Facebook Marketplace Research

using FB Marketplace for Spring Cleaning

Role: UX Designer

Team: Christine Lee

Timeline: 10 weeks

Scope:

  • UX Research

  • Journey Mapping

  • User Flows

The Facebook Marketplace Study is a solo research course project done over 10 weeks while enrolled at UCLA Extension’s UX Design Certificate Program.


Facebook Marketplace allows Facebook users to connect with their community and list items for sale. The app allows users to sell a variety of items from clothing, cars, home furniture, and even housing rentals. Individual users list items that they might have in their home, but businesses also operate on FB Marketplace and offer new merchandise. Items are able to be picked up locally as well as shipped from any location. 

This research project focused on new or infrequent users of FB Marketplace. These users on average used the app 1-3 times a year while being motivated by home cleaning and decluttering.

Audience & Motivations

Audience

The original theme helped us determine the target audience for the study.  These were not professional sellers who used the FB Marketplace app consistently. Infrequent users have either limited knowledge of the app or have never used the app before. They also have a motivation which drives them to use the app. Here, the motivation is spring cleaning.

Motivations

Spring cleaning happens for the purpose of starting off the year with a clear mind. Decluttering allows users to have more peaceful surroundings and get rid of things that are no longer serving them. These items either create problems or have no use and purpose.

As a 30 year old photographer who has recently gotten into minimalism, I need to sell my kit on Facebook Marketplace so that I can clean and organize my apartment

Study Goals

The goals of the study are to:

  • examine how new users are able to utilize the app and meet their goals of selling an item

  • explore what features appeal to users and what the user pain points are during the listing cycle

Topics to explore

  • Context: We want to get to know our user’s habits.

  • Desired Timelines: We want to know what timeline the user expects in order to feel good about selling items on FB Marketplace. 

  • Frustrations: What are some aspects about the app that cause frustration? What are the pain points? 

  • Motivations: What aspects of the app create feelings of satisfaction and drive users to return to the app? Do users have beliefs such as sustainability, community engagement, etc.? 

  • Processes: What are some behaviors of our users? How do they interpret things? 

  • Other Competition: Are there any other apps that offer things that FB Marketplace does not? Do users list items on multiple platforms?  

Relevant KPIs

  • The number of sold items '

  • The price of sold items 

  • The number of messages that sellers exchanged with buyers 

  • Which features users engaged with during the listing process

Personas

I began the project with personas. These personas reflect the infrequent users of FB Marketplace. This helped guide me as I looked for appropriate study participants. 

Methods

Methods Used

  • User interviews

  • Remote usability testing

  • Hug method 

  • Think aloud testing 

  • Diary studies

Technology Requirements

  • Zoom Meetings

  • Mobile Devices 

  • Webcam

  • Laptops 

  • Email

  • Otterai (analysis) 

Research Test Plan

Before the study began, I created research test plan and interview protocol This served to guide the user interviews. This document included notes for the study moderator and also instructions for receiving informed consent from the study participants. 

The test plan consisted of:

  • Demographic Questions 

  • Technological Requirements 

  • Informed Consent Instructions 

  • Usability Testing Tasks List 

  • User Interview Questions 

Participants

I recruited 6 Participants who had limited experience with selling on Facebook Marketplace

Participants had an alternate preferred online marketplace

Participants had never used FB Marketplace and recently made a Facebook Account

participants used the web browser

Participants had prior app experience but were not active users of the platform

participants used the mobile app

Remote Usability Testing

Each user interview was conducted over zoom. Users of the mobile app were asked to record their mobile screens using the hug method. Users of the desktop site were able to screen share. 

I organized the form submission (listing creation) into 14 Tasks with related Subtasks. We tracked completion of these tasks as well as the time spent on each task. 

Think Aloud Testing

Think aloud testing was useful in the usability testing as most study participants were good about talking through their actions. I did at times have to prompt more verbalizations by asking “ What was that modal asking you?” or “Can you explain what it wanted and what button you just pressed?” 

Through this method, users verbalized their frustrations at certain points of the listing process and also what CTAs grasped their attention. We were able to understand a lot about the different approaches that different users took.

User Interviews

After the usability testing of the app itself I asked the participants a series of questions about their experience with the app. This served to gather more insights about their emotions, expectations and pain points. 

