TEAM MEMBERS
Solo project + college mentor
TIMELINE
3 weeks, 2024
ROLE
Product Designer
OVERVIEW
The act of giving a gift is a powerful expression of connection and care. Finding that perfect something for a loved one, friend, or colleague often involves endless scrolling, second-guessing, and ultimately, a sense of uncertainty. This case study explores the challenges people face when choosing gifts and details the design process of Gift Quest, a website aimed at simplifying and personalizing the gift-giving experience.
In undergraduate school, my friends and I hosted a secret santa at the end of every year. At the time it was a breeze to think of gifts to get them. But life took us to different cities and thinking of something unique and thoughtful for friends I no longer saw regularly was surprisingly difficult.
And as an adult, this problem has only become more persistent. Now it's not just Secret Santa. It's wedding gifts (ever feel like registries are less helpful than they should be?), finding something meaningful for a significant other, figuring out a gift for a colleague I barely know, or choosing something special for family who lives miles away.
RESEARCH
I conducted 6 semi structured interviews with people in my grad school to go deeper into the problem space. My goal was to unpack the gift giver's considerations and journey of selecting a gift.
There was also a tiny bit of gift-giving anxiety, a sense of unoriginality, and the worry that the gift won't truly resonate with the recipient. I wanted to help find inspiration beyond the usual suspects.
A quick look at some of the products that already exist related to this
You won't find something you aren't already looking for
Many gift platforms focus solely on physical products. A significant opportunity exists to recommend and facilitate the gifting of experiences
Interactive prompts and questionnaires that go beyond basic demographics and delve into specific hobbies, interests and values
I wanted to cater to all kinds of gift giving scenarios. Since the end user was a broad 'person who struggles to pick gifts' I created scenarios to help me consider different points of view. I asked my peers (testing guinea pigs) to think of a similar situations in their life to test out concepts.
My first idea was to have a chatbot that could recommend gift ideas based on user inputs. I tried a version of this using AI to see what that interaction would look like
I wanted to make 'the search' more fun and exciting while keeping it non linear. I designed a website that encouraged different kinds of exploration. The emphasis is on sparking inspiration and having a sense of playful discovery.
The categories are carefully chosen to prompt users to think more deeply about the person they're gifting, encouraging them to consider not just what the recipient likes, but who they are.
I wanted to make it easy to capture the nitty-gritty details of what they're into. ff they're currently hyperfixated on something – whether it's collecting vintage stamps or obsessing over a particular band – that's often gold for finding a really thoughtful gift.
The search results page shows the user all their inputs in action, of course they can always go back and add a few more details if they think so
Collections serve as personalized mood boards, enabling users to curate gifts for different recipients, occasions, or even just for future inspiration.
Prominently displayed collections page for the user to get back to. This also encourages repeat visits to the site as users build and manage their gift collections.
I wanted the look to feel modern and cool and also colorful, moving away from the often sterile and transactional feel of typical e-commerce sites. A key design element was inspired by the tactile experience of physical shopping tags – the kind with a hole punched in them. This translated into UI elements that mimic the shape and function of these tags, serving as filters throughout the site.
