people, not percentages: research & design for cross-channel experiences
TRANSCRIPT
People, Not PercentagesResearch & Design For Cross-Channel Experiences
by Allan Kempson, Nikki Easterday, and Stuart Maxwell
presented by Stuart Maxwell, Lead Information Architect, REI @stumax, turninggrille.com Slides: bit.ly/peoplenotpercentages
Austin buys a tentPart One
Everyone, meet Austin.
Austin is going backpacking and wants to buy a new tent.
He starts looking for tents online.
Austin goes to the closest store.
Austin finally talks to an REI employee.
The employee saves the day!!
How can we make this better?
This is an information space.
People, not percentages.
A process for designPart 2
We started as a specialty retailer.
But we started to act like a Big Box retailer.
We need to get back to our roots.
Allan Kempson Manager, Customer Experience Research and Design (CX)
Nikki Easterday Experience Design Manager, Store Design and Visual Merchandising (SDVM)
Meet Allan and Nikki.
Store Design / Visual Merchandising
Customer Experience Research
Physical Architects
Retail Operations
Store Employees
Merchants
Digital Retail
Outdoor Adventure & Programs
Senior Leadership
Stakeholders for designing a physical space
The processPart Two
1. Stakeholder interviews
2a. Quantitative customer research
2b. Qualitative customer research
3a. Affinity diagramming workshops Phase one: store staff
3a. Affinity diagramming workshops Phase two: HQ stakeholders
4. Allan presents research findings to Nikki
5. Architect Design Development (but first study all the things)
CX research
Stakeholder research and requirements
6. Share with leadership; get their input
7. Refine
8a. Build a low-fi prototype and iterate
8b. It’s messy.
8c. It gets worse.
8d. It gets better.
8z. It gets done..
9. Bring in-store employees and customers to test
10. Iterate again
11. Build in a pilot store (It gets messy again).
BEFORE
BEFORE
BEFORE
AFTER
AFTER
AFTER
AFTER
12. More research
13. Iterate and continue to refine for more stores
Findings and actions takenPart Three
1 Finding Why people come to the store
75 - 88% of customers start shopping online
Customers visit a store to touch, feel, and sense
Customers come to the store to get questions answered
1 Solution Self-Service Education
Experience the product
Promote conversation through experience
Finding A hard time finding
2
Customers had to wander the gondolas
Solution Activity-based product display
2
We flipped the taxonomy
CAMP SHOP
TENTS STOVES COOK GEAR LIGHTING
CAMPINGBACKPACKING
CAMPINGBACKPACKING
CAMPINGBACKPACKING
CAMPINGBACKPACKING
CAMP SHOP
CAMPING BACKPACKING
TENTSSTOVES
COOK GEARLIGHTING
TENTSSTOVES
COOK GEARLIGHTING
Visual wayfinding
AFTER
Visual wayfinding
3 Finding Decision Trees
Solution Decision Path
3
Solution Decision Path
3
And it works!
What we learnedPart 4
You can’t empathize with a statistic
We need to work hard and fast to understand the customer
Intellectual needs vs. sensing needs
We need to rethink our taxonomies
Involve everybody in the process
Involving everyone helps you as much as them
We framed the experience with objective measures
We brought clarity through a customer-focused understanding of the experience
Where do we go from here?
The challenge for Digital Retail
Take what we learned and move forward
1 Invest in mixed-methods customer research
Take what we learned and move forward
1 2 Involve everyone in everything
Invest in mixed-methods customer research
Take what we learned and move forward
1 2 3 Focus on people, not percentages
Involve everyone in everything
Invest in mixed-methods customer research
Take what we learned and move forward
Thanks!by Allan Kempson, Nikki Easterday, and Stuart Maxwell
presented by Stuart Maxwell, Lead Information Architect, REI; @stumax, turninggrille.com
Special thanks to: Mahsino Blamoh, Jordan Cordas, Louise Maxwell
Slides: bit.ly/peoplenotpercentages All images ©2016 Recreational Equipment, Inc.
Discussion
The cutting room floor
We go backpacking!!We go backpacking!!