
Zwende
UX / UI DESIGN
The Client
I worked closely with the co-founder of Zwende, an India based e-commerce marketplace for consumers to customize and create their own home decor products and fashion accessories. Each product is handcrafted on-demand by artists and skilled craftsmen based on personalized orders from consumers. I worked with a team of 2 other designer’s who each had their own distinct design task for the company.
The Problem
Zwende needs a more intuitive onboarding process for their artists. In an effort to increase artist engagement with their back-end dashboard, we had to improve a few key features of the registration process with a step by step guide to building their own shop. By boosting the artist engagement early in the onboarding process, this will potentially generate more sales for Zwende artists.
The Solution
My task’s solution involves metered progression throughout onboarding to visually engage the new artists and entice them to optimize all the tools supplied by Zwende to have a successful shop.
Role
UX Designer, UI Designer, Market Researcher
Tools
Figma, Miro, Pen and paper
Scope
30 hours

MY PROCESS

Stakeholder Introduction
At our first meeting, I and a team of 2 other designers met with the owner of Zwende, where we discussed her expected deliverables, a structured timeline, and a detailed overview of the company goals and limitations.
EMPATHIZE
Persona
From our discussion, the client gave us a detailed overview of our user base from which I could make a persona. She informed us that our users will be the suppliers in the backend of the marketplace platform- or “artisans.” It was important to have a well defined picture of the artisans, to measure their motivations, goals and frustrations in the process of using the Zwende platform.
RESEARCH
Competitor Analysis
With well defined persona’s of their users, we could proceed with in depth market research and competitor analysis. I looked at 5 competitors in within the lens of my role- researching the onboarding process and noting their strengths and weaknesses. I made the following analysis:
RESEARCH
Current Design Audit
I conducted a design audit of Zwende’s current onboarding process. From my assessment, I realized the current registration lacked interactive qualities that would engage the artist to fulfill all the steps for a successful shop.
Findings
• Top competitors have a clear visual path for users to build a complete profile.
• The current onboarding’s lack of organization decreases user engagement and can in turn effect the success of their shop.
• Zwende needs a step by step visual guide with metered progression for new users to build thier shop to completion.
How might we engage the artists to build a complete shop while providing the all the tools necessary to grow as a successful supplier?
UI DESIGN
Style Guide
Zwende had some already established brand guidelines for the logo, color pallete, and typeface styles.
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
User Flows
I decided to break down the onboarding process into 4 main steps that each has its own subsections with forms and other information for the user to fill out. These sections include “get started,” “build,” “personalize,” and “grow.”
IDEATION
Sketches
In order to visually portray the progression of each step, I sketched out some initial ideas of the layout of screens and included a “completion score” bar on the left of the dashboard.



We ran into a little issue…
The was a big communication gap while approaching a deadline. This happened to be during Diwali, one of India’s largest holidays, and I was missing key information for onboarding requirements necessary to move forward with wireframing.

No biggie!
I continued forward and created wireframes based on what I knew about the Zwende platform, my understanding of the users, and my research from market competitors.
IDEATION
Mid-fidelity Wireframes
From the basis of my initial sketches, I created mid-fidelity wireframes to outline the registration process for the artists. I made an educated guess based on what I know about they company and my research of similar onboarding from competitors.

After I got a hold of the client and showed her my work, she was apologetic for the miscommunication and impressed by my solution. I was then given the specific requirements needed to proceed with hi fidelity prototypes.
FINAL ITERATIONS
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
I cleaned up the interface with design themes consitent with their website, moved around some of the steps for a more intuitive flow, and incorporated the specific fields that Zwende requires for their artists.
Clickable Prototype
Don’t see the prototype? Click below
Reflection
I worked closely with key stakeholders and with a team of 2 other designers who had their own design tasks for the company. Our team collaborated throughout the whole process with weekly meetings to show progress and receive feedback from the client. Working with Zwende helped me understand the importance of the client/designer relationship.
Communication is key in these partnerships and I learned to be patient especially with a company all the way across the world. I learned that not every client will have the same expectations for the design process, and may require more or less deliverables. In this case, the company did not need some important steps like testing in the process, which was surprising. But as the long as the company was happy in the end, which they were, I feel like my job as a designer was successful.
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