Since none of us ever used Leboncoin, we started by looking for something to buy, to understand better the experience by living it.

In my case I wanted to buy boxing gloves: I started by browsing the list of classified ads and found some gloves that weren’t too expensive but didn’t have enough information in the description. I tried sending messages to the seller but never got an answer. After multiple attempts at contacting other sellers, I finally got an answer for cheap boxing gloves. The seller and I met the day after, and the transaction was fast and effective.

In the next step, we created a survey of 28 questions and shared it in Facebook deal groups, student groups, and in buying/selling forums. We got 108 answers in less than a week.

In this survey, we asked the users about their experience in buying and/or selling on Leboncoin, their feelings when using the service, what their needs are, what needs to be improved in their opinion… You can find the survey here

This survey made us realise that the users are quite satisfied with the service in general, but some had very bad experiences because of the lack of security check. Some sellers scam people, which is why a majority suggested a rating and commenting system on the profiles to know whether they can be trusted.

The other part that was asked by the users is the delivery and online payment, (it is now available on Leboncoin but it wasn’t when we did the survey). Some users prefer using other websites that have online payment and a delivery system. It’s easier and more accessible if they want to buy from a seller that is based in another city.

After collecting the quantitative data of the survey, we did eight semi-directive interviews and asked more accurate questions about the service. We focused our questions on five different themes: the user, the use of the service, the motivation to use the service, the behavior and the opinion of the user about the service.

These interviews allowed us to collect even more data and to confirm the global idea that people expressed during the survey.

After collecting all these data, we looked for the patterns in it and created four different personas of Leboncoin’s target users. We needed a representation of their most common target audience to standardize their needs.

For each persona, we created a personality, their goals, gains and pains, and their experience on Leboncoin or with technology in general.

We proceeded by creating experience maps to visualize the testing results and to understand the friction points of each scenario: we chose to separate the buying scenario from the selling scenario since the user flow is different and both are important on Leboncoin.

In each experience map, we wrote down the actions needed to achieve the scenario and the different issues found in each action, in addition to the emotions of the users while doing them.

After writing down the different issues and friction points of the service, we created a prioritization matrix with the negative experience in one axis, and the business issues in the second one. We organized the data that we collected through testings and app store ratings in a matrix in order to get an idea of which issues are a priority to fix.

To retain Leboncoin’s users, they need to feel like they gain something by using it. So I chose to gamify Leboncoin and make users want to keep using it and even use it more.

Prototype

The first gamification part is the addition of ranks in Leboncoin. The users will gain points every time they make a transaction, post a product selling advertisement, answer fast to messages, get good ratings… These points will make them progress in ranks that the other users can see on their profile. In addition, each rank has its bonuses:

First Rank: No bonus.

Second Rank: Save an additional announcement draft.

Third Rank: Upload an additional picture in the product page.

Fourth Rank: Upload two additional pictures in the product page and get more visibility in the product advertisement list.

Fifth Rank: Get a free product promotion each month and get more visibility in the product advertisement list.

Sixth Rank: Get two free product promotion each month and get more visibility in the product advertisement list.

With this I wanted to give the users another reason to use Leboncoin instead of another selling website: Users will feel that they are advancing and getting rewarded for it with premium bonuses.

Furthermore, I added achievements to profiles. The users can get medals when they achieve missions that will be displayed on their profile and on their product advertisement pages.

The achievements I listed are: posting multiple announcements, get multiple positive ratings, answer fast to messages, give multiple ratings… And other achievements can be added.

Through this, I wanted to get the users to be more reactive and invested in their exchanges with other Leboncoin users: they’ll have a motivation to answer to their messages, give ratings to other people, and will have to be nice in order to get good comments on their profile.

This gamification’s goal is to make Leboncoin fun, reward people who use Leboncoin a lot, bring back occasional users, encourage them to go to appointments, respond to messages and be more invested in their exchanges