Bringing a shoe store into the 21st Century
The Problem:
Due to the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020, Rain or Shine have been forced to pivot their business. They needed to quickly create a concept mid-fidelity store design that tackled several key points:
an efficient way of purchasing a product online;
to allow customers to read reviews and leave feedback;
to allow customers to shop by major brands;
have a clear way of locating a specific product;
steer customers to popular products.
These points were addressed during a 2 week design sprint that covered the end-end Double Diamond design process.
The Process:
During the 2 week design sprint, we used the Double Diamond design process. The idea behind this process is that you start off with a problem and you then expand your scope to include as much research around the problem and the users in as much detail as possible. You then narrow down your scope to either a single solution or several small solutions. From here you expand again to gather insights from users on your solutions (this is known as usability testing), you then narrow down again into a single deliverable solution.
My Role:
Although this was a group project, we individually gathered research around the problem and the target users. We brought all the insights together and collectively spotted trends and patterns in the data through the use of a technique known as affinity mapping. From here we individually created sketches and tested these with users. With a final individual prototype being presented to the rest of the class.
The Solution:
Out of the 5 requirements that I described above, 4 were successfully implemented into the final design. The requirement ‘Allow customers to read reviews and leave feedback’ was too challenging given the limited time of the project, but given more time we would have liked to have included it into the final design.
A clickable mid-fidelity prototype that addressed the key points above was created and presented back to the client and the class.
Key Learnings:
Having gone through the whole Double Diamond design process, there are some reflections that I would like to share.
Assumptions: I had an idea on what the best way to sort shoes were but when I challenged my assumption through usability testing, interviewing and card sorting I found that there were many ways to sort shoes. This taught me that assumptions need to be challenged and verified.
Click here to view the prototype.
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