SCOUT

Explore • Acquire • Inspire
Equipping shoppers to explore in-store and learn about specialized areas in retail
MHCID Capstone Project 2017

Design opportunities

A difficult time for retail - The rapid growth of online shopping hits physical store hardly: 5300 stores were closed by mid-2017, which tripled last year's number. However, there is so much that the ecommerce cannot provide, such as the feeling of touch, the immersive experience of the shopping in-store, and the various services provided by salespeople. Our team is designing an omnichannel and fully engaged in-store shopping experience.

MHCI+D Capstone Project

In six-month time period, our team start this project with retail as the broad topic area. We did both primary and secondary reserach to undertsand the store and customers. During the ideation and concept generation phase, we also collaborated with retail experts closely to deliver the content-rich design solution.

Sponsorship from:

My role

Concept ideation
Interaction design
Video prototype
Visual design lead
‍D
Poster design

Collaborators

Siyi Kou & Shravya Neeruganti

Timeline

6-month immersive studio work

Process Overview

Our team asked the research question:

“What relevant information can we provide to aid
the browsing and decision making experience
in athletic and sportswear retail stores
for novel shoppers?”

Why physical store?

The big benefit of the physical store is providing the “magic moment of touch”. While E-commerce are making shopping convient and fast, people still go shopping for pleasure and enjoy trying on products in person and make an event of the shopping experience.

Why Sports?

We focused our research on athletic/sportswear stores. This shopping area requires more technical expertise compared to clothing stores and grocery stores. Especially for novice shopper who lacks knowledge and first-hand experience, they can gain more insights during the store visit.

Learn from Expert

Expert interviews let us gather insights and experiences from those who have in-depth knowledge on a variety of sections related to retail stores. We wanted to understand why retail has been rapidly declining, what has been done to fight the current situation, and what opportunities are out there in regards to designing a new retail experience.
We talked to  Customer experience experts,  Senior Designer at Ralph Lauren  and  Exhibition and Space designers . Their insights provided us deeper understanding of the retail space.

Learn from Shoppers

In order to build empathy with targeted shoppers, our team worked with shoppers closely. We asked how they think about the current shopping experience in 6 interviewaobserved how they actually shop in the real store setting inWe worked with both novice shoppers and advanced shoppers to see the different need and information we can provide.
Shopper's interview
To reveal what constitute as a good shopping experience, we conducted 5 interviews with imaginary shopping scenario We aksed shoppers to identify the steps of decision making in different shopping stage and how people make sense and interpret the store design and layout.
Shop-along activities
We conducted 6 shop-along activities with beginner shoppers in sports store. We observed the ease of store navigation, shopability, or findability and how people make sense of it. We also focused on understanding the level of consumer engagement and interaction with products.

Customer Journey Map

After the affinity diagram, we organized the data to map out the situations shoppers faced during their shopping journeys paired with their typical responses. This allowed us to see a more holistic and detailed view of the customer experience within a physical store, and visualize the customer needs and pain points.
Making sense of the data
With organizing the key observations we gathered from expert interviews, shop-alongs, and user interviews, we combined those with our previous secondary research, and came up with our key research insights. We did this through athematic analysis, which allowed us to understand the relationship between the observations and the causal relationships.This allows us to generate key insights from research along with potential opportunities that we can improve.
Data coding & mapping
Design principles
Athematic analysis

Design Principles

#1. GIVE CUSTOMERS THE CONTROL
People appreciate a sense of empowerment during their shopping journey. Rather than employees reaching out to them, shoppers prefer to find employees when they are ready to speak to them. We don’t want to push shoppers to interact with salespeople and we want them to feel as comfortable as possible while they shop at their own pace.
“I don’t like it when salespeople ask me if I need anything – I would rather go straight to them” - Participant 10
#2. CONSIDER SALESPEOPLE DURING DESIGN
Salespeople deliver the experience to the customers. If salespeople don’t see the benefit of the technology, they will not use it. We should consider how to empower salespeople to adopt, maintain, and deliver valuable technology to customers.
“I will reach out to salespeople and ask if the products are good for me”  -Participant 8
#3. DON'T JUST SHOW BUT TELL
There are shoppers who care more about the journey. We need to guide and engage shoppers by allowing viewers to contribute to the storytelling process.
“I interacted with [product] and saw what type of experience I can have with it – I was sold and bought one on the spot.”- Expert 3

Ideation

Keep the key insights and design principles in mind. We started ideating on how to re-design the shopping experience in physical store. We tried to come up with the concept which is both feasible, desirable and viable. We did many ideation sessions both within team and also with colleagues and sponsor.
Learning in Action
Audience: Novice shoppers who are trying
and learning more about the products
Smart floor
Audience: Browsers and Targeted
Purchase Shoppers
Environmental changes
Audience: All shoppers

Final concept

Highlighted Features

Personalize your activities
The station is distributed around the store to allow easy access at any time. The station can give shoppers tailored advices and guidances according shopper's trip plan.
Learn in context
By showing the gear in real settings allows the shopper to visualize the direct impact of the parameters on their required gear but also helps salespeople to explain the purpose of the product.
Generate Shopping list
By scanning the QR code generated from the station, the information can be easily transferred to the shopper’s phone. Shoppers now can carry the experts knowledge and experience while browsing in-store.
Guide to the Product
The mobile companion will now guide the shoppers to the product that they added in their shopping list. Shoppers can follow the primary navigation arrow and have the store map for reference.
Ask for Help
We have re-constructed the mode of interaction between people within the store. Whenever the shopper needs help from experts, they simply need to press a button on their phone. The salespeople will be notified and come find the shopper wherever they are.

How can it grow?

So what happens after the shopper leaves the store? Does the shopping just end?
We are thinking about developing an App that helps people to continue learning and progressing with the system. It will be available to download after the shopping journey. It has all the features that the in-store shopping assistant has, but also allows users to retain the information gathered from the shopping journey, track their purchases and usage, and guide them on the maintenance of their previous purchases.

Tools i've used in this project

Team Hihghlights

• MHCI+D master program capstone project
• Special thanks to Layne Foit @ REI
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Next project

Full stack website design & development
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