-friendly manner. They can curate and personalize product recommendations, embedding them directly within their content. This not only aids in maintaining the integrity and style of their work but also adds value to their audience's experience by offering relevant, on-demand products.

E-commerce Platforms

E-commerce Platforms like Amazon, Yoox, and Zalando are integral to the Adzuki ecosystem. They are the repositories of the vast range of products that Adzuki's technology recommends. These platforms partner with Adzuki to expand their reach and visibility, integrating their catalogs into the content through the sophisticated image-recognition technology. By participating in the Adzuki platform, these e-commerce entities benefit from increased exposure and sales opportunities, as content creators link their diverse and extensive product offerings directly to potential buyers. This partnership not only drives sales but also enhances the platforms' ability to engage with a wider audience through contextually relevant, visually-driven content.

While E-commerce Platforms play a critical role in providing the extensive range of products featured in Adzuki's recommendations, their integration predominantly occurs in the background, seamlessly connecting their catalogs with the user's experience. This case study will focus primarily on the interaction of the two other user groups—Content Creators and Final Users—with the Adzuki product, highlighting their engagement with this new innovative shopping experience and the value they derive from this interactive ecosystem.

PROBLEM

Bridging Content and Commerce

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, the fusion of content creation and e-commerce presents a significant challenge. Content creators struggle to monetize their digital assets effectively without compromising the integrity and appeal of their content. Similarly, consumers demand a seamless, intuitive shopping experience that is integrated naturally into their content consumption journey. This dual challenge forms the core problem that Adzuki aims to solve.

For End Users

Seamless Shopping Experience: Consumers seek a frictionless path from discovery to purchase within the digital content they enjoy. The challenge lies in embedding a shopping experience into content that feels natural and intuitive, without pulling them away from the content narrative.

Relevance and Trust: Users are increasingly wary of advertisements and sponsored content, posing a challenge in maintaining trust while presenting products. The recommendations need to be contextually relevant and trustworthy, encouraging users to explore and shop with confidence.

For Content Creators

Monetization Without Disruption: The primary challenge for content creators is to integrate commerce directly into their content without detracting from the user experience or the aesthetic and narrative flow of their content. Traditional advertising and affiliate links often feel intrusive, leading to potential disengagement from their audience.

Personalized Product Recommendations: Content creators need a sophisticated tool that can provide personalized, relevant product recommendations that align with the context and style of their content, enhancing rather than interrupting the user experience.

Bridging the Gap with Adzuki

The overarching challenge is to harmoniously integrate content and commerce in a way that benefits both creators and consumers. Adzuki addresses this by offering a solution that:

Seamlessly integrates shoppable elements into digital content, maintaining the natural flow and engagement of the user experience.
Utilizes advanced image-recognition and AI technologies to provide accurate, contextually relevant product recommendations.
Enhances the content value for the audience by offering an intuitive, non-intrusive path to discover and purchase products they love.
Empowers content creators with innovative tools to monetize their content effectively while preserving their creative integrity.

By tackling these challenges, Adzuki aims to redefine the relationship between content and commerce, creating a symbiotic ecosystem where content enriches commerce and commerce adds value to content.

RESEARCH

Understanding Our Users

In our research, our focus was to intricately map the digital terrain where our users live, work, and play. We sought to uncover the subtle nuances of their online behaviors, preferences, and pain points. This understanding is crucial in crafting a product experience that feels intuitive, considerate, and seamlessly integrated into their daily lives.

User Interviews: Unveiling Insights for Adzuki’s Evolution

To deeply understand the challenges and needs of our primary user groups—Content Creators and End Users—Adzuki embarked on a comprehensive user interview process. These interviews were instrumental in shaping the development of Adzuki, ensuring that the platform not only addresses the current landscape of content monetization and e-commerce but also anticipates future needs and trends.

Understanding End Users

Parallelly, interviews with end users—ranging from casual readers to avid online shoppers—provided valuable perspectives on their content consumption and online shopping behaviors.

Key Insights:

1.

Non-Intrusive Experience

Users favored a shopping experience that feels like a natural extension of their content consumption, without overt advertisements.

2.

Trust and Relevance

There was a clear preference for product recommendations that are contextually relevant and come from trusted sources, highlighting the principle that "people trust people." Users are more likely to engage with and act on recommendations that they perceive as genuine and backed by credible content creators.

