Embodied Shopping
Duration: 3 weeks
Context: UX Fundamentals Studio Project 3
Skills: Secondary Research, Primary Research, Personas
Prototyping, Usability Testing, Documentation
Team: Tori Martin, Connor Schrank, Olivia Eavey,
Rheaa Kamath (me!)
Type: Physical + Digital experience
Overview
Shopping for groceries is a ubiquitous part of our lifestyle, with most families shopping multiple times a week for food and other convenience items. There is so much about the experience that can be improved for elderly customers. The purpose of our final design was to offer a sense of serendipity for elderly shoppers. We wanted to offer an area within the store where elderly shoppers could take a rest from tiring shopping, engage in spontaneous social encounters, and even listen to nostalgic music from their youth. We focused on these purposes in order to spark relaxation, buying impulses, and friendly interactions.
Understanding the shopping experience
Early in the process, we researched on various broad topics such as shopper’s experience and needs, shopper behavior, layout, current improvement etc. However, after multiple iterations of research, I stumbled upon an article about how 7-Eleven’s in Japan are becoming places of social interactions for the elderly and providing resting areas.
This immediately sparked our interest in the middle of the project process, so we decided to focus on improving the shopping experience for elderly customers.
We conducted further research, interviews, and observations at local grocery stores to find out more about our user group, the pain points within their shopping experience.
Ideation
The beginning of our ideation and sketching phase was sparked from our second round of secondary research, which was more focused on elderly shoppers motives and needs. Below are some of the ideas that we had early on in the process.
Elderly Shopping Cart
On the left is a sketch made inspired by Japanese strollers that
the elderly push around the grocery store. It provides both
support and storage for the elderly.
Resting + Interaction
On the right is a sketch created after reading an article about
how people are attracted to “circular” and “U” shaped
conformations. Apparently, this “U” shape makes people want to
stop and enter the space because it resembles a person
extending their arms as if they are giving a hug.
“Bring U Back” Space
On the left is is a more simplistic version of the previous sketch.
The “Bring U Back” space would be more inviting to the elderly
because often times they are lonely either because their family is
living far from them or because their partner has passed away.
Prototype
We created an overall layout of a grocery store, along with our “Bring U Back” space placed in the middle of the store. The layout was inspired by the grocery stores that we visited as part of our observational studies. We included some paper cut-outs to bring the prototype to life as well as aid in testing.
Usability Testing
Goal: The main purpose of our usability testing was to answer the question: How and when do users interact with the “Bring U Back” space?
Task: During testing we told the subjects that they have to embody a 75 years old and have to consider their actions based on that. In addition, we also reminded them that they are free to explore the space as they wish and can pick up additional items if they would like because we wanted to see the differences in how they get to the “Bring U Back” space.
Key Takeaways
1. Many of the testers did not even go into the cafe because they
thought it was an unnecessary addition that impeded the flow of
shopping and they thought the whole thing was a cafe instead of
a resting area.
2. A tester said it would be more effective if the resting space was
placed next to the toilets, but we decided not to change the
location of the space because it would only provide benefits to
customer convenience and not the profits of the store.
Final Iteration + Design
The image on the right is the reiteration of our initial prototype. The only change between the the two was the “U” shaped area.
The major insights that contributed to our redesign are as follows:
There was no place for the customers to place their cart before entering the space because it would get too crowded inside.
The “U” shape was not as open as they would like.
There is a lack of accessibility for the space. It disrupts the shopping flow for customers and thus making them less likely to go in.
Need to add more seats within the space.
Get rid of the “Cafe” sign because they are thinking that the space is a cafe and not a resting location meant to spark conversations.
A closer look at the space:
Here is a more close up version of the alteration we made to our prototype.
The numbers correspond to the feedback mentioned previously.
[1] This is the cart area where the shoppers could park their full carts. This would help fix the first problem of lack of place to drop cart off.
[2] We made the “U” shape more “U” like by making it more open in the front, welcoming the customers into the space.
[3] We included two more points of access into the space, placed near the opposite end of the main entrance. These glass automatic sliding doors would allow customers near aisles 5 & 8 as well as those who are near the freezer to have easy access to the space.
[4] We included more seats in the space because in our initial prototype there was only one sofa. Also adding some people in the space having a conversation would make people more inclined to go in.
[5] We got rid of the “Cafe” written on the surface of the table. This would eliminate the assumption that some consumers might have in regards that this space is a cafe.
Index cover photo courtesy: https://www.buxtonco.com/blog/attract-grocery-stores