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Yami · Summer 2022

Scaling Cross-Cultural Discovery.

Redesigning the search-to-cart flow for global users by mapping cultural mental models and reducing discovery friction.

Role Growth UX Intern
Timeline Summer 2022
Type Mobile UX Redesign
Focus Growth Design, Cross-Cultural UX

The Challenge

Navigating an ethnic marketplace is often high-friction for users unfamiliar with specific product categories. I focused on identifying where discovery stalled and translating a complex marketplace into a streamlined mobile experience.

1. Discovery

User enters the app seeking familiar generic items but encounters specialized brands.

Cognitive Overload Unfamiliar brand names and scripts create hesitation at the first touchpoint.
2. Search

Translating a mental model of an item into specific marketplace terminology.

Semantic Barrier Translation-heavy search results don't always align with user intent.
3. Evaluation

Deciding on a product without legacy brand trust or local habits.

Trust Deficit Users struggle to assess quality or taste through text alone.

The Solution

Visualizing Information Hierarchy.

To solve for the language barrier, I prioritized a visual-first hierarchy. Users can identify products by skin concern before engaging with deep-tier technical details regarding ingredients and allergens.

Product Page
01. Product Page
Skin Info
02. Skin InfoQuickly addresses purpose of product without needing a secondary translation layer.
Product Page
03. Product Page
Product Details
04. Product DetailsKey product details for brand trust.

The Win

Bridging the gap.

By conducting deep competitor analysis and journey mapping, I identified growth opportunities to broaden the app's appeal. The final high-fidelity prototypes focused on stripping away friction from the Asian consumer market.

Key Insight

Visual discovery is the core driver for growth in cross-cultural e-commerce. Reducing reliance on text and leaning into intuitive category hierarchy allowed non-native users to find the "Aha!" moment faster.