3.

Ease of Discovery and Purchase

Users appreciated a streamlined path from inspiration to purchase, highlighting the importance of an intuitive and efficient interface.

Engaging Content Creators

Parallelly, interviews with end users—ranging from casual readers to avid online shoppers—provided valuable perspectives on their content consumption and online shopping behaviors.

Key Insights:

1.

Seamless Integration Desired

Creators expressed a need for a tool that blends naturally with their content, without disrupting the aesthetic or narrative flow.

2.

Autonomy in Product Selection

There was a strong desire for control over which products to recommend, ensuring relevance and authenticity in their recommendations.

3.

Enhanced User Experience

Creators wanted a solution that enhances, rather than detracts from, the user experience, providing value to their audience.

4.

Customization Features

Continuing to refine Adzuki’s customization capabilities will cater to a broader range of creators and content types, appealing to a more diverse creator community.

Synthesizing Insights for Development

The insights gleaned from these interviews informed every facet of Adzuki's development. For content creators, Adzuki needed to prioritize the creation of a user-friendly dashboard that allows for easy selection and placement of shoppable items directly within their content. For end users, the platform needed to focus on delivering a seamless, engaging shopping experience, enriching the traditional content with relevant shapable products and ensuring the recommendations did not intrude on the user experience for consuming the core content. Incorporating the understanding that "people trust people" into the platform's design ethos, Adzuki aims to foster a genuine connection between content creators and their audience, leveraging this trust to enhance the effectiveness of product recommendations.

Personas: The Faces of Adzuki’s User Experience

By developing these personas, Adzuki tailored its UX/UI design to meet the specific needs and preferences of each user type. For "Creative Carla," the design must empower her with tools for easy curation and embedding of products, maintaining the natural flow of her content. For "Shopper Steve," the interface must prioritize simplicity, relevance, and trust, ensuring that the shopping experience feels like a natural extension of his content exploration.

I have also created empathy maps to delve deeper into the minds and emotions of the personas. By dissecting what they say, think, do, and feel, we can better understand their motivations and design a product that not only meets but anticipates their expectations.

These personas and empathy maps serve as a constant reference, reminding us to align every feature, every interaction, and every design choice with the real human beings who will interact with Adzuki. They are central to our commitment to creating a platform that resonates with its users and delivers on the promise of a seamless content-to-commerce journey.

Persona 1 - The End User

Shopper Steve

Demographics:

Age: 30
Occupation: Full-time Fashion Blogger
Location: Urban City Center

Behaviors:

Publishes daily posts on the latest fashion trends
Actively engages with her audience through social media
Seeks innovative ways to monetize her content without compromising aesthetics

Goals:

To seamlessly integrate shoppable items into her blog posts
To maintain control over the products recommended to her audience
To enhance her blog's user experience and increase revenue

Challenges:

Finding non-intrusive monetization methods
Balancing content creation with commerce
Keeping her recommendations authentic and personal

Empathy Map for "Steve"

Says:

"I want to keep my blog's aesthetic clean and stylish."
"It’s important that my readers trust my recommendations."
"I need to find an easy way to monetize my content without annoying ads."

Thinks:

How can I balance creativity with commerce?
Will my audience feel like I'm selling out with too many product placements?
I wish there was a way to integrate products more naturally into my content.

Does:

Carefully curates products to align with her brand image.
Spends time researching products that will appeal to her audience.
Balances writing and content creation with business and marketing strategies.

Feels:

Concerned about intrusive or irrelevant ads disrupting her content.
Excited about the potential for increased revenue through content monetization.
Overwhelmed by the choices and complexities of affiliate marketing platforms.

Persona 2 - The Content Creator

Creative Carla

Demographics:

Age: 28
Occupation: Graphic Designer
Location: Suburban Area

Behaviors:

Regularly follows lifestyle and tech blogs for inspiration
Prefers shopping online to find unique products linked to content
Values a clean, intuitive user interface for online shopping

Goals:

To discover products that are relevant to the content he enjoys
To have a quick and hassle-free shopping experience
To trust the recommendations provided within the content

Challenges:

Overcoming the distrust of traditional advertisements
Finding a way to shop directly from content without being redirected
Getting sufficient product details to make an informed purchase

Empathy Map for "Carla"

Says:

"I enjoy finding new products related to my interests."
"I hate being bombarded with ads—it makes me lose trust in the site."
"If I see something I like, I want to be able to purchase it easily."

