UX
Case Study 1
Chian-Chian千千之美 for
Atlas Branding Co., Ltd.
New Product Strategy for Chian-Chian 千千之美
Project length: Oct. 2024 to Dec. 2024
My role: UX Research & Strategist
Utilized skills:
-
Competitive analysis
-
Provisional personas
-
Assumptions validations
-
Remote user interviews
-
Data analysis
-
Brand Positioning
-
User flow creation
-
Content hierarchy creation
Project Overview
Problem Statement: Chian-Chian (千千之美), an Asian artisan brand, wants to design an online platform for artisan workshops and to promote artisan artworks for online purchase. The client aims to expand from Asia to the Western market.
Research Methods:
In my role as a UX Research & Strategist, I designed research studies to:
-
Understand the client's core product problems, identify the potential customers/users of the platform and validate product assumptions through 12 1-on-1 interviews
-
Analyze existing competitors through competitor analyses and brand positioning research
Results:
After gathering insights from these investigations, I designed:
-
Brand positioning for Chian-Chian
-
Essential user flows
-
Content objects for the product's main screens
-
Content hierarchy for the product to inform the UX strategy for the client.
Background:
Many traditional Eastern arts and crafts — such as Japanese indigo dye — have struggled to cultivate an audience in the West due to distance, language barriers, and limited online exposure. Chian-Chian（千千之美）is an Asian brand aimming to address this problem and connect Western audiences with Eastern traditional artisans.
Rather than simply displaying art, Chian-Chian aims to foster genuine understanding of the traditions and values behind these crafts. The brand seeks to design an online platform for artisan workshops, where Western audiences can learn about Eastern artisans and learn about the artistry’s origins. Therefore, central to Chian-Chian’s mission is active cultural exchange.
Client's Product Vision Statement:
This product is a digital platform to promote Eastern traditional crafts and workshops, using the example of promoting Japanese traditional crafts, to Western audiences. The short-term goal is to introduce customers living in Western countries to traditional Japanese handmade craft workshops and their products. The long-term goal is to promote traditional Japanese craft culture to the Western audience and foster cross-cultural communication.
Step 1: Identifying the Potential Customer with Provisional Personas
Provisional personas are created based on the client's initial assumptions for their core customer base. It is used to find interviewees to conduct research with and better understand the business problem.
Provisional personas created based on the client's target users include:
-
Traditional Japanese artisans (i.e., craftsmen) that own craft workshops
-
Customers living in Western countries such as Canada who are interested in Japanese crafts and products
(Parts of the provisional personas are blurred to protect client confidentiality)
Step 2: Identifying Product Opportunites by Validating Product Assumptions
To identify product opportunties, I first made product assumptions and validated them with 12 remote 1-on-1 user interviews. Each interview lasted 30 to 50 minutes, and were transcribed for qualitative analysis. Users were recruited based on the provisional persona of Sarah.
Data from the user interviews revealed insights into the new product idea. Assumptions are either rejected or validated, shown in the table below:
(Parts of the assumptions table are blurred to protect client confidentiality)
Insights from the interviews revealed that people with interest in Eastern crafts would like to use the digital platform for (1) travel planning (e.g., search for unique workshops near their travel destination, (2) to find leisure activity to attend with friends (e.g., search for workshops near their home).
On the one hand, more than half of participants (3 out of 5) mentioned they would not travel to a location specifically to attend a workshop, but would put it in their itinerary if they pass by the location during their trip. On the other hand, 2 out of 5 participants mentioned that they would travel somewhere specifically for a workshop if they were really passionate about the unique craft at the time (e.g., making their own perfume).
Validated assumptions contribute to ideas for features on the platform such as “Discover,” “Workshops,” and “Shop.” The platform will focus on promoting physical workshops in the short-term and not provide virtual workshops, since participants mentioned that they are not interested in attending virtual workshops.
A customer profile was created to solidify the findings into customer gains (green tabs), pains (red tabs) and jobs (grey tabs):
(Parts of the customer profile are blurred to protect client confidentiality)
Step 3: Understanding Competition with Competitor Analysis
I conducted competitor analysis on 5 direct competitors and 3 indirect competitors using a competitor analysis matrix.
-
Direct competitors to this project include platforms that either (1) connect visitors to local crafts workshops, or (2) are focused on workshops for Asian traditional arts with the example of Japanese traditional crafts.
-
Indirect competitors include those that allow artisans/organizers to arrange local workshops or offer a wide variety of workshops apart from crafts.
(Parts of the competitive analysis matrix are blurred to protect client confidentiality)
Next, competitor product attributes were also investigated. Taking a direct competitor, Airbnb Experiences, as an example, I examined product features that worked well for that website as reference for new product design:
Step 4: Product Positioning
Based on the competitor analysis, I mapped out the brand's new product positioning within the current competitor landscape. I designed this x-y axis map to showcase the competitors on the current market, and identified a new blue ocean market position for the product (e.g., a space where no competitors occupy).
(Parts of the product positioning map are blurred to protect client confidentiality)
Based on the data from the above investigations, the competitive edge of the client's product was identified as "a platform that specializes in local traditional crafts workshop for
locals and travelers based on user's location that also fosters workshop community
engagement." Potential product features were then designed to aid this goal.
Step 5: Providing UX Strategy for Designing the Product
After validating the assumptions, I provided a UX strategy package containing user flows for 3 essential user tasks, the content objects for the 4 main screens, and the content hierarchy for the product to the client. These components were to inform the client's future product design in the next stage of their product development process.
An example of a user flow for users searching for a workshop and adding it to cart is shown below.
(Parts of the user flow are blurred to protect client confidentiality)
An example of content objects for the Home screen of the product is shown below.
(Parts of the content objects page are blurred to protect client confidentiality)
Finally, I created a content hierarchy diagram to aid new product design, which is shown below.
(Parts of the content hierarchy diagram are blurred to protect client confidentiality)
Conclusion
-
Results have been delivered to the client and are in talks for next steps
-
The next phase of this projects includes a concept test to investigate client's arts product styles used to set up the client's e-commerce website, as well as UX research for the client's growth strategy