Industry
Loco
What I did
User research, UI/UX Design
Timeline
Nov 2023
Team
1 Product Designers & 3 Engineer
Loco is a mobile marketplace to help connects Vietnamese artisans with shoppers, celebrating local craftsmanship and offering an alternative to mass-produced products.
We recognized that shoppers were spending too much time searching for unique gifts, struggling to find them on major e-commerce platforms or bouncing between Facebook and shop websites. At the same time, small sellers who couldn’t afford ads relied on personal Facebook account to get noticed. With both sides struggling to connect, they were often missing each other, leading to a slow, frustrating, and fragmented experience.
Secondary Research
“Based Statista, Vietnam’s e-commerce market grew from $11.8B (2019) to $13.7B (2021), with 27.5% year-over-year growth, and handicraft industry accounting for 9% of total retail sales at $1.2B.”
“Research Gate reported, handcrafted goods gained appeal, with growing appetite for authentic, story-driven products, especially among Gen Z and Millennial shoppers.”
“Kyanon Digital shared many local artisans and small business owners currently rely on Facebook to sell, which is easy to use but hard to scale, lacks product structure, and doesn’t support long-term brand-building.”
Key Insights
Design & Development
After grouping similar feedback and observations, it led us to uncover the user journey in 3 stages for both shoppers and sellers:
Branding & UI Design
Blended classic and modern aesthetics, using fun geometry and 3D modeling to create an engaging interface.
Prototyping & MVP
Built a lightweight version with essential features like product discovery, seller messaging, and video-based product demos to test market demand.
Shoppers
Curated Filters: Easily discover handcrafted and custom-made products with filters like “Handmade” and “Customizable”.
Stories & Seller Profiles: Explore stories feed with maker highlights, behind-the-scenes content, and featured products. Visit each shop’s profile to build trust and personal connection.
In-App Chat with Sellers: Communicate directly with makers to ask questions or request personalized orders.
Request Your Favorite Brands: Can’t find a local maker you love? Just send a request and we’ll invite them to join Loco.
Sellers
Claim Your Shop: To combat the chicken-and-egg problem, we pre-list popular local shops by scraping public info, owners can easily claim and manage their store.
Storefronts: Showcase products, story, and process with rich visuals and personalized bios.
Order Management Tools: Handle made-to-order requests with clear timelines, materials, and pricing options.
Simple Setup: No tech skills needed, just upload, update, and start selling.
User Testing: Engaged with Vietnamese users to test early versions of the platform. Feedback highlighted the need for more content, more sale events as Vietnamese shopper wants to feel like they are getting good deal.
Market Fit Adjustments: Paused features like shopping reels due to limited content. Reintroduced chat functionality after learning that Vietnamese users prefer confirming availability directly with sellers.
Brand identity system and design assets
Competitive, market analysis and user research
App Store preview screens and landing page design
End-to-end mobile app design (80+ screens)
Investor pitch decks for Sequoia and Y Combinator
Gained interest from major investors and partners
Achieved 100+ daily active users in early MVP
Identified and validated key user behaviors unique to Vietnamese e-commerce
Informed a market pivot strategy through product testing
As the sole designer/ co-founder in the early stage start-up, I wore many hats, including leading product design, branding, research, marketing, and even helping shape the go-to-market strategy. This experience gave me a holistic view of building a product from 0 to 1, and I learned a lot by doing. Along the way, I picked up a few key lessons:
Local Context is Everything: What works in one market doesn’t always translate. Understanding local behaviors, like how Vietnamese shoppers prefer messaging sellers to confirm stock completely shifted our approach.
Done is Better Than Perfect: Releasing early, testing live, and iterating quickly gave us real insights and helped us move faster with clarity.
It’s a Team Sport: Collaborating closely with engineers taught me to better understand technical constraints and communicate design decisions more effectively.
Storytelling Drives Value: We saw that giving sellers space to share their craft and story didn’t just add emotion, it built trust and boosted buyer engagement.
