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Case Study

MYER STORE

An App proposal to create a hybrid in-store experience.

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Summary

Myer is Australia's largest department store with 64 locations nationwide. Sydney's flagship store has 8 floors, sells all sorts of products and is known as the all-in-one store. Because of its size and location, the store relies heavily on profit to maintain its hegemony but is often seen with a low rate of costumers. With the assumption that this type of store is decreasing its profits and shrinking its importance, we started the project with the following question:

 

"How might we improve the users' in-store

experience and increase sales?"

 

My Role

This project was made during the immersive UX course at General Assembly. Working as part of a group of two UX designers in a sprint of two weeks, my role was shared the project tasks of research, synthesis, ideation, paper prototyping and develop the Hi-fi Mockup on Figma.

 

Results

The new app provides some advantages highlighted by our users and observed in the usability testing:

  • A hybrid, easy and fun solution to browse the store library;

  • Time-saving on user’s tasks;

  • Helpful recommendations based on user’s preferences;

  • Better interaction online and offline;

  • Accessible store's information, without needing personal assistance;

  • Reinforce the importance of the physical store by using its best features.

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DESIGN PROCESS

Myer - My (huge) Store

Contextual Inquiry

We chose Myer main store in Sydney as the client of this project. We decided to restrict the research and the solution on how to help the Myer store to keep its building at CBD, but at the same time, delivery a solution for our users, aligned with what their needs. The first part of the project was to clarify the main assumption we had: Are department stores losing sales? To understand this, we conducted a contextual inquiry at Myer store. With this, we could observe some problem points of the store and the movements and attitudes of consumers and staff.:

  • Lack of staff engagement;

  • Overwhelmed by the size of the store;

  • Consumers checking & comparing prices on their phones;

  • Empty store in off-peak, idle staff;

  • Constant sales.

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Signed located in the entrance and escalators.

Department stores - The fall of the monolith

Desk Research

Myer is not the only one. Other department stores are also struggling to fit the new trend of the market. During our desk research, we discovered reports showing how US and UK department stores are closing stores and rethinking its products and services. Department stores lose sales for e-commerce and mono-brands stores. Online stores can offer more options and low price because of its lean physical operation. Mono-brands stores can differentiate their products faster and provide exclusive products offer, this way mono-brands don’t fight in the price arena.

Physical retail shops allow customers to go through entirely different experiences, still unavailable online. Factors like the smells, sounds, feel the product and human interaction that can be found at a store are hard to replace and will likely be a driving factor for brick-and-mortar survival.

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“Myer is boring...”

Users Interview | Concept Map | Value Proposition Canvas | Feature Prioritization

In order to get more insights for our app, we decided to conduct a user interview. We interviewed 5 users that were recorded and later were analysed by me and my project partner. All results were discussed in a workshop with the intention to collect pains, gains and tasks to create a value proposition canvas.

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Interview - Quotes

Value Proposition Canvas

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Concept Map

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MSCW - Feature Prioritization

Personas

Personas

We used the information collected and condensed in 2 personas: Cris and Ros. For this project we decided to keep both personas as primary. Cris is the online shopper, probably not Myers’ user. The solutions for him tried to create a hybrid idea of online and offline store: Quick interactions and options on budget. Ros is the persona who likes to spend time at Myer store. For her, we tried to bring solutions to expand her experience: Personalisation and good recommendations.

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Personas - Cris and Ros

FINDINGS

1.

“I want to know what is available”

One of the users’ pain we find during the interview and on contextual inquiry is that users want to know which product is available. To do that they have to walk into the 8 levels store searching for the product or searching for a store assistant. Also, the interview showed that users don’t rely on the store assistant to find the product on the store.

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SOLUTION

  • A hybrid solution that mix the experience of online and offline;

  • A system to browse the store’s library of products;

  • A barcode reader allowing users to see options of colours and sizes or other similar products available at the store.

“Hard to find stuff”

Several users mentioned the size of the store as an obstacle when shopping. Some users often memorize the location of their favourite brands, but often rely on store staff to find out where products are located or they need to find one of the few signs in-store to find more information.

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SOLUTION

  • A map of the store (levels and departments);

  • A map showing the item location (brand location).

2.

“Myer is boring”

Myer is an old store, and because of its size, sometimes it's hard to keep up with market trends. For some users, Myer is directly related to doing shopping with their parents. The classic old look of the store was also observed during the contextual Inquiry. The store seems to be designed for everyone. Design for everyone and you design for no one.

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SOLUTION

  • Modernize the old department store with current app solutions and users’ interactions. Swipe right and left on products as a dating app.

3.

“I go to Myer to check the designs”

Some users interviewed said that they like to walk by the store aisle to find what is new or trendy. After that, they go online to find similar but cheaper products.

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SOLUTION

  • Recommend new items based on users preferences and previous purchases and likes;

  • Use A.I. to learn about users preferences while he is swiping the store’s library.

4.

5.

“I go to physical stores to feel the product’s quality”

The importance and advantages of the physical store are the whole experiences that it provides. Users like to touch and feel the product material and quality, and the online stores don’t give them this option yet.

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SOLUTION

  • A system to select items to be collected and tried in-store, allowing users to test products before finalizing a purchase.

SOLUTION

Sketching

Sketching | Figma | Usability Testing

We developed a design studio workshop to create the main pages for our app and discuss possible solutions. After that, we developed a paper prototype to run some tests with users.

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Sketching and paper prototype

The group collaborated to develop the hi-fi mockup in Figma and usability testing, updating continuously to have the main features and design definitions in the shortest time.

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Next Steps​​

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  • Add a small tutorial on the start explaining the app purpose - On boarding;

  • Additional first time prompt showing how to swipe (for non-dating apps users);

  • Show the result in the scan search, and then start the recommendations;

  • Improve interactions app/store.

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