Smart Shop

Figma Prototype & UI/UX Design

CampusConnect is a student-focused app that helps Rutgers students discover campus clubs, stay updated on events, and find organizations that match their interests and majors.

Role: UX Researcher & UI Designer

Timeline: August 10, 2025 - Present

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Tools: Figma Design, FigJam, Gemini, Copioli, ChatGPT

Synopsis: Smart Shop is an app I designed to help customers make smarter purchasing decisions.

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Context

‍ Smart Shop is an app designed to help customers make smarter purchasing decisions by consolidating product reviews and best deals in one place.
Target Audience: Gen Z and millennial frequent shoppers.
Why: Users spend excessive time hopping between apps and websites to find reviews and deals. Smart Shop simplifies this process, saving time and improving trust.

Problem

Users currently have to jump between multiple platforms such as Amazon, Google, TikTok, and Instagram to find reliable product reviews and the best available deals. This process requires significant time and effort, especially when searching for authentic, recent, and trustworthy reviews. As a result, shoppers experience a fragmented research journey that is tiring.

Breakdown of Solution‍

Smart Shop consolidates product reviews and deals into one experience, which gets rid of the need for users to switch between multiple platforms. Using a design thinking approach, I began by prioritizing Gen Z and millennial shoppers through interviews and trend analysis. From there, I defined the core pain points which included time wasted during research, difficulty trusting scattered information, and the overwhelm caused by navigating multiple sources.

Research

Methods: User interviews, and competitive analysis

Key facts

• Many shoppers conduct online research before visiting a physical store (55%) or even while in the store (25%).
• Over 90% of U.S. shoppers look for deals before buying online, and free shipping is a crucial delivery criterion.
• Large marketplaces like Amazon are the most popular destination, with over 90% of shoppers check reviews through large marketplaces like Amazon, Target and Walmart. Many young shoppers search up reviews on Google and social media platforms as TikTok, and Instagram

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Shoppers trust user-generated content over traditional advertising, such as real photos, videos, and peer opinions. They place strong importance on recency and transparency, wanting up-to-date reviews and clear disclosures. Additionally, users rarely rely on just one review, instead, they read multiple sources, including negative reviews, to understand potential issues before making a purchase. These insights helped shape the direction of my design decisions.

How might I...

• How might I make finding reviews and deals faster?
• How might I ensure authenticity and transparency in reviews?
• How might I integrate social media insights into the shopping experience?

Solution

Key features:

• Unified search for reviews and deals.
• Filters for authenticity, recency, and negative reviews.
• Map for in-store deals + direct links for online deals.

Reflection

Reflecting on the project, one of the main challenges I faced was balancing simplicity with the need to offer variety of features that supports the users. Through this process, I learned that early user testing is essential for ensuring clarity, building trust, and preventing feature overload. If I was given more time, I would explore AI-driven personalization to deliver smarter deal recommendations based on user behavior. Additionally, I would expand our research by interviewing more participants to strengthen the insights and validate our design decisions even further.

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