Introduction

Cera is an application that will mostly cater to pottery enthusiasts and sellers in New Zealand. Its aim is to eventually be the go-to online marketplace for all things ceramics and pottery.

Ceramics is an important part of the New Zealand art scene. Many artists and craftspeople work with ceramics to create unique and innovative pieces that are both functional and beautiful. Ceramic art is often displayed in galleries and museums throughout the country, and many artists have gained international recognition for their work. Additionally, New Zealand is known for its vibrant and diverse community of potters and ceramic artists. There are numerous workshops, classes, and festivals that celebrate the art and craft of ceramics, bringing together artists from all over the country and the world.

Problem Statement

Most marketplaces sell a variety of products. However, pottery enthusiasts and experts would like to have a community of their own, and have a dedicated marketplace for all things pottery. This will be an extra place apart from the traditional online marketplaces.

This application will allow users to buy and sell new or pre-loved pottery from local artists and encourage community within people who have similar passions. Cera will have a simple and minimalistic pottery-themed front-end design. The minimum viable product (MVP) of this application will have these main features: (1) buyers will be able to browse all listed products, view collections, ask questions on an item’s page or contact the seller directly so they could make the purchase and communicate their needs and concerns privately, and (2) sellers will be able to easily list their products, create their public profile/shop page, view, edit or delete listings, reply to buyer queries and update their account information. Cera will facilitate the initial communication from a buyer to a seller, but ongoing correspondence will happen outside of the application, via email or SMS.

Research and Discovery

The group has obtained initial information regarding the niche market and its consumers via secondary research. The same research method was also applied to understand the strengths and weaknesses of other competing websites/applications that provide a similar service. Interviews were conducted to obtain primary data on potential users’ pain points and motivation for using the buy and sell app and to validate the initial assumptions made by the team. Furthermore, interviews were used to get feedback on the style tile, low fidelity and high fidelity wireframes of the project. The comments/suggestions given on the testing phase will be used to improve the user experience of the application. All the data gained from this project will serve as guides in developing the full-stack buy and sell application.

Target Market

Cera's target market is people in New Zealand who are passionate about pottery and want to support local artists and the craft culture. Our marketplace caters to two primary groups: small business owners who make pottery (sellers) and individuals who want to purchase hand-made products (buyers).

Sellers

Our main target audience for sellers are younger potters between the ages of 20 and 40 years who are agile and able to be more precise in the art form. This group is likely to have a strong social media presence and be familiar with online marketing strategies. We aim to attract small business owners who make pottery and are looking for a platform to showcase their products and grow their customer base. By providing a user-friendly platform, we hope to enable more local artists to reach a wider audience and share their craft to the community.

Buyers

Our main target audience for buyers are individuals aged 30 years and older with a relatively good income, enabling them to invest in art and pottery. This group values hand-made art and products and is likely to be interested in online pottery communities and pages where they can follow their favourite hand-made shops. We aim to provide buyers with a platform that offers a diverse range of high-quality hand-made pottery products at a competitive price. By promoting sustainability and ethical practices, we hope to appeal to buyers who value these principles.

User Personas

User Journey for Buyers

User Journey for Sellers

Unified Modelling Language (UML)

The diagram below was created to represent the architecture, design and complexity of the application.

Low Fidelity Wireframes

To gather valuable user feedback and insights early in the design process, we have created low-fidelity wireframes as a preliminary step before moving on to high-fidelity designs. These simplified wireframes allow us to focus on the core structure and functionality of the web app, ensuring that we align with user needs and expectations before investing time and resources in detailed visual design.

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High Fidelity Wireframes

As a group we went through multiple revisions in our Hi-Fi wireframes, each time making sure the user was not confused by any of our design or layout choices. After finalising this design and having a really solid foundation, this made it easier to understand how our UML would look in a design and move onto prototyping and development of the website.

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Final Version

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