Thinks:

Are these product recommendations genuinely good, or just ads?
I wonder if there’s an easier way to shop the products I see in blogs.
I like when I can find product details and purchase info without searching.

Does:

Frequently shops online while reading articles and blogs.
Looks for product reviews and recommendations from trusted sources.
Abandons websites that are too ad-heavy or disrupt his reading experience.

Feels:

Frustrated with disruptive ads and complicated shopping processes.
Happy when he discovers a product that truly matches his interests.
Skeptical about the authenticity of products placed in content.

Market Analysis: Positioning Adzuki in the Content Monetization Ecosystem

In the realm of digital content and e-commerce integration, Adzuki has carved out a unique position that leverages high-tech advancements with a significant emphasis on influencer involvement. This approach sets Adzuki apart in the competitive landscape, as depicted in the attached diagram, and emphasizes the importance of user experience and interface in product design.

High-Tech and High Influencer Involvement

Adzuki's placement in the "High-tech" and "High Influencer Involvement" quadrant underlines its commitment to sophisticated, cutting-edge solutions that prioritize and enhance the role of content creators. Unlike traditional "low-tech" approaches or direct advertising models, Adzuki's UX/UI design is intricately tailored to empower influencers and content creators with advanced tools that respect and elevate their craft.

ADVANCING UX FRONTIERS:

Customization: Adzuki provides a platform where influencers can intuitively select and personalize product recommendations, integrating them seamlessly into their content without compromising on design or user experience.
Intuitive Dashboards: The UX/UI design of Adzuki's dashboard emphasizes ease of use, allowing content creators to manage and curate shoppable content with minimal effort, all while aligning with their unique branding.
Immersive Experience: By utilizing seamless interaction, Adzuki ensures that the shopping experience is woven naturally into the content, maintaining a high level of user engagement.
Advanced Image-Recognition Technology: Adzuki leverages cutting-edge AI to automatically identify products within images, suggesting related items to content creators. This automation streamlines the product selection process, allowing creators to easily find and incorporate relevant products into their content.

Distinction from Direct Advertising

By positioning away from "Direct Advertising," Adzuki distinguishes itself with a UX/UI design that focuses on subtlety and integration rather than interruption. This approach ensures that the end user's content consumption experience remains undisturbed, providing an organic shopping experience.

USER-CENTRIC APPROACH:

Non-Intrusive Recommendations: The design avoids the pitfalls of direct advertising by offering non-disruptive, contextually relevant product suggestions that appear as a natural part of the user’s browsing experience.
Empowering Content Creators: Adzuki's system respects the creator's role as a mediator between the e-commerce product and the consumer, allowing them to maintain control over the shopping experience presented to their audience.

Leveraging High Influencer Involvement

In the "High Influencer Involvement" aspect, Adzuki's UX/UI design recognizes the powerful impact influencers have on their followers. The platform is designed to amplify this influence by providing tools that facilitate authentic and personalized recommendations.

STRENGTHENING RELATIONSHIPS:

Trust-Building Features: The design includes features that help build trust between influencers and their audience, like transparency in product selection and alignment with the influencer's style and content tone.
Collaborative Feedback: Influencer feedback is integral to Adzuki's iterative design process, ensuring that the platform evolves in response to their needs and the needs of their audience.

Adzuki's placement in the competitive landscape highlights its innovative approach to integrating UX/UI design with advanced technology and influencer engagement. By prioritizing the user experience of both content creators and consumers, Adzuki not only stands out from competitors but also sets new standards in the harmonious fusion of content creation and e-commerce.

System Map: The Adzuki Ecosystem

The Adzuki platform is a complex ecosystem that seamlessly connects e-commerce platforms, content creators, and end users through an intuitive and sophisticated interface. The following explanation outlines the components of the Adzuki system and their interrelations, providing a comprehensive overview to accompany a visual system map.

E-commerce Integration: The Foundation

At the foundation of the Adzuki ecosystem is the integration with numerous e-commerce platforms, which collectively form the "Adzuki Wardrobe." This digital wardrobe is a vast database of products that serves as the source for all the shoppable items recommended within the content.