These questions were laid out in the Interview Protocol. We conducted a series of 6 semi-structured interviews. This allowed us to pursue any interesting topics that came to light with each unique participant.

DIary Studies

After the initial user interview/usability testing session, I waited a week and I emailed  the first set of diary prompts to the participant’s. This gave the listing some time to exist on the platform and after a week, the users were able to have information about their experiences with the app.

I continued this for the next three weeks, ultimately leaving me with 4 rounds of insights. 

Data Collection & Analysis

Metrics:

After conducting usability testing, I analyzed the video recordings and time stamped the beginning of each task. I then tracked the amount of time a user spent on each task. I used the Rainbow Spreadsheet to organize this metric and make calculations on the Mean and Success Rate.

Clustering:

I used affinity mapping to cluster interview responses to uncover topics of interest and pain points.

After the items were listed to the marketplace, users continued to monitor their listings and responded to weekly diary prompts. I used an affinity map to sort their responses and get insights into how their feelings, process, and goals change. 

Metrics:

I organized my qualitative and quantitative findings using a Rainbow Spreadsheet.

Qualitative: 

  • Insights gathered from User Interviews

  • Diary entries 

  • Quotes from the think aloud study 

Quantitative: 

  • Analytics from each FB Listing 

  • Usability Testing Time Stamps

Key Insights and Recommendations

Insight #1

Users have a range of emotional investment when they complete tasks

Summary:
We observed users who focused heavily on their descriptions of the items. In some cases, each word was carefully chosen in an effort to “sell” their item. In other cases, users used the description to clarify things that the flow may have limited them. One user did not even add a description because she felt it wasn’t necessary.

During usability testing, some users barely wrote a description to save time. Other users edited their descriptions multiple times and focused heavily on perfectly wording their descriptions. This took up a lot of their time and energy.

Observations:
P5 spent time carefully deliberating on the right words to use in the description. P5 also left the app and looked online to find the link of the specific boot for sale online. In her description, she mentioned the upcoming Halloween holiday to increase the listing’s relevance. Although, she did not go back and edit the description once the holiday was over. Investing a lot of time can cause frustrations with users when the item’s demand does not match the energy invested into creating the listing. 

On the other hand P3 had a different approach, she did not even add a description. Her strategy was to invest as little time as possible. She relied heavily on the product’s official name, which she got off the original product listing after conducting a Google search.

“I do the bare minimum first” - P3

Insight #2

Recommendations:
In order to save time, we should limit the amount of characters allowed in the description. Limiting the characters will prevent excessive and irrelevant information for both sellers and buyers to process. 

Impact on KPIs: 
Less time spent in the listing process leads to more listing completion

Users need to feel confident that the information they assign is true and relevant 

Summary:
Users know their items best. They feel attached to the specific qualities that make it useful. Many study participants felt frustration when they had no option but to categorize items incorrectly. Users could not find the specific categories that best described their product. Often, they knew that the category was not quite correct, but moved forwards anyways. They added more details in the description to make up for this discrepancy.

Observations:
During the usability testing, tags were not available to every user. P6 was the only study participant that interacted with the “Additional Listing Options” button where she was presented with the option of adding tags. Also, Tags helped the user specify beyond the restrictions created by the preset categories drop down.  When P6 clicked into the “Additional Listing Options section, they were further confused because it navigated back to the top of the listing, now with more blank form inputs.

 
“Maybe I’m an idiot” - P6

P5 ran into the issue where her boots were specifically made for dance. Dance boots have a different material composition and heel design. She felt frustrations since the categories presented her item as more fashion apparel. This is insulting in some cases, where the user is the specialist and understands the nuances of  the item.  The tag option could have helped ease this pain point. 

"Real dancers will know what it is" - P5

Recommendations:
Remove the additional listing button. Allow all users to access the tags feature in the listing process. Place this beneath the categories section to allow users to further specify and describe their items. 

Impact on KPIs: 
Increasing SEO leads to more relevance in suggested content

Insight #3

Users aren’t entirely motivated by money.  Space and peace of mind are also two motivators for using the app. 

Summary:
FB marketplace sellers really want their items to be loved. They want to know that by selling their items, they have given them a new life. Users stated that they enjoy the app because it gives their items a new purpose. Users don’t want to be wasteful and also are not entirely motivated by monetary gain. 

