Freelance St.
Freelance St. is a creative services marketplace that gives freelancers the ability to find work based on location, creating a community and encouraging local economic development.
The problem
Unemployment: Freelance designers and artists struggle to find paid jobs
Needs: Clients struggle to find affordable AND good quality talent
Barriers: In most existing freelancing platforms clients need to post a job before connecting directly to the freelancer
The solution
An online platform connecting freelance designers and artists with various clients within a local area, giving them the opportunity to meet in person, resulting in more effective communication and better work results.
Freelancing is seen by many as a temporary career path because of its unstable nature, but we are proposing a platform that will enable freelancers to expand their client base and regular income by connecting them directly with potential clients.
The process
I started this project by conducting quantitative research on the freelancing market. I looked through several publications and books to find raw data about the freelancing industry. The findings of the research were summarized in an infographic.
After my quantitave research, I went out to interview and survey individuals who have had the role of the designer and the client, respectively. Based on these interviews I created personas and journey maps to better understand the pain points that needed to be addressed with the product design.
To better understand the market landscape I looked at potential competitors such as, 99 Designs, Elance, Behance, DeviantArt and Dribbble to find out what some of their unfair advantages and weaknesses were. I also researched networking platforms such as, Uber, Tinder, and Task Rabbit and marketplace platforms such as Etsy and AirBnB to understand their business strategies and key functions. This analysis provided valuable insights for the ideation phase of the platform.
I then moved on to the design concept phase where I created wireframes that were tested and iterated until a final set of wireframes were ready. Visual design was added to the wireframes. Lastly I worked with developers to build the responsive e-commerce platform.
Design thinking tools
