SETCOLLECTOR:
card collecting platform EXPANSION
Golgotha Press has a start-up called SetCollector, a web-based platform made for hobbyist card collectors to document and share their cards online. Myself and three other UX designers were brought on to design an online marketplace and expand the social aspects over the course of a month.
ADI DOVE
English
4 Weeks
Desktop
Media & Entertainment
CREDITS
meet the ux team & Timeline
Research// Oct 6 - Oct 12 Assigned to: [Adi, Colby, Sarthak]
Set Collector analytics: Review existing data.
Solution hypothesis: What do we think is the solution based on what we know so far?
Competitor analysis: How do they make the search and purchase functions frictionless?
Secondary research: Answer research questions.
Synthesis// Oct 12 - Oct 16 Assigned to: [Adi, Sarthak]
Affinity map: Extract actionable insights from research.
Hypothesis pivot: If at all, did research change our assumption on what the solution should be?
(Optional) Personas: Boil down all research into 1-2 north star personas to reference.
Ideation// Oct 16 - Oct 20 Assigned to: [Jeffrey, Colby]
How Might We: Draft multiple HMWs, narrow down on one.
(Optional) User stories: Write hypothetical user stories. Prioritize features by MVP and releases.
User flows: Map key user flow.
Implementation// Oct 20 - Oct 30 Assigned to: [Adi, Jeffrey]
Sketches: Rapid and rough wireframe drafts of key screens
Wireframes: Mid-Fi wireframes of key screens
(Optional) Wireflows: Mid-Fi wireframes of complete user flow
Final Delivery// Nov 2
TIMELINE
October 4- November 2, 2004
THE UX TEAM
Adi Dove// me
Colby Konz
Jeffrey Liou
Sarthak Garg
Project Overview
Our team collaborated with Golgotha Press, creators of SetCollector.com, to enhance user engagement and support the rollout of new features. Partnering with Scott La Counte, stakeholder, we aimed to design a buying and selling interface, revamp the user profile structure, and introduce a monetization strategy through a subscription model.
Project Scope & Goals
The intended deliverables which the team was to deliver by the end of the four week project were user flows of posting a card for sale, discovering and viewing a sale listing, adding a card to a wishlist and updating a user profile.
If time permitted we also planned on creating wireframes for key screens in those processes.
The end goal for SetCollector was to use these additional features to implement a monthly subscription tier for users; offering fee-free sales transactions to subscribers.
PROJECT OVERVIEW & DELIVERABLES
OVERVIEW
Remote Stakeholder Meetings
Originally we had scheduled weekly meetings with SetCollector’s stakeholder, but due to life events that could not have been foreseen we were forced to cancel multiple meetings and go without feedback that would have been very helpful to the project development.
Although we had crafted a survey for current SetCollector users, because of the missed meetings it was not until Week 3 that the survey was able to be sent out to anyone by our partner and therefor the timeline did not make it possible to get the user feedback we had very much hoped for.
We did our best to work with feedback from our partner in place of user surveys or interviews and in lieu of feedback we used our secondary research and initial briefing from the company to fill in the gaps.
RESEARCH
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM
To better understand trading card collectors and similar card selling platforms we developed research questions and assigned them to our team members to look into and synthesize their findings by our next meeting the following week.
Research Success Criteria
These were factors which we decided as a group needed to be successfully defined by the end of our research in order for us to be able to move forward to the next phase of development. This would be the foundation necessary to develop a user-centered solution. These were distilled into three main criteria:
Define the core components of a buyer and seller profile page that enhance user interaction.
Develop a comprehensive list of key details that should be displayed for each trading card, ensuring the information helps buyers complete their purchases confidently.
Identify the factors that build seller credibility and help buyers easily find the cards they're searching for on the platform.
WHATs THE PROBLEM?
As Scott, our partner from Golgotha Press explained to us, SetCollector’s users are primarily hobbyists, and card trading is something they do for fun.
They don’t want to pay exorbitant fees to get the cards that they need for their collection or to sell cards they no longer want.
SetCollector wants to be an easier, less expensive alternative to selling on a platform like E-Bay, which takes a large percentage of each sale and has fees tacked on to each transaction. There’s also a social component to card collecting. Users want a place to share their collection online, and SetCollector could be that place that collectors showcased the cards they were proud of.
The design team was largely unfamiliar with the card collecting sub-culture, so one aspect of our research was to familiarize ourselves with the sub-reddits and other online communities devoted to the hobby.
PROBLEM statement
How might we design a profile page for Set Collector that allows users to showcase their trading card collections and trading cards for sale, while meeting the needs of both sellers (who want to display key information) and buyers (who are looking to complete their collections)?
Research & Insights//
We had a design team meeting to share our individual research findings via Zoom and organized our shared insights using an Affinity Map that we created together in Figma remotely. It was a great way to get the team onto the same page collaboratively. and synthesize our research.
Themes included:
• Grading Overview & Methods
• Card Market Value Determination
• Finding Cards to Buy/Sell/Trade
Finding Trustworthy Trade Partners
Marketplace Fees/Cost of Selling
Terms of Transactions
Key Outcomes:
• Defined essential components for buyer/seller profiles.
