For this project, I worked on a small innovation team for an international retailer. It's a place where small, lean technology teams invent and test solutions to various problem statements.
Our product design agency, Few, joined the team working on in-store digitization representing all the UX design and Visual Design.
We were tasked with innovating the in-store experience from an omni-channel perspective desiging experiences with digital displays. Most of our in-store tests were accomplished specifically with shelf end displays.
From the outset, the problem was riddled with complexities. Concerns about content design and scaling were top of mind for everyone on the team. As word got out about in-store digital displays being tested, many departments inside the larger organization wanted to claim stake in as much digital real estate as possible. Our efforts can be broken down into two phases of work:
Phase 1: Proof of concept and innovation with a 3 person UX team
Phase 2: Anticipate scaling into the larger organization with a more nimble team of 1 UX designer paired with a Product Manager
With so many parties interested in owning the digital space, I knew that we needed to define our approach. Using the innovation lenses as a model, our target was the center: design innovation. We wanted to enter from the perspective of desirability, and quickly show the viability of implementing digital screens into brick-and-mortar stores.
Setting this course helped us to cut a path through the comlexity of evaluating who to partner with internally.
From the outset, our client presented us with a lot of thoughts, research, insights, and experiences and we facilitated synthesizing that data into problem statements and initial concepts:
How might we leverage technology to visually educate customers at the store shelf and assist in the purchase decision journey?
How might we leverage technology to create a holistic, delightful, and engaging shopping experience?
The aspect of desirability specifically targeted was customer education
Our mission was to architect a scalable, accessible, brand-consistent system of designs that could be placed across product categories. Additionally, this system needed to meet the needs of shoppers, associates, merchants, and suppliers.
We new that to support innovation, we needed to start with desirability and move toward viability. To accomplish this, we organized our processes in a cost-effective way. This means that we adopted a Lean UX model for how we approached this problem. We would embrace just enough research to make data-informed decisions, and rely on design thinking to challenge assumptions and push the boundaries of what is possible.
In order to scale, we needed a distinct UX cycle. We began with a category-specific approach, taking each category with the market research provided, shelf specifications, and ideas to output a design concept.
This cycle allowed stakeholders and designers to contribute their ideas, while leading us to rally around the best outputs possible
A miro board of our processes
As we started to take on more categories, we needed to focus on DesignOps to help scale our efforts. We iterated the cycle to include: comparing research insights to pre-packaged modules, mapping solutions to design system build out and documenting all new design patterns in the system.
Iterating on our cycle
We embraced small research over no research as we focused on viability.
- We developed custom research templates to include exploratory research, our client's market research, academic literature reviews, and merchant/supplier research.
- We conducted internal card sorts to validate module order.
- We spoke with an industry supplier to understand process pain points. - We conducted internal research to validate language and design choices.
As our research starting identifying common shopper considerations, we ideated and created solutions to solve our problem statement.
- We evolved the content on the designs to reflect real-life shopper considerations in a meaningful, easily-digestible way
- These considerations could span across different categories by re-using the same design; this helped evolve the CX to be consistent and reliable
Below is the final iteration of the "features module."
We focused on clean and accessible patterns. Many of our designs changed as we identified what was most important and got rid of things that no longer reflected the design voice/patterns. This allowed for a simpler, cleaner experience and better shopper recall.
Below is the final iteration of the "reviews module."
As we operationalized our design system, we began proving the scalability of the concept. Analytics were starting to be evaluated by our client, and they began conversations about scaling. In our client's space, this meant that the product has proven its value and outcomes and is ready to be scaled into our client's main technology branch. The value we provided is summated as this:
We architected the design process. We owned end-to-end production including publishing the content to displays in-store. We came up with scalable future vision through ideation. Overall, the results were proven as the product received a multi-million dollar valuation. In the next phase of work, our team will facilitate this transition into the larger organization.
I learned a lot through this process. One of the foundations to success was being adaptable. I created methods to operationalize our designs, but they had to built in a way that could support rapid change. Thankfully, we were able to meet that change head-on and proved the value of the product and our engagement. We couldn't be happier with the outcomes.