Reverse Auction / prototype – Fresh Orange Design

Reverse Auction/prototype

Role: User Interface Design and Front-end Developer
Tools: Inkscape, Ruby on Rails.

Problem

This web app was a whole new prototype for one of our customers at Global Resources. The customer’s domain was “Real estate”, and they wanted a new way to locate and promote sales.

Solution

We created this prototype based on the customer’s requirements (User Stories) providing deliverables every sprint. We used Scrum, and the development team was a front-end developer (me), a back-end developer, and a system administrator.

Challenges

Requirements changed quickly, priorities shifted, we didn’t have a way to test the application with real users, and the CEO was providing solutions instead of formulating the problem.

My Contribution

My main contribution was making the interfaces easy to understand and easy to use. Focusing on form validation, responsiveness, and quality of the product. Documented all the way while designing and coding, which helped me go back and re-use some of this work in future projects.

Reverse Auction Prototype Sig in — Signin form, there were two options: with email or social networks.

Reverse Auction Prototype Sig in Email password invalid — The interaction was really simple and the messages were clear.

Interface used to edit the user’s profile. User were able to edit their picture and personal information.

Reverse Auction Prototype Change password. — This option allowed the users to reset their password.

Reverse Auction Prototype Customer's view — Users could use the left sidebar to navigate the web application and have a role. This is the administrator’s view.

Reverse Auction Prototype Quick finder demo. — The main feature of the platform allow users to search using filters and keywords.

Reverse Auction Prototype Seller registration. — The main stakeholder wanted to have a lot of information and most of it was not optional.

Reverse Auction Prototype Agent registration — This is the registration interface for an agent.

Reverse Auction Prototype Builder Registration. — This is the registration form for a builder.

Reverse Auction Prototype Buyer Registration — This is the registration form of a buyer.

Reverse Auction Prototype Support Form — Screenshot of the support form.

Reverse Auction Prototype Contact Us. — The design aimed to be clear and easy to understand with a main search on the top, and simple navigation on top including breadcrumbs. The web application was responsive, and we checked using different browsers and operating systems.

Reverse Auction Prototype FAQs — Frequently asked questions.

Reverse Auction Prototype Career — We also have informative pages, so not all are required to sign into the site.

What we learn

The project was not successful, they decided not to launch this service after all the time we invested. It was devastating for the whole team, but we learned from our mistakes.
We wanted to work with real users or check their points of view, but the CEO was not so open to this possibility. Hence, this complete project was based on one stakeholder’s idea for a business opportunity instead of the target audience.
We tried to apply some user experience strategies, but without communication with real end users, everything we did was just speculation.
It was our first Ruby on Rails project, and the team fell in love with this framework. What we learned from this product helped us to apply this framework faster to other domains and customers.