K-pop merch shopping,
reimagined for Myanmar's fans
In Myanmar, buying K-pop merch meant DM-ing a Facebook page admin, transferring money on trust, and hoping the item didn't sell out. With Team-A, I designed a dedicated mobile store where fans can browse, pre-order, track deliveries, read reviews, and even trade photocards — all in one place.
Overview
The problem
Almost every K-pop store in Myanmar runs entirely on Facebook. To pre-order, a fan has to message the page admin, wait for a reply, transfer money, and hope nothing goes wrong. In practice it often does: items sell out after payment, order numbers get forgotten, replies arrive hours late, and there's no way to track a delivery or trust a seller.
The goal
Give K-pop fans a dedicated mobile app where they can confidently order pre-order and in-stock items from anywhere, in minutes — with reviews, clear product details, order tracking, and a fairer way to get the version they actually want.
My role
UX/UI designer in a three-person team (Team-A) during a UX/UI course at Acodemy, Yangon. I contributed across research, IA, wireframing, and the high-fidelity prototype.
Project at a glance
Kpoper Palace is a one-stop mobile shop for K-pop fans — albums, lightsticks, season's greetings and more — with a playful design and all the shopping features fans actually need.
Understanding the user
Market research
Around 99.99% of K-pop stores in Myanmar sell entirely through Facebook pages. When a pre-order opens, the admin posts details and prices, and buyers message the chatbox to order. On paper it looks quick — in reality it breaks down constantly. One buyer messaged at 12:00 P.M. and the admin replied at 11:19 P.M. That eleven-hour gap, repeated across every order, is exactly the friction the app set out to remove.
With almost no local apps to study, we looked at two established international K-pop stores to learn what works and what to avoid.
K-Town4U
👍 GOOD- User-friendly interface
- Clear categorization
- Search functionality
- Mobile responsive · multilingual
- Slow loading times
- Complex checkout
- Too many promo banners
YesAsia
👍 GOOD- Simple, clean design
- Easy navigation
- Quick search
- Responsive · multilingual
- Slow loading times
- Complex checkout
- Too many promo banners
User interviews — what matters most
We interviewed dedicated K-pop fans who buy merch through Facebook. When asked what matters most when buying, quality and reviews led by a clear margin.
A devoted fan of Twice who collects albums, lightsticks and season's greetings, and shares his hauls on social media.
Can't track his orders, dreads DM-ing the page admin, has no way to trade for the version he wants, and has no dedicated app in Myanmar.
A mobile app to order albums, a trade-in service for the version he wants, order tracking, and reliable reviews to buy with confidence.
- “I want to discover the latest merch from my favourite groups easily with an app.”
- “I get excited when there are discounts or special deals.”
- Looks for reliable reviews and ratings before buying.
- Wishes there were a service to easily trade between users.
- Spends too much time ordering by chatting with page admins.
- Follows official socials to catch new releases and drops.
- Annoyed when the page admin doesn't reply.
- Anxious about whether the delivery will actually arrive.
From discovery to delivery, we mapped the mood, the frustrations, and the opportunity at each stage.
Starting the design
We grouped everything fans do into five tabs — Home, Category, Code, Wallet, Profile — so browsing, ordering, and managing a collection all stay within reach.
I created 12 low-fidelity wireframes to lock structure and flow before any visual design — the storefront, product detail, cart and profile — testing that fans could pre-order in a few taps.
Refining the design
The high-fidelity app: a rich home feed of releases and events, detailed product pages with reviews, a wishlist, and the standout photocard trade-in — all in the Kpoper Palace purple.
Order tracking
From the moment you pay, every order has a clear status — no more wondering if it shipped or chasing an admin.
Photocard trade-in
The standout idea from research: a built-in service to trade for the version or photocard you actually want, fan to fan.
Reviews & ratings
Real reviews on every product build the trust that Facebook selling never could.
What I learned
Research surfaces the feature you'd never guess.
As my first end-to-end project — and my first time designing in a team — Kpoper Palace taught me how much research drives good design. None of us would have prioritised a trade-in service from intuition alone; it came straight from listening to fans. I learned how clear information architecture makes a content-heavy store usable, how reviews and tracking build trust in a market that runs on it, and how to split work and keep one coherent experience across three designers.
Next steps
Usability testing
Test the high-fidelity prototype with real fans to validate the pre-order and checkout flows before build.
Local payment integration
Connect the wallet to the payment methods Myanmar fans actually use, so ordering never falls back to a bank transfer on trust.
Grow photocard trading
Expand the trade-in service with verified profiles and ratings to make fan-to-fan swaps safe and simple.
Thanks for reading.
Kpoper Palace — paper-free, admin-free K-pop shopping for Myanmar's fans.
Hsu Yee Mon (Mavis) · UX/UI Designer