Stylism: A New Way to Shop
Objective
How can we address the issue of in-store and online shopping in a post-pandemic setting?
- Provide a centralized virtual shopping bag to help customers manage their purchases both in-store and online.
- Help customers find the products they want easily through a directory or in-store helper
- Using augmented reality to offer customers new ways of interacting with a store’s products, both in-store and virtually.
Role
As one of two user experience designers on the team, my main responsibilities were researching the problem space, developing an interactive prototype, and managing user interviews to collect feedback on the prototype.
Results
Researched, designed, and tested a potential mobile application that allows users new ways to shop comfortably for the products they want.
Users can…
- Place items or products of interest into a virtual shopping.
- Try out clothing or fashion accessories using augmented reality on their phone.
- Interact with items in-store using augmented reality to view product details without having to ask staff.
- Find the location of the products they want through a directory that points them in the right direction.
Details
Project Overview
Stylism was the result of a five-week upskilling program where I had the opportunity to work as a user experience designer in a multidisciplinary team. We were tasked with exploring problem spaces that revolved around the post-pandemic business environment. My team and I decided to focus on retail and the type of problems encountered in that industry due to the pandemic.
From our research, we found that a sizeable amount of customers still preferred in-store shopping after the pandemic, but with a new focus on digital experience. Referred online as showroomers and webroomers, these customers blend digital experiences into their shopping journey.
After developing two distinct personas using the research, the other user experience designer and I developed a clickable prototype that was used to gather feedback through user interviews.
Research
Identifying the Opportunity
To figure out which issue our team should focus on for the business challenge, we put our thoughts on a big board with pictures. We had lots of ideas, like making it easier for customers to talk to businesses and telling people about nearby shops they might find helpful. In the end, we decided to pursue the idea of helping businesses and customers adapt to the return of in-person shopping.
From there, we researched online looking for shoppers’ behaviours and attitudes to see if they’ve changed, post-pandemic both online and in-store. Online, we saw explosive growth in e-commerce but were stuck with checkout flows full of friction and a forgotten cart. In-store, shoppers generally expressed a desire to go back to stores and retailers expected more foot traffic in the coming holiday season.
Shoppers were worried about safety and didn’t want to use fitting rooms right away due to the risk of encountering COVID-19. In addition, reviews played a larger role after the pandemic in turning potential buyers
- 46% of consumers still prefer in-person shopping because they can see and feel products, and even those who prefer online shopping indicate that they don’t do it exclusively.
- 33% of consumers prefer to turn to their devices for product info instead of asking store employees.
- 64% of shoppers said a negative in-store experience would prevent them from shopping with a retailer again in the future.
We saw an opportunity to not only offer a painless purchase flow but also to touch on safely increasing product desires by creating a platform for engagement with any brand while keeping in mind the post-purchase follow-ups.
Personas
As the personas show, our mobile app is targeting both shoppers who primarily do online shopping and those who prefer in-store shopping. From the online research we conducted, the naming conventions of “showroomer” and “webroomer” came up to describe our target audience. Both personas were influenced by pandemic responses and are now transitioning to a post-pandemic environment. One wants to go back to in-store shopping while the other continues to do online shopping.
Design
Initial Draft
After performing research, we began creating the prototype for testing. The initial drafts we created were sketched on paper to see how the mobile app would look and operate. After getting feedback from both group members and mentors, we started to create the app within Figma. There were four different Figma prototypes created, each one corresponding to a main feature of the app. These were…
- Virtual Bag.
- Augmented Reality Fitting Room.
- Augmented Reality Store Directory.
- Augmented Reality In-Store Product View.
Usability Testing
After creating the initial prototypes, we then started on the usability tests. As the UX designer in charge of usability testing, I chose to perform a moderated remote one-on-one session with the participants. As participants went through each of the main features of the mobile app, I would ask questions and encourage them to talk out loud about what they were experiencing. While observing and questioning, I would record any notable observation or situation.
Through the usability test, we found many problems with our app that made it not user-friendly or understandable. For example, our augmented reality camera feature had problems explaining how it worked and participants had trouble navigating the menu due to a lack of understanding. In the future revision, we made sure to improve the instructions so that users would not become confused when encountering the feature for the first time
Reflection
During my time at Prepr working on this group project, I learned so much when it came to user experience design and how it integrates within a group setting. Usually in a university project, you would expect everyone to have the same level of knowledge and skills. In this group project, everyone had their strengths and weaknesses which had to be accounted for. It was interesting working within an Agile workflow and keeping track of the group’s progress using Jira. I also realized the importance of having a mentor to help guide you onto the right path. During my time at Prepr, instructor Adam McNeil helped me so much by providing his opinion and giving advice whenever he could.
My time working on this project has made me realize that I may want to pursue going into UX design. While the workload was challenging, it was also fun to work together to create something.
Handoff
