Shukran Market

A culturally driven e-commerce conceptual app that bridges the gap between consumers and small businesses selling authentic Middle Eastern goods.

Project Overview

Branding, Style Guide, and the Design Process (UX/UI)

The client wanted a brand identity for a conceptual app that platformed Middle Eastern shops in the area. As we spoke, we saw the value this brought to the community and why it was so important for such an app to exist. In their own words, the client said that they needed a platform that could get their hands on genuine items like Moroccan argan oil while supporting small businesses: “Kind of like a Middle Eastern Instacart!”
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Conglomerates often diminish the value of small, local businesses that rely on traditional markets to thrive. At the same time, consumers looking for high-quality, authentic products, whether it’s Moroccan argan oil or Turkish carpets, are met with uncertainty around authenticity, inflated prices, and lack of transparency regarding sourcing.

Shukran Market aims to bridge this gap by connecting consumers directly with local businesses that source and ship these goods in their stores. This innovative platform bypasses large corporations by allowing users to place orders and requests, whether they be same-day deliveries or pickups, and ship orders to their homes at their convenience. Ensuring authenticity and a direct connection to local cultures is paramount as we promote small businesses by providing users with an opportunity to buy authentic, locally sourced products, increasing user foot and online traffic. This app could help local businesses grow and foster community connections.

Currently, this app layout is in the conceptual stage, being developed collaboratively with the client in FigJam to define key goals, features, and user needs. Discussions have centered around layout options, feature prioritization, and user journey mapping to establish a strong foundation create an intuitive, culturally conscious marketplace.

Deliverables

Brand style guide
Prototype

Platforms

Figma
Canva
Procreate

Your Role

Sole Brand Designer and UX/UI Designer
Still early in the design process, I am responsible for the end-to-end design process, collaborating with the client to refine the product vision and user experience. I also conduct research into potential users and their interactions with other apps like this one.

View FigJam File

Shukran Market's moodboard and style guide
Imagine my surprise when the client came back to me the same day, asking how I would feel to be the lead UX designer for it. Naturally, I said yes (payment would be in dolma, a fantastic Lebanese grape leaf dish).

Design Process

Early brainstorming was all about empathzing and creating information architecture & user flow diagrams to visualize how users would navigate the marketplace according to their needs. I researched online shopping and same-day experiences for major brand and direct key competitors, such as Amazon and Amazon Fresh, Target, Instacart, etc. Easily explained by Jakob's Law, users spend most of their time on sites like this and would prefer my app to work the same way as the others they know. With similar patterns and processes, users can focus on their tasks rather than learn new models.

I defined key user personas as shoppers looking for specific Middle Eastern goods. To better serve with this app, I visualized how users interact with platforms like this. These user journeys helped in design refining and buyer’s journeys to make a lot of features user-friendly, enjoyable, and pleasant to engage with.

I used these findings to ideate later user flows and journeys to present to the client. I validated early ideas and later designs by sharing frames with client’s friends (ages 16-25, college-aged, and Boston-based) for personal, authentic experiences to shed some light on. Participatory design was a great way to get around a tight budget! Once confirmed, I set right into wireframing.

Next Steps (What I've Learned So Far)

Market research is key! Buyer personas shape the UI to better balance simplicity and intuitiveness. I researched online shopping and same-day experiences for major brand and direct key competitors, such as Amazon and Amazon Fresh, Target, Instacart, etc.

I've also taken up rudiementary coding to help understand any technical limitations. Even though I focus on interface design, any ability to navigate front-end and back-end systems would help seamless create more scalable, user-friendly solutions.

The design process will be the same no matter what. Sometimes, it comes down to little tweaks if it can't be done like it normally can in large companies. I couldn't afford to run surveys or tests, so I used the client's peers and I networked to hear as many senior voices as possible give me constructive feedback.

Also, it can be worth putting extra effort into sketches that you want to present. That can mean drawing in more realistic details, perhaps adding color, lights, and shading effects to make it feel more dynamic and alive. Humanizing designs for the non-designers in the room gets everyone excited. For any audience, the more realistic a sketch looks, the easier it will be to understand and imagine as a real product.

Future testing will focus on discoverability and ease of interface navigation. Next, I plan to prototype the main shopping flow and conduct usability tests with local shop owners and users.

Design Process