Instant — The visual, no-code Shopify landing page builder
Timeline
Jan 2023 - Jan 2024
Type of company
Start-up
Way of working
Shape Up
Platform
Shopify app, in-browser landing page builder
Industry
SaaS, Ecommerce
Website
instant.so
Role & responsibilities
User Research: Observing and understanding the needs, behavior and emotions of users through both qualitative and quantitative research. The insights are being used for design and product development.
User Experience Design (UX): Together with the multidisciplinary team I create intuitive and seamless user flows based on user insights, data, stakeholder- & business needs.
User Interface Design (UI): Creation of user-friendly, engaging, and visually appealing user interfaces, streamlining the Instant brand.
Usability Testing: Observing how users interact with our product, evaluate the value and user-friendliness of features, and discovering bugs & flaws. I also test new features myself (quality insurance).
Pitch Lead: I make sure our development team has all the necessary data and design resources for building and delivering new features efficiently. I also handle time management and, if needed, escalate important issues to the management team.
Marketing & Growth Design: I assist our Marketing & Growth Team by creating visual assets that streamlines the Instant brand. This includes assets as blog posts, social- & website content, marketing email content, Shopify app store visuals and advertisements. I created a separate case to showcase a curated selection of these assets.
Empower anyone to build high-converting pages without code.
Background
For far too long, creating eCommerce stores has meant relying on developers, while dealing with never-ending timelines and increasing costs.
At Instant we speak from firsthand experience because before founding Instant, we operated as a different company known as Story of AMS, an eCommerce agency. Despite our ability to build eCommerce platforms for brands and businesses, our clients frequently encountered challenges when it came to customizability and doing post-launch changes to their eCommerce platform themselves. It was evident that a change was necessary.
Building eCommerce platforms without developers seemed impossible for most businesses. So, at the start of 2022, we set out to fix this problem. We quit Story of AMS, and started Instant Commerce, which is now recognized as Instant.
We are building the no-code page builder loaded with the features and technology that we’ve always wanted but never had: The next-generation, no-code page builder. So anyone can build fast, high-converting pages for their Shopify store.
No code is the most powerful way for brands to reach their full potential. With Instant, our mission is to make this accessible to everyone.
A product that the user loves to use
Having a mission is just the beginning. To create a truly valuable product and to discover the needs of our potential customers, I started with an ongoing research project.
Our product development is guided by research and design. This means we will continuously conduct (user) research before and during our product development cycles. Assumptions can be validated, new opportunities identified, and user satisfaction will be enhanced.
By doing this, we build a product that it’s truly valuable for our users, solving their pains and problems, and meet their needs:
A product that the user loves to use.
I will highlight a couple of research methods I used during this ongoing user research.
In collaboration with the growth team, I mapped out all direct and indirect competitors to see how they are performing, what we can learn from them, and how we can do better.
Competitor analyses
It turns out there are quite a few page builders available in the Shopify app store. After thoroughly exploring the major ones, reading reviews in the app store, and testing them ourselves, we've uncovered some interesting insights that could help us as Instant making a difference.
Questionnaire
Additionally, together with the Marketing team I crafted a questionnaire to learn more about our potential customers and gain a better understanding of those who are interested. We distributed the questionnaire through emails, social channels, and advertisements. I created the visuals for all the ads.
Goals:
Try to discover our main target group
Discover if users currently use a page builder: How are they experiencing working with a page builder, and what are the biggest struggles
Setup research foundation to develop product features
Identify opportunities
User interviews / card sorting
I have also spoken with various potential and past clients of Story of AMS to understand their current challenges in managing their eCommerce store and identify the essential features they value when using a page builder.
Goals:
Highlighted insights:
Drag-and-drop is a very common behavior in creating and customizing
Pre-designed templates and section are essential
Integrations with third-party tools should be allowed
Provide excellent customer support and documentation
A platform should be intuitive and easy to navigate
From discovery to delivery
With the insights I’ve gained and our overarching goal of enabling everyone to build a high-converting eCommerce store, I started with different design activities to bring our product to reality. I've been diving into a bunch of things to make this product a reality (working at a start-up ;)), so let me share a few of the design activities I've been working on.
Through our research, we found out that the preferred approach of building a store really depends on the user and use case. Some prefer building from scratch, others create a design first before building, and some opt to kickstart with a template or use pre-built sections.
For those who like starting with a pre-made design, here's a preview of some templates with fake brands I've created together with my design colleagues.
Pre-built, customizable templates
These templates give users a jumpstart to create their home- or landing page and can be easily customized to match their brand, style, and needs.
The templates contain best practices in eCommerce conversion and 100+ insights from large-scale usability testing from Baymard Institute.
Preview of other fully customizable templates
Based on different popular eCommerce industries
Collecting and displaying product reviews and ratings are essential for eCommerce stores, and having this feature on our page builder is a no-brainer. That’s why users should be able to seamlessly connect their preferred review app to Instant.
I created multiple flows and UI designs to make this integration possible, first focusing on popular platforms like Judge.me and Stamped.io.
Third party app integrations
To create a seamless and intuitive UX, I first started with the creation of all the different user scenarios when trying to connect a third party app. Based on the scenarios, I developed detailed flows and UI designs.
Drop rating element on canvas - Shopify is not connected
Shopify is connected - Selected app is installed correctly in Shopify
Drop rating element in product card - Shopify is not connected
Drop rating element on canvas - Shopify is connected - review app not selected
Drop rating element in product card - Shopify is connected - Review app is selected
Some flows highlighted below.
Iterations on how to display a product rating placeholder
The result of how to add review integrations to your eCommerce store
Usability testing
After establishing the foundation of our platform, I sent out invitations to a selected group of people who had completed the questionnaire, inviting them to join a usability test. This is an exciting opportunity for the users to:
Get a sneak peek of a new product
Give your honest opinion
Influence the product development
Shape the UX of Instant
For us as Instant it’s extremely valuable to:
See how people interact with the platform
Get people involved into the platform
Discover bugs or flaws
Validate assumptions
Test setup
I was very fortunate to conduct five usability tests with enthusiastic potential Instant users. For the test, I created a fictive scenario in both Dutch and English, including a design for a fake eCommerce store.
Participants were challenged to bring the scenario to life within the Instant platform, by undertaking different kind of tasks.
Valuable insights
The usability tests were very valuable and gave us a lot of interesting insights. After gathering all the test results, I organized the main findings by topic and made a list of low handing fruit that could have a big impact. After that I shared these findings and my recommendations on what areas to focus on with the C-suite.