Consumer Voices
When Consumer Voices asked us to build a pioneering social platform, we were all-in. The idea was big: build a crowd-sourced, online community guiding consumers to engage with socially responsible brands. By providing a groundbreaking feature-set of ratings, conversations, media, and e-commerce, we developed a robust tool for shoppers passionate about voting with their dollars.
Creating a product on par with social networking pioneers like Facebook or Yelp is no easy feat. It takes a cohesive team that's well-versed in all facets of user experience and product development. M7's decades of digital acumen and client dedication delivered an enterprise-level product that's the heartbeat of Consumer Voices' business model.
Project Details
Shopping With Purpose
Consumer Voices takes brand reviews to the next level. Beyond mere product specs and features, it's a community-driven resource that matches brands behavior with consumers values. This is achieved by crowd-sourced rankings on six 'pillars' that exemplify responsible corporate citizenship. When there's alignment between the brand and consumer it creates brand affinity and confidence to engage with the purchase funnel. It also provides brands with valuable feedback where they can improve consumer perceptions.
User Stories
An important deliverable in building complex digital products is the development of user stories. These short, informal descriptions describe every task users may want to accomplish in the app. They also provide context to major phases of the project like US, visual design, and development. The result is each team member understands the customer journey in minute detail and can focus on building the most engaging experience possible.
API-First Development
For maximum flexibility and future growth, we developed Consumer Voices as a decoupled (headless) platform. Starting with development of an extensive API, the front-end Angular-based interface seamlessly connects to the backend data and functionality. The myriad advantages of this approach include:
- Scalability
- Development of native applications
- Affiliate integration
- Multiple front-end interfaces
- Easier upgrades
- Simplified maintenance
Mobile Priority
During our extensive research phase with Consumer Voices, we identified a significant primary use-case: users wanted to use Consumer Voices as a research tool when they shopped in-store. Combined with the fact that 77% of retail website traffic is from mobile devices, a full-featured, mobile-first approach to the project was a key requirement.