• Created a detailed list of must-have details for trading card sale listings.
• Identified factors to boost seller credibility and search terms for filtering card searches.
We also chose the questions to the right in order to focus our vision for the project. We all agreed that trust was incredibly important for the release, be it buyer trust in a seller, seller trust in a marketplace or seller trust in a listing.
What builds buyer trust in a marketplace?
User-friendly, easily navigated website design
Clearly communicated return policy
High-quality product images
Secure payment options and checkout portal
Customer testimonials and user reviews
Trust seals and security badges
Sales and purchase protection
What builds buyer trust in a seller?
Comprehensive user details
Previous sales and selling history
Identity verification badge or token
Positive ratings and reviews from sales
Prompt communication time
Professional and direct correspondence
What builds buyer trust in a trading card sale listing?
Reputable third party grading (if applicable)
Clear, high-res photos of card front and back
Accurate card description
Reasonably priced for quality and condition
Includes relevant details about card
synthesis
EXTRACTING INSIGHTS FROM RESEARCH//
the users
understanding the users & their needs
Types of Trading Card Collectors//
During my research I discovered four main types of collectors that each had distinct needs as defined by Aaron Clarke, Founder & CEO at The Grading Club, created using customer demographic information from his card collecting business. As our timeline didn’t allow for user testing, these categories functioned as user personas for the purposes of the website expansion. Having defined these target user group profiles allowed the design team to better empathize with our users and prioritize goals in the redesign according to their needs. These four user types are:
The Collector:
• Passion-driven, with a focus on specific players, teams, or sets.
• Patient and willing to wait years for a prized “grail” card.
• Unconcerned with value fluctuations but dislikes price surges from new entrants.
• Reluctant to sell treasured cards, even during market highs.
The Newbie:
• Little prior knowledge of the market; often inspired by friends or breaks.
• Enjoys the hobby without a clear strategy for value or collecting.
• Typically transitions into another type within 6 months as they learn the market.
• Highly influenced by their journey and interactions with others.
The Investor/Flipper:
• Market-savvy, focused on “buy low, sell high.”
• Targets rising stars or limited products for short- or long-term profit.
• Buys in bulk during new releases, betting on value increases.
• Thrives as trading cards gain mainstream value recognition.
The Hybrid:
• Combines collecting and investing to fund their hobby.
• Monitors new releases but prefers opening products rather than flipping immediately.
• Trades excess cards to acquire desired ones.
• Actively involved in the community, sharing insights and staying informed.
John Liner, the fictional persona visually identified above is the Collector persona, a purist to the collecting subculture and an ideal user for SetCollector.com. We knew from our shareholder meeting that our user demographic was primarily 40-50 year old males, hobbyist collectors who use the platform primarily for collection completion and card pricing. We narrowed our focus on the Collector persona for that reason as we moved forward in development. This helped us to stay focused on what was best for our target user. The SetCollector platform had the original goal of allowing users to organize and showcase their card collection, so it made sense that the user base would be passion-driven and their desires would align with those of the Collector. As it applied to the website expansion, we constantly revisited the Collector to ask ourselves, “Is this what John Liner would want?”
competitive analysis
Competitor research
Competitor research
Product name
Website/App
Target Customer
Services/Features
Strengths
Weakness
Collectr
IOS App
Card Collectors
Scan cards w/ phone to add
See real time card values, trends & market changes
Post and share on their Forum
Live auctions, live shop streams
Has subscription option
Easy to navigate and use
Keeps collection organized
Easy to see value of cards
Live auctions, live shop streams
No ads and free to use
Track value of your collection
Card grading has to be by PSA
Doesn’t let user manually price
Doesn’t have any sports cards
Doesn’t have a marketplace
Card scans can be inaccurate
Free version limits to 35 scans/day
Company 1
PriceCharting
IOS App
Card Collectors
Scan cards by image or barcode
See real time card values, trends
Get notified about wishlist items
Grading Recommendations
Has a subscription option $5.99
Responsive to feedback
Has an expansive database
Listed grade price of many graders
Cross ref Ebay, TCG + more pricing
Values user selected card combos
Track value of your collection
Doesn’t have marketplace
Inaccuracies in pricing listed
Has a lot of ads for Ebay
Card values out of date
Has bugs and crashes often
Doesn’t list pricing of wishlist items
Company 2
CollX
IOS App
Card Collectors
AI Built for trading cards: tips, info
Marketplace with Sales Protection
$10 Subscription for AI, + Features
Create & track card collection
Chat room feature for users
Track your cards values over time
Chat room and private messaging
Buyers are protected w/safeguard
Low buying & selling fees
Has Explore tab for follower listings
Covers payment, shipping, tracking
Very low shipping fees
Company 3
Incorrectly IDs scanned cards
Updating card’s photos doesn’t work
Glitchy and crashes or doesn’t work
Wild pricing discrepencies & errors
Has 500 card limit for free users
Long loading times
Competitive Analysis finds Opportunities for differentiation:
Another key aspect of our research was comparing existing card collecting and trading platforms for offerings, strengths and weaknesses:
• Collectr & Price Charting: No built-in marketplaces; redirects users to external sites for sales transactions.
