Reimagining Shopping
for Digital Creators
Creatorshop
Ambition
How might we empower influencers to forge authentic partnerships by enabling a bartering system that values their digital capital?
Solution
UI/UX Design
Web Development
Role
Design and Development Lead
With the traditional sponsorship model often undervaluing influencers’ contributions, how might we create a more equitable system? Influencers should be empowered to exchange their digital capital for the products they genuinely want. “What if we could redefine influencer collaborations through a bartering platform?” This question guided the development of Creatorshop, aiming to foster authentic partnerships in a sustainable marketplace.
The Challenge
Traditional sponsorship models often overlook influencers’ true value. How can we create a platform that lets them exchange digital capital for desired products? This question inspired Creatorshop, a bartering platform that fosters equitable and authentic partnerships between brands and influencers.
The Process
The Creatorshop development process began with user interviews to gather insights from influencers and brands. Next, I conducted a competitive analysis to understand the landscape, followed by creating personas and mapping the user journey. This groundwork informed the information architecture, which ultimately guided the UI design process, resulting in an intuitive and engaging user experience.
User Interviews
To inform the design of Creatorshop, I conducted user interviews with 4 influencers and 3 brands to uncover their needs and challenges. Key findings revealed that users sought a straightforward bartering process, a desire for transparency in transactions, and the importance of discovering new products tailored to their interests. These insights shaped the direction of the platform, ensuring it met user expectations effectively. Here are the insights I gathered:
• Desire for User-Friendly Navigation: Users expressed the need for intuitive navigation throughout the platform, highlighting the importance of easily accessible features to enhance their overall experience.
• Importance of Authentic Connections: Influencers emphasized the value of meaningful partnerships with brands that align with their personal values and audience, indicating a preference for quality over quantity in collaborations.
• Need for Clear Collaboration Guidelines: Both brands and influencers mentioned the necessity for clear guidelines and expectations regarding deliverables and communication to avoid misunderstandings during collaborations.
• Interest in Performance Tracking: Users showed a strong interest in tools that provide performance metrics, indicating a need for analytics features to evaluate the success of their collaborations and content.
Competitive Analysis
To understand Creatorshop’s unique value, we analyzed similar platforms connecting brands and influencers. This revealed strengths, limitations, and opportunities that informed our strategy for a fair bartering system and shaped Creatorshop’s core features, enhancing user experience, transparency, and partnership authenticity.
Persona Designs
To understand potential users’ needs and behaviors, I created hypothetical personas based on secondary research and industry trends. These personas represent key audience segments and guided design decisions throughout the project.
Journey Map
The journey maps for Creatorshop outline the experiences of influencers and brands from discovery to collaboration. By capturing user actions, thoughts, emotions, and pain points, they highlight key moments for optimization. This analysis was essential for creating a smoother process and designing a platform that fosters genuine partnerships.
Ideation
In the ideation phase, I developed a clear information architecture for Creatorshop, organizing content and defining user pathways for easy navigation. This structure improved usability and served as the foundation for wireframing and UI design, aligning the experience with user expectations.
Exploring the information architecture for Creatorshop revealed key insights. I identified user flows that minimized friction in the bartering process, creating a smoother experience for influencers and brands. A clear content hierarchy allowed users to intuitively find products and services, enhancing engagement. This also highlighted essential features, guiding the design to focus on user needs.
UI Design
The UI design of Creatorshop showcases a sleek, modern aesthetic with a minimalist black, white, and neon green color scheme. This palette balances clarity and vibrancy, with neon green accents guiding user focus, especially in the dashboard’s sidebar. Each design choice prioritizes intuitive navigation, reflecting Creatorshop’s dynamic approach to influencer-brand partnerships.
Welcome to CreatorShop
This is the entry point to Creatorshop, allowing users to define their role in the influencer ecosystem. Users can select “I’m a Creator” to explore influencer opportunities or “I’m an Agency/Business” to discover collaboration options. This screen sets the stage for a tailored experience based on user needs.
Explore Categories
The Category Screen displays various categories, from Fashion to Tech, allowing influencers and brands to easily navigate and select their interests. This unified interface streamlines the experience, helping users find relevant opportunities and collaborations in their preferred niche.
Product Selection & Submission
The Product Screen fosters interaction between influencers and brands within a specific niche. Influencers can browse and select products to promote, while brands can add new products. This dual functionality enhances collaboration and creates a dynamic marketplace tailored to both user group needs.
Collaboration Form & Brand Submission Form
The Influencer Collaboration Form connects influencers with brands by allowing them to submit personal details and their creative vision for content around specific products. A separate submission process exists for brands to introduce their products. This distinction ensures effective communication and collaboration, helping influencers and brands collaboratively create authentic content that aligns with their distinct goals.
Influencer Directory
The Influencer Directory gives brands a comprehensive overview of influencers on our platform. Brands can quickly assess profiles and niche categories to identify collaboration opportunities that align with their marketing goals. This streamlined interface simplifies finding and connecting with the right influencers, fostering successful partnerships.
Influencer Profile
The Influencer Profile page provides brands with a detailed look at individual influencers. Brands can view follower counts, engagement rates, niche categories, and examples of past content and collaborations. This snapshot helps brands evaluate how well an influencer aligns with their marketing goals, enhancing the potential for successful partnerships.
Reflections: What I learned
I learnt the importance of user research as often times a hypothesis exists in a vacuum and can often be subverted through data.
I learned that balancing aesthetics with usability is crucial for creating an engaging experience that speaks to the brand guidelines in a competitive landscape.
Reflections: What's Next?
Implement analytics features to provide brands and influencers with insights on engagement, reach, and performance metrics, helping them make data-driven decisions for their collaborations.
This MVP is currently in development, the next phase is testing with a select group of influencers to ensure usability and utilise feedback to implement iterations on the platform.