CLIENT PROJECT
DianTao (Taobao Live), Alibaba Group: Social Commerce Experience
Social commerce · Consumer experience · Product design
A new live-commerce experience designed for Taobao’s DianTao platform.
Project Overview
DianTao Live+ explores how livestream commerce could become a broader content and community experience. The concept connects content discovery, social interaction and shopping within a more continuous journey, giving users new reasons to engage with the platform beyond individual purchasing moments.
01 Solution
I reframed DianTao as more than a place to enter a livestream and buy. Live+, short videos, product notes and social participation connect the moments before, during and after a stream, giving people reasons to return even when they are not ready to purchase.
02 Competitive Analysis
I compared DianTao with Douyin, Pinduoduo and Xiaohongshu across positioning, audience, selling point, feature priority and path to purchase. DianTao assumed a clear shopping intention from the start; the others first attracted people through short video, low-price discovery or social content. That showed where DianTao was thin: it offered few reasons to browse or interact before a user was ready to buy.
03 User Research and Interview Analysis
The research included 17 participants: 12 people who had used DianTao and five who had not. Among the DianTao users, eight had bought through livestreams and four had watched without purchasing. In-depth interviews explored motivations, previous experiences and expectations; an online questionnaire then checked whether the same patterns appeared across a wider group.
04 As-Is User Journey and HMW
I mapped the journey before, during and after a livestream: previewing and subscribing, entering the room, browsing the shelf, asking questions, ordering and receiving the product. Four breakdowns stood out. People had too little information before entering; the shelf became hard to scan during a busy stream; promotions interrupted comparison; and the experience largely stopped after payment. Those moments became the basis for the design.
05 Workflow
The core path stays simple: enter a livestream, check the shelf and order. If a product is missing or unclear, the user can ask the host for an explanation and return to the purchase path after the demonstration. Inviting friends and saving product notes sit off that main route, so the social features add context without getting between the user and checkout.
06 Wireframes
Early wireframes tested how live content, product entry points and social participation could sit together without overwhelming the shopping task.