• Collx: Direct competitor with an integrated marketplace, excelling in:
. -Purchase safeguards for secure transactions.
-Low shipping costs and built-in easy to use shipping options with tracking and insurance included.
Opportunities for Differentiation:
• Fee-Free Memberships: Unlike Collx’s per-sale fees, SetCollector can offer a flat-rate subscription for unlimited fee-free transactions, appealing to user’s with high-value card sales and users moving high volume.
• User Experience: Collx’s users reported frequent glitches, inaccurate card scanning, and dramatically flawed card valuation issues, leaving room for SetCollector to make a name for itself with accurate card valuations, reliable search results and testing glitches out prior to wide release.
By leveraging these insights, we had the opportunity to position SetCollector as a user-friendly, cost-effective alternative in the trading card marketplace.
Collectr
Collectr
Pricecharting
Pricecharting
CollX
CollX
Customer Journey Mapping:
Due to a combination of factors, it was not possible for user testing to be conducted during the course of our website expansion. The project’s 4 week timeline combined with recurrent cancellations by our company contact made that very important aspect of our UX work untenable.
We did our best to supplement the lack of user testing with theoretical methods. One such method was by the mapping of key user journeys, such as that outlined above of a user discovering SetCollector, creating a profile and registering, all the way through to listing creation, and viewing.
We mapped the user journeys of searching for a trading card through the purchase process, and the process of listing and selling a card as well. By mapping these customer journeys we put ourselves into the shoes of the users and identified key moments of frustration and delight in these user journeys that were key to the successful expansion.
Key Insights:
Pain Points:
• Excessive clicks to access collections or search for cards.
• Potential confusion with the navigational structure.
• Challenges in messaging and offering money for cards.
• Posting cards for sale felt cumbersome without a user-friendly setup.
Opportunities:
• Enable seamless transactions for buyers and sellers.
• Ensure users can easily find and acquire desired cards.
• Provide a low-fee, hassle-free experience to boost satisfaction.
Scott’s feedback was crucial, serving as a proxy for user insights. He confirmed the journey accurately reflected real user experiences, reinforcing the areas of focus for improvement.
user journey mapping
journey mapping the user experience
User Flows
process
Legend
Flow 2:
Add Card for Sale
User flows were one of the main deliverables that the client had requested, so when we first presented the flows we were hoping that our vision was aligned with what the client had in mind for the website direction. to the client, we were able to make sure we were both on the same page as to how the user experience would be structured on SetCollector.
After receiving feedback and making some tweaks, we had these four user flows for adding cards to a wishlist, listing cards for sale, discovering/viewing sale listings, and editing profiles.
Flow 3:
Discovering and Viewing Sale Listing
Flow 4:
Editing Profile
Flow 1:
Add Card to Wishlist
SKETCHES OF KEY SCREENS
process
We began by sketching key screens by hand. Below you can see sketches for key screens in the process of Adding a Card to a user’s Wishlist, as well as an expanded User Profile page.
wireframes of KEY SCREENS
process
Below you can see low-fi screens in the process of adding a card for sale. These were shown to the shareholder for feedback and went through further changes.
List based as opposed to image heavy in My Collection, Wishlist and Cards for Sale sections
User Profile Before
User Profile After
image heavy- bad for bandwidth and loading time
critical functionality issue discovered
process
We sketched screens by hand and then developed those screens into mockups in Figma. The mockups were then presented to Golgotha Press’ stakeholder to validate the structure, menus, and various design details of the profile page, adding a card for sale page and viewing a sale listing page. Since we did not have time for usability testing his feedback was essential in moving forward.
We presented these options for user profile pages to the client based on our previous conversations about what the page should include and how it should be structured. His feedback was that our original designs for the profile page had too many images and would slow down the site.
We took that feedback and redesigned the user profile. Below you can see the before and after wireframes.
Above is our team’s feedback from Golgotha Press. They were happy with our deliverables and gave us 5 stars in all categories. Overall, the team worked together well to successfully deliver to Golgotha Press the deliverables they had wanted for the next step in the website expansion. We received five star feedback in Communication, Critical Thinking, Professionalism, Creativity and Employability at the project end from Scott, our liaison at Golgotha Press.
In retrospect, I wish that circumstances and the timeline could have allowed for user testing so that we could have had a better idea that the product we were creating was in fact what users want, as opposed to having to go off of the feedback from our stakeholder solely.
I believe that I was lucky to work with a design team that was able to collaborate and work together well, and there were not issues that arose in terms of delegation and even distribution of work, as can often be the case in team projects.
I feel that we did the best possible work with the time we were allotted and the circumstances we found ourselves in.
In future projects, I would try to push harder for the need for user testing early on and really fight for that to be made a part of the project, even if its uncomfortable to ask for something that the hiring partner doesn’t necessarily see the importance of.
PROJECT COMPLETION/
FINAL THOUGHTS
process
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