In the user interviews, many participants shared that they were not motivated by monetary gain when they listed their items for sale. They were motivated by decluttering, and did not see FB Marketplace as an income stream. Since their main motivation was cleaning, they wanted to free up space and clutter in their homes.  They also shared the sentiments of not being wasteful and hoping that their items had a new life after it was sold. 

Observations:


“I like the idea of being productive with it. It having a second life. This is too cheap to care about the money” -P4

“I like the idea of being productive with it. It having a second life or being no waste” - P4

Users only felt more frustration when they were reminded that their items were not selling and saw them in their space. 

“I felt ashamed and guilty that it was with me for years and not being used or appreciated enough” - P6

“I see it and I just want to get rid of it, it’s basically just taking up space” - P1

Recommendations:
Prompt users change the listing from selling to free after it has failed to sell. Encourage users to act selflessly which in turn brings them satisfaction from social acts. 

Impact on KPIs: 
More options in amending a listing increases app engagement 

Insight #4

Users want a sweet spot of interaction that falls within a specific comfort zone. 

Summary:
Users avoided choosing the “Pickup at my door” option when specifying preferred pickup methods. Most users would prefer for a public meetup and did not want to disclose their addresses. 

During usability testing, participants showed an interest in updating their locations. They felt comfortable joining location specific groups and updating their zip codes. This shows that users see the value of specifying locations. During the Diary study, users also noted that a lot of time was spent messaging buyers and coordinating meeting locations.

Observations:

However, safety is one main concern for users. During the user interviews participants exclaimed that this option was not something they would pursue. 2/6 users stated that “at my door” was not something that they want. 


“Oh no. Don’t want them at my door” - P6

We further discovered that users had concerns about legitimacy and scammers on the app. P6 was organizing a meetup and gave a more general location of “Diamond Bar” instead of her actual location.  When there was a possibility of a scammer, P6 picked up on some irregular behavior regarding planning a meetup.  Afterwards, P6 deleted all of her personal information off the listing. 

Recommendations:
Edit the content/ux writing to reflect a more open ended solution. Avoid the term “at my door”. 
Possibly allow sellers to set specific meeting locations and thus allowing buyers to know what to expect. 

Impact on KPIs: 
More specification leads to more clarity between buyers and seller. This contributes to quicker sales of listings 

Insight #5

Users aren’t interested in learning new tools. They would rather continue with established habits and flows. 

Summary:
FB Marketplace prompted the study participants to offer delivery with Doordash. All study participants skipped this prompt. During usability testing and task analysis, none of the 6 participants interacted with the Doordash modal. 2/6 participants saw it, but did not tap to learn more. 

Users will stick to what they know. When they are in the listing process, they want to complete the task and feel satisfied. Adding a new feature that requires some education and exploration can distract users from the task at hand. Even though this feature could have solved some of their pain points and frustration, users did not choose to dedicate the time to learn about the option. 

Observations:

However, safety is one main concern for users. During the user interviews participants exclaimed that this option was not something they would pursue. 2/6 users stated that “at my door” was not something that they want. 


“Oh no. Don’t want them at my door” - P6

We further discovered that users had concerns about legitimacy and scammers on the app. P6 was organizing a meetup and gave a more general location of “Diamond Bar” instead of her actual location.  When there was a possibility of a scammer, P6 picked up on some irregular behavior regarding planning a meetup.  Afterwards, P6 deleted all of her personal information off the listing. 

Recommendations:
Bridge the gap to meet users where they are, They may need more education and exposure to the service. Add a single video instead of a long text modal. Make the video engaging and entertaining. 

Impact on KPIs: 
Digestible education of feature leads to Increased use of the Doordash service 
Video view counts can tell us which if users are being educated on the new feature

Deliverables

User Story Map

During usability testing,  actions are categorized as Tasks and Subtasks. I organized these in a User Story Map.

Customer Journey Map

Using quotes and insights collected during the usability testing, I created a Customer Journey Map. This reflects the users emotions and thoughts at all stages of the product interaction.  

Usability Report

I also wanted to highlight what design elements  were easy to use and which elements were areas where we could revisit and redesign. I used metrics collected during the usability testing to create a Usability Report. Users dedicated varying amounts of emotions and time to different parts of the listing form. For example users also differed where some were very heavily invested in writing descriptions and others were more focused on photo selection.