ADZUKI WARDROBE:

Product Database: A comprehensive collection of products from various e-commerce partners, updated in real-time to reflect current offerings and trends.
Integration Layer: A backend system that ensures smooth data exchange between Adzuki and e-commerce platforms, allowing for product information, availability, and pricing to be accurately reflected.

Adzuki Recommendation Engine

At the heart of the system lies the Adzuki recommendation tool, a sophisticated AI-powered engine designed to match content with relevant products from the Adzuki Wardrobe.

RECOMMENDATION PROCESS:

Image Analysis: As content creators upload their images, Adzuki's tool analyzes the visual content using advanced image recognition technology.
Matching Algorithm: The tool then searches the Adzuki Wardrobe for shoppable items that are visually or contextually related to the images in the content.
Creator Curation Interface: Adzuki presents these findings to the content creators through an intuitive dashboard, where they can review and make a personalized curation from the suggested products.

Content Creator Interaction

Content creators play a critical role in personalizing the shopping experience for their audience by curating product recommendations from the options provided by Adzuki.

CREATOR'S DASHBOARD:

Selection Tools: Creators use the dashboard to select products that they feel are most aligned with their content and audience interests.
Customization Options: The dashboard also allows creators to customize how these products will be presented to end users, maintaining their unique brand voice and style.

User Interface Layer - Recommendations to End User

The final component is the user interface layer, which presents the curated selections to end users as subtle, integrated recommendations within the content images.

END USER EXPERIENCE:

Content Overlay: When end users engage with the content, an unobtrusive layer appears, offering curated product recommendations.
Shopping Interface: Clicking on these recommendations leads users to a seamless shopping experience, where they can view product details and proceed to purchase without leaving the content environment.

The Adzuki system map represents a well-orchestrated network where each component works synergistically to create a fluid and dynamic shopping experience. It exemplifies how technological innovation can be harnessed to enhance content monetization while preserving the integrity of the user experience.

UX GOALS

Elevating Interactions, Empowering Connections

In designing and evolving the Adzuki platform, specific User Experience (UX) goals have been set to ensure that both Content Creators and Final Users find the system intuitive, efficient, enjoyable and premium. The platform is designed to feel luxurious and VIP, reflecting high quality and exclusivity in every interaction. These goals are central to providing a seamless, engaging, and high-end experience for all users.

UX Goals for End Users

1.

Seamless and Unobtrusive Shopping

Ensure that the shopping experience does not intrude on the content consumption experience. The transition from viewing to shopping should be smooth and only on demand, allowing users to purchase inspired items without feeling disrupted.

2.

Quick Access to Inspired Purchases

When users feel inspired by what they see, provide them with immediate and easy access to products in a way that feels natural and part of their browsing experience.

3.

Maintain Content Integrity

The integration of product recommendations should maintain the integrity and flow of the original content, enhancing the user's experience with relevant, subtle suggestions.

4.

Exclusive and Personalized Experience

Reflect the feeling of exclusivity and personal attention in every aspect of the user experience, from the design aesthetics to the curated product selections, ensuring that users feel part of a premium, discerning community.

5.

Accessibility and Elegance

Balance the inclusivity of design with the exclusivity of the experience, ensuring that the platform is accessible to a diverse user base while maintaining a luxurious and high-end feel.

UX Goals for Content Creators

1.

Intuitive Workflow Integration

Adzuki should fit naturally into the content creator's existing processes. The goal is to create a tool that feels like an extension of their creative suite, with minimal learning curves and maximum efficiency.

2.

Artistic Vision Respect

The platform must offer a look and feel that allows content creators to maintain the aesthetic integrity of their work. Adzuki is designed to amplify their creative voice, not overshadow it.

3.

Control and Customization

Provide content creators with full control over the selection and presentation of recommended products, enabling them to curate their content with precision.

4.

Enhanced Monetization with Elegance

Increase revenue potential through a discreet and sophisticated shopping layer that allows creators to offer a high-end shopping experience that organically align with their content.

5.

Efficiency in Content Monetization

Streamline the process of making images shoppable to maximize productivity and enable creators to focus more on their content rather than the complexities of e-commerce.

6.

Non-intrusive Product Recommendations

The addition of shoppable elements should not negatively impact the aesthetic or flow of the content. It should be implemented in a way that feels native and enhances the overall user experience provided to their followers.

