Redefining and bringing auction valuations into the modern era
We helped develop a fully fledged platform to allow people to get valuations from official auction houses from the comfort of their own homes.
Overview
Traditional auction houses haven’t adapted to the increasingly digital and mobile world that we now live in. With traditional auction houses, the need to transport large family heirlooms or furniture to the houses themselves was a risk for people, not to mention expensive, and put them off of getting their items valued out of curiosity. Podium Valuations was formed in an effort to solve this and drag auction valuations firmly into the present through an intuitive and seamless online platform. This would enable users to get professional valuations on whichever device they had to hand, be it their mobile on their way to work, or a laptop on their couch at home, as efficiently and as easily as possible.
Our Role
- Branding
- UX strategy
- UI design
- Visual exploration
- System development
Year
2014
Our approach to the projectBegin with the brand and everything else will follow
We worked closely with the Podium Valuations team to better understand their target market and the vision that they wished to communicate across through their brand and online platform. Following this, we carried out a lot of research into the market and their potential users, and decided that the best way to progress would be to initially get a brand direction before working on the valuations platform.
Because the brand and the web platform were both so intrinsically linked to one another and the success of the proposition, we decided that we would work on both in tandem, to allow them to influence each other once we had an initial indication of the brand direction.
Our initial explorationBuilding the brands vision
We started off by generating a large number of possible options and with the help of the client slowly narrowed these down to the directions we felt best communicated the vision of the brand and service. Always keeping in the back of our minds the findings from our research and visual moodboards.
Simple but strikingThe logo, colours and typefaces
We arrived at a sans-serif logomark paired with a refined logotype for the main brand to keep the focus on the site content. This was paired with a deep purple to emphasise the level of reliability and quality of the valuation platform as well as adding a complementing yellow for areas that needed to catch the eye.
Chapaza Regular
Lato Regular
Lato Light
Laying the foundationsSetting out the site structure and starting off with sketches
We start off with sketches on most projects. This one was no different. We started by quickly getting any ideas we had down on paper, be it abstract ideas or more detailed layouts for the main stages of the valuations procedure. Doing this on paper meant we weren't worrying about using the right tools, just pencil and paper.
Focusing on what’s importantGetting it right with iterative wireframing and prototyping
We built out the sketches into high fidelity wireframes and prototyped them in Invision. We tested each of the screens within the context of the application as a whole in the clickable prototype, and gained useful feedback and insights that normally would not be noticed from simple screen printouts.
A splash of colourBringing the platform together with clever design flourishes
Focusing on the structure and layout of the interface in the earlier stages, iterating through and optimising the user experience, meant that adding colour only enhanced the design. This is where developing both the brand and the site concurrently really paid dividends, we were able to chop and change as we wanted whilst keeping the brand identity consistent throughout.
Bringing everything to lifeA better portal from which to value loved possessions
The aim behind Podium Valuations was to make auction valuations as simple and as easy as possible. The homepage for the site would be the main entrypoint for potential customers into the valuations process. What we ended up settling on was a design that focused on the benefits users would get with a clear call to action in the footer.
- Clean hero explaining the concept
- Simple intro to the process
- Sticky navigation throughout
- Emphasis on the valuations interface
- Extra features grid
- Multiple CTA touchpoints
A bird’s eye viewAn attractive but informative overview of all your items
It was important that the items dashboard from the average person's perspective was simple and showed all the items that had been submitted for valuations as well as their status within the valuation process in a clean manner. Our focus was to minimise the information being shown whilst keeping the experience informative and intuitive.
- Grid of items submitted
- Filtering and sorting
- Multiple item management options
- Immediately visible item statuses
- A focus on imagery
- Account management and navigation
Straightforward and simplePutting in your item’s details are surprisingly easy
We made sure that the listing procedure for items into the system was attractive in and of itself, we'd had enough of forms being a necessary chore for users. This aim drove everything in the pages design, from the way the input elements behaved, to the way that images were uploaded and inserted into the form, everything was custom developed to reinforce the personalised high end feel you would expect from an auction house.
- Seamless in-page navigation
- Custom designed form elements
- Instant image uploads
- Automatic image optimisation
- Payment providers integration
- Live notifications shade
A single page that does it allGiving auction houses all of the details that they need
Whether auction houses had queries about the item before submitting a valuation, or if they needed to communicate with the owner to make arrangements after winning their business, the long scrolling page gives them these capabilities and more. We designed the whole experience to be concise from the business side whilst still being graceful and a pleasure to use.
- Instantly ask queries
- Adaptive inline valuations
- Emphasis on the images
- Delightful guiding animations
- Real-time chat
- Transaction outcome verification
Aware and in controlBrowse and monitor items that need to be acted upon
The hub for the auction houses was designed to show more detail about each item whilst separating them out into groupings to make it clear which items were a priority and where they stood for the auction house. This includes sections within each items tile for their notifications, valuations as well as unique ids that could be quoted internally to instantly identify items rather than having to use more vague titles.
- Live feed of items
- A clean but dense layout
- Easily glanceable highlights
- Prioritisation of acted on items
- Context-aware notifications
A delightful user experienceFrom start to finish
The new Podium Valuations website brings together quite a complex user flow and a traditional industry into a refined and cohesive system to make auction valuations as easy as listing items on eBay.
