02 Hustle Sasa
Hustle Sasa
Africa's leading platform for creators and entertainers
Hustle Sasa is a B2C creative company that leverages technology to provide African creators and makers with a mobile app solution to sell products and services directly to their audience. It currently operates in 3 countries (Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana) with over 20k creators on the platform. Its product has hugely impacted the business lives of creators and makers particularly, in Nairobi, Kenya such as the popular music band Sauti Sol, Yaba, and thousands of creators.
Now a NBA Africa Triple Double Accelerator, and DFS Lab Venture Capital backed startup. Hustle Sasa has closed over $4.5million in transactions, over 400,000 tickets issued, over 1,800 live events powered and 10million+ page views as at 2024.
Role
Product & Visual Designer
Year
2022
Team
Micheal Denuh - (CTO & Co-Founder), Jennifer, Erick - (Mobile Developers), Margaret - (PM), Abigail, Casper - (Frontend Developers), Myself - (Solo Designer), and David, Micheal - (Backend Developers)
Industry
e-Commerce, Fintech, Creator Economy
I joined the Hustle Sasa tech team in Feb 2022 and functioned in the capacity of a designer bringing product interfaces to life.
In 2021 after securing seed funding, the product team conferred and reached the decision to start building out features to make Hustle Sasa a product that would be easily used across the African Continent. The work done to achieve this goal was sectioned into two; redesign of some modules on the Mobile App and redesign of the Merchant's Web Storefront and launching a Marketplace.
The timeline for the project was 12 months and the team that worked together to make it happen consisted of one product manager, myself, 2 mobile app developers, 2 front-end web developers, and 3 backend developers including the CTO.
The first thing we (The PM, myself and the CTO) did was hop on a discovery session to clearly understand the goals of the project and features we were trying to build. We identified certain technological constraints that's currently being faced and ways to make the product better. The first thing I spotted was the App's Onboarding Flow as I noticed it was too simplified and not well explanatory for first time users. During the meeting, I was able to understand the technical limitations affecting my proposed solution for the onboarding flow and what sorts of APIs that's needed to be implemented in my work.
We also discussed the structure for the project which involves a 2-weeks design sprint interval with over 40 sprints completed in 12months. In each of these sprints, we focused on optimizing critical app features on the platform such as: The merchant storefront, Orders page, and Tickets Checkin & management.
Our Target Audience
Further qualitative research was done and additional insights gotten through from social media users' comments, calls and interviews. This qualitative research and interviews provided data directly from existing users.
The product design process for this project follows a data backed approach and a design thinking centered Agile UX methodology which was necessary to eliminate unnecessary processes, maximise work efficiency and fast iteration.
The need for an improved user experience on the mobile app with new features can be justified in giving the best ROI with the feedback from users and how good it will be for business in the following regards;
Better user experience
App store presence
Owning one’s product channel
Increase in reliance on mobile devices to access services
Merchants (Creators & Makers)
Meet our user - Sauti Sol, a Kenya based music band that's tech savvy, enjoys making music, organizing and managing events and creating merchandise for their audience in Nairobi. They need an all-in-one app that enables them to sell their products and services to their audience. How might we make Hustle Sasa accessible to hundreds of thousands creators like them?
Audience (End-Users)
Meet our end user Angela; she is tech savvy, enjoys listening to music, attending concerts and events, and buying merchandise. She needs an app that provides solution to her needs. How might we make Hustle Sasa more intuitive for hundreds of thousands end-users like her?
📈 Our goal is to enhance the user experience of the mobile app, merchant's storefront and internal tools.
Improve the wallet, orders, checkout, and referral flows for better engagement
Redesign the merchant's web storefront to improve visibility and sales for creators
Support a rapidly growing user base of merchants organizing events via a simple and easy to use Check In App
Having people come together to collaborate is one of the best parts of the product design process. Ideation sessions were scheduled for a collaborative effort to come up with ideas that will be functional for identified users pain points. Product manager, designers, and developers were involved in this process. The product main features were collated and prioritized according to the project and development timeline.
One important feature recommendation I made was creating a separate checkin app for event managers to use in checking in attendees at the venue instead of including in the main Hustle Sasa app. Also, I spearheaded the creation of a design system for creating consistency in our design on the app and across all platforms.
03. Design & Prototypes
With solid findings, I started creating wireframes of the app, merchant's storefront and other internal tools from lo-fi and fully prototyped wireframe to an hi-fidelity designs. I did couple of iterations during the wireframe before moving to hi-fi designs. The final design was tested for usability and readability and more iterations were made where necessary. Example; here's a iteration screenshot of the merchant's storefront design before approval.
The homepage is where users land first to take a quick view of their activities on the app. The team resolved on a minimalist screen to reduce information overload. I ensured the redesign prioritizes sharpness and clarity, visual hierarchy, and access to the quick actions.
I revamped the design of the orders module by introducing a more spacious design concept for readability and accessibility. The order module shows the list of new orders, pending orders, all time orders, and order status. Also, users can view the detail of items in an order.
The wallet module enables users to view their earnings through the app. I ensured the redesign prioritizes visual hierarchy, withdraw action button, transaction history and access to other quick actions.
The checkin module of the Checkin App will enable event organizers to check in attendees at the venue and also help manage events effectively. The app is only accessible to merchants organizing events on the Hustle Sasa app.
The marketplace is a general ground for users to find products from different merchants on the app. Users can filter products by category, pricing and more. The aim of the design is to make search simple and interactive for users.
The impact of the refinement was a remarkable one. As at end of 2022,
It led to an estimated 60% boost in conversion rates of the checkout process - from storefront to payment and estimated 65% significant reduction in the cart abandonment.
Impressive customer feedbacks on the wallet redesign for ease of withdrawal with over $1M Dollars paid out to creators.
Impressive feedback from the customers on the improvement in design of the orders management on the mobile app.
The creator’s web storefront saw an estimated 50% boost in engagements with over 1.5 million views.
It led to an estimated 40% boost in transactions ran through the mobile app with almost 40k transactions processed.
It led to an increase in merchants sign ups with almost 10k creative brands listed on the app.
For more context on its impact, click here to see more details as posted by the company on Instagram.
The key-takeaways:
Power of Collaboration: Collaborating with my product manager, the marketing team and other stakeholders were key to the success of this project.
Impact of Information Gathering: Gathering users insight and validating ideas early helped me with a direction to follow in approaching the new design.
Iterate and Use Feedback as an Indication for Growth: Overall, looking back at the impact of this project, it is important to note the impact of iterating on your product and use customers review as an indication to seek growth.
Other works
05. Naxum Mobile App
Refining a referral marketing engine