By incorporating these elements, I aimed provide an exclusive, high-end platform that meets the sophisticated needs of Content Creators and Final Users alike. The goal is to make every interaction feel premium, intuitive, and rewarding, enhancing the reputation and revenue of content creators while offering an unmatched, elegant shopping experience to users.

USER TESTING

Exploring Engagement: Pathways to Higher Experience

Our user testing process was designed to gauge the usability, intuitiveness, and overall experience of both content creators and end users interacting with Adzuki. Through a series of targeted tests, we sought to understand the natural interactions our users have with the platform, identify any friction points, and gather feedback that would guide the iterative enhancement of Adzuki's design and functionality.

To ensure a rich and informative feedback loop, participants were carefully selected to represent a wide spectrum of our user demographics. End-user participants were sourced from our extensive network, with special attention paid to ensuring a variety of digital consumption habits, shopping preferences, and content engagement levels. This diverse group provided a well-rounded perspective on the end-user experience, from navigation and interaction with shoppable content to the intuitiveness of the purchase process.

Content creators were chosen through direct invitations, focusing on a diversity of industries—including fashion, technology, lifestyle, and more—and types, such as bloggers, reviewers, journalists, and article writers. This selection process was crucial in understanding the different needs and expectations across content domains, ensuring that Adzuki's tools and features could seamlessly integrate into various creative workflows and support a broad range of monetization strategies.

This thoughtful approach to participant selection and the setting of our user testing sessions enabled us to capture invaluable insights, directly influencing the strategic direction of Adzuki's UX/UI enhancements.

For End Users (Buyers)

Focused Testing Objectives

Parallelly, interviews with end users—ranging from casual readers to avid online shoppers—provided valuable perspectives on their content consumption and online shopping behaviors.

Methods:

Behavioral Observation

Tracking how users interact with shoppable content, noting their engagement levels and the ease with which they navigate to product information and purchase options.

A/B Testing

Comparing different layouts and recommendation styles to see which are most effective in engaging users and encouraging them to explore products.

Satisfaction Surveys

Post-interaction surveys to gather direct feedback on users' experiences, focusing on aspects like the non-intrusiveness of recommendations, relevance of products, and overall enjoyment of the integrated shopping experience.

A Specific User Testing Case : Optimizing Engagement Indicators

To guide end users toward interactive images with shoppable products, it was essential to establish a default sign that clearly communicates this interactive potential. While future iterations of Adzuki are intended to offer customization options, including a selection of icons or the ability to upload a personalized icon, the initial phase required the selection of a single, default indicator. To determine the most effective icon for this purpose, I conducted concise user testing with approximately 20 participants, aiming to identify an icon that intuitively conveys the message of interactivity and shopping potential within the content imagery.

A/B Testing for Engagement Signs

In our focused A/B testing, I explored various symbols — including a dot, dash, plus, and shopping cart — to determine the most effective visual cue for prompting user interactions with shoppable content. This detailed testing sought to find an indicator that was minimalistic, yet informative enough to encourage users to engage with the image and delve into the related product recommendations they could purchase.

The objective was to select an indicator that was subtle and seamlessly blended with the content, yet was distinct enough to guide users towards engagement and, ultimately, conversions. This testing was crucial for refining an engagement sign that would not disrupt the user's content experience but instead enhance it by making product discovery intuitive and inviting.

The horizontal axis represents a spectrum of icon styles for indicating interactive, shoppable content within an image. At one end of the polarity, it is labeled as "Minimalist," denoting icons that are more abstract and less indicative of shopping or interaction. These icons prioritize aesthetic simplicity over descriptive clarity so they risk being too ambiguous for immediate user recognition. At the opposite end, it is labeled as "Descriptive," representing icons that are more literal and clearly suggest shopping or interaction functionality. While these icons prioritize immediate recognizability, clarity and user guidance, they might be seen as visually intrusive or detracting from the content's aesthetic.

Outcome of the A/B Testing

The result of this meticulous user testing was conclusive— the plus, magic, and plus signs are identified as representing the optimal zone, being the most minimalistic options that effectively communicated to users there was more to explore by interacting with it. Among them, the plus sign emerged as the winner due to its versatility. Users found the plus sign to be intuitive and unintrusive, perfectly balancing the need for discoverability without overwhelming the content. This finding allowed us to implement an indicator that not only respects the aesthetic integrity of the content but also enriches the user's browsing experience by subtly inviting them into a product exploration from the images in the content.