Buyback; Sell Old Phone — A UX case study

Designing a service to help customers sell their phone at best value from the comfort of their home.

The Brief

On an average, a person keeps a mobile phone for 10–15 months only. Then looks to buy a new one. Due to lack of accurate pricing, people very often leave their old phones idle, to never look back at. Another problem is selling old phones, other electronics is a lot of work and there is no defined or easy way to do so.

The Solution

We wanted to help solve this problem by building a new feature that not only helps users to sell their old phone at the best price but also ensure hassle-free process.

Our app already has an option where users can diagnose their mobile phones & check its efficiency on a regular basis. Using this new feature, now users can find the best price for their old phones and choose to sell it.

What else? Users can continue to protect their new phone from damages and other unforeseen incidents.

Understanding and aligning the research points with business objectives

• Increase revenue generation by giving an option to continue their protection plan on the new phone at the end of the journey.
• Create an option for users with old phones by showing them the best selling price. And target them as soon as they buy a new mobile phone.
• Keep an effective engagement during the whole process of selling and after.
• Explore user motivations, problems or conflicts while selling old gadgets online or offline.

Research takeaways

• Everybody owns a smartphone these days. And wants to upgrade to a new one after 10–15 months.
• Selling an old mobile phone is a lot of work, with many price options and different buyers. There is no fixed price or a doorstep selling process.
• People usually don’t have an idea of what price to ask for their old mobile phone or how much it would sell for.
• In the peer-to-peer marketplace, there is no fixed price, this leads to baseless price fluctuations.

Defining the user

We created the first level of user persona. It helped us get a better understanding of their needs, motivations, frustrations. Later on, these personas will be re-iterated or refined.

High level draft of user journey

This was the first level draft of how user journey would look like. We decided to shelve a few points for the phase of this project.

Sketches & Wireframes

After the research, created paper sketches of how the user journey would look like. This involved a lot of discussions with the stakeholders and the team.

Navigation transition from home screen to detail screen

A basic parent-child transition was introduced from home screen to detail screen. We plan to carry this transition for every component which followed a nested flow.

Using standard easing motion, It drew focus to the child screen (which is the destination of the interaction), while keeping the relation between Home and Detail screen.

Purposeful motion and transitions

Flow consists of a step where user needs to answer a series of 8–9 questions. This would have been a tedious task for user if we followed generic nested flow.

New solution proposed: All questions on 1 screen. And only the active question would be most focused upon. When the user picks one option, the screen scrolls vertically. Then focus is on the 2nd question. Second screen is where we test the mobile components. By adding playfulness through animation, we tried to educate user on how to do the task.

Visual Design — App Screens

App detects device model and make for personalisation

Android app detects device make and model, and show estimated selling price by mapping the model name detected, with the partner API.

Hardware components check for accurate pricing

To get exact selling price, We’ve automated a few things. Consists of 15 components hardware check and at the same time informing the user why this needs to be done. Added animation for each componenet test educating the user on how to do it.

Ex; Accelerometer/Gyroscope test has an animation of football which the user has to move/tilt the phone to score one. Therefore adding the playful factor.

Few questions about device

We also needed a few questions related to the device. In order to make it smooth and fast for the user, a new type for flow was introduced. On answering 1st question, the page scrolls to the next question. User can scroll back to change 1st option if required.

Keep user focused with purposeful motion, also keep the user on the same page to make every question easily accessible with just a scroll. This also removes friction or motor load.

Offer Price

The price is calculated basis on the questions answered by user and the component test. Each question and test can affect the device price. And the final price calculated is only applicable for the next 7 days.

To schedule pickup, user needs to enter address from where the device will be picked up and the payment mode for money transfer.

Pickup scheduled and status

Updated the first card on home screen itself, to show the status of current service request. Users may tap to see more details. On the detail screen, users can renew existing membership. To make it fun and interactive, we introduced a scratch card which gives user a chance to get discount on protection plan for new mobile phone.

Existing users who raised a request to sell their old phone would also get a new one. Hence, they’re more inclined to buy a plan, if discount is offered.

Thank-you for reading