simrun mannan
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Promoting Black Owned Products at Shea'd

Overview

With the current political and social climate, it has been more important than ever to be a designer. I have an opportunity to design products that will:

  • give back to the community

  • financially empower minority business owners

  • bolster customers’ spending power towards local / small businesses

That being said, I am very proud to be leading design at Shea’d. Shea’d began as a black business directory for the Bay Area.

 

Deciding to Pivot

Talking with our users, we realized that we were only solving for the tip of the iceberg. Our users explained that they are constantly bombarded by lists of Black Owned Businesses, but find it difficult to support them because they don’t want to spend extra time filtering through products to find what they are looking for.

Survey capture to understand our customer demographic

Ideation Session with the Team

After much ideation and research, we are expanding our products to include a chrome extension that will populate black owned alternative products while a user is shopping! We hope this extension becomes a critical shopping partner, reminding users to buy Black Owned and use their spending power for good.

 

Demo Video:

User Experience

In this demo, a user is looking to buy a gold chain from etsy.com. As the user browses, Shea’d begins to browse, as well, for Black Owned alternative products. The extension then surfaces a notification prompting the user to check out Shea’d’s list of products. The user finds a gold necklace from a Black Owned business known as Links by Jkiere, and purchases it. Our user has successfully used their spending power for good!

My Role

  • UI/UX Designer for Chrome Extension

  • Built demo the share with stakeholders using Adobe Premiere Pro

  • UI/UX Designer for Shea’d Landing Page (Work in Progress)

 

Rebranding Shea’d

Alongside building the Chrome Extension for Shea’d, I modernized our logo. Our users described it to be “outdated” and “traditional,” sometimes even “fraudulent.”

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Logo Design Decisions

  • I manipulated the shapes to create an “S” motif.

  • I also changed the logo font to a san - serif to convey simplicity and modernity.

 

Building a Design System

I am currently building the visual aesthetic and designing reusable components to create a robust design system in Figma. (Work in Progress)

Design System Decisions

  • I chose a partnership of fonts that are compatible with each other and create an air of minimalism yet quirk.

  • I chose a color palette that is playful yet sophisticated.

  • I developed reusable components utilizing font and color styles to be used in our chrome extension and on our landing page.

Using Figma’s amazing capabilities, I was able to utilize variants to make it easier for us to use the various types of card.

Using Figma’s amazing capabilities, I was able to utilize variants to make it easier for us to use the various types of card.

Variants creates an easy drop down UI for designers to use to toggle between various card designs. I also utilized auto layout to maintain padding and spacing as body text grows.

Variants creates an easy drop down UI for designers to use to toggle between various card designs. I also utilized auto layout to maintain padding and spacing as body text grows.

Closing Thoughts

I am working closely with my engineering partners to get the chrome extension to an MVP. I am also spending time building our landing page to help advertise the extensions capabilities. From there we will be able to use metrics and user testing to track progress and success rate.

Check back here soon for updates on where we are and remember to support Black Owned Businesses!