Local businesses lacked the digital infrastructure to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. We built an alternative for them.
As part of our final year project, we designed and developed a web
application that acts as a marketplace for local businesses.
The application allows customers to pay online or on site and to
pick up their orders in partner "relay" businesses.
4 months • ~5h / week • 6 people
As online shopping is often associated with mass consumption and industry, we had to consider from the start that our target audience was more small businesses and local producers. To make our "brand" fit the audience, we built the experience around the idea of "convivialité" (~ conviviality ?), a French word that conveys the idea of togetherness, warmth and simplicity. This also inspired the name.
We found that many similar apps used a map to show businesses nearby to the customer. Sometimes, the customer had to register to the platform and register to virtual marketplaces before they could continue their visit. We felt that every step that is required before the customer can at least be able to view the products that might interest them is detrimental to the user experience.
So we decided to display nearby products right from the home page,
based on the user's geolocation or IP address. Consultation does not
require registration to the platform.
The full-text search functionality is also highlighted as the most efficient
way to find a specific product. It also takes into account the user's location
torank the results.
We have also kept the map, but moved it to the product description
and to the profile page of a business.
Product images are an essential part of the layout of our interface. Not only are businesses required to provide a photo, we have also deliberately reduced the amount of display space reserved for the product name to encourage businesses to use more descriptive pictures.
We opted to make a progressive web app as it is a convenient way to make cross-plateform app fast. We used a JavaScript stack based on Vue.js on the front-end and Google’s Firebase on the back-end. We also used cloud services to provide complex features such as search and online payment with Algolia and Stripe.
We worked at 6 for this end of study project. Directed by Gwendal Artalle and with the work of Gérôme Perrin, Paul Richalland, Grégorie Hacquard, Laura Cartier-Millon and myself.