CraftyCloud
Making life easier for craft fair organizers
Running craft fairs is challenging, and the process of managing vendor applications and approvals is one of the most time-consuming and cumbersome parts. I worked with a panel of organizers to plan and prototype a system that would make the process simple for them, and maybe even a little fun.
I started the project focused on listening and understanding. I interviewed craft fair organizers to identify pain points and challenges. We then collaborated on sketching some user flows and feature ideas.
I refined the sketches and incorporated some additional feedback to create a more polished version of the sketched concepts, which was valuable in discussions with remote team members; it's easier for some people to connect with a polished deliverable rather than trying to interpret sketches. The focus was on understanding what the most important basic features and user stories would be.
For major components, I used a quick feedback loop approach. I tested various layout options with the team, then the best choices were tested in another round with different content, and a third round if necessary. This allowed quick progress but still considered different lengths and types of content.
Once we had enough of a product to test, we put it in front of a wide group of craft fair organizers and vendors, and used surveys to track responses. Unfortunately, we found there wasn't a great market fit; people loved the idea and the feature set, but the price point they could support (and the overall market size) didn't make sense to continue building and launching the app. We submitted the app to a civic grant program to see if there was interest in applying the idea for public benefit.