IKEA STORE APP:
TO MEANINGFULLY AUGMENT THE IKEA CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ACROSS THE SHOPPER JOURNEY
Project Roles: Project manager • UX research lead • UX/UI design
Prototyping Tools: Sketch • Marvel
Project
Context
In teams of three, we were given the task of redesigning any mobile app. We decided on IKEA, due to
Quick Overview
of the Process
About the IKEA
Store App... Today
At IKEA, the customer is at the centre of everything that the brand does, and the brand is working towards being more accessible to customers.
The app is part of IKEA's efforts towards that, and aims to support the shopper's in-store experience by providing:
The App's
User Persona
Tech-savvy Jeremy was our selected persona - newly married, and looking to buy a sofa for his new home.
After the empathy map was drawn up, the persona's key attributes were quantitatively validated via n=31 surveys, and further fleshed out through n=11 qualitative interviews.
Jeremy's Customer Journey & Paint
Points with IKEA
User interviews aided in mapping out the customer journey. To recap, the app's main objective is to support the shopper while they are in the IKEA store:
However, user interviews revealed that customers begin their browsing and shopping process earlier than whilst in the store.
While the original intention of the app was to support the in-store shopping experience, shoppers' key needs and pain points experienced expand beyond that into the pre-store consideration stage and during the purchase process.
Key frustrations identified in these three stages (derived from user interviews and subsequent affinity mapping):
Key Issues with the App and its Impact on Jeremy's Experience
Through heuristic evaluation, five key problematic areas were identified.
Competitive evaluation of the apps HipVan and Houzz revealed that they do not have these issues, which elevated the urgency to address these areas on the IKEA Store app.
These issues therefore have an impact on the user experience and flow on the app, specifically impacting three key areas of the user flow. These areas are also problematic areas of the customer journey:
In addition, usability testing for the app across four scenarios also revealed that most tasks were difficult to accomplish, or led to failure:
Proposed
Solution
We sought to build an app which addressed these issues and help bridge the gap in the customer journey - allowing IKEA customers to intuitively browse and quickly locate products that fit their needs, and utilize the app to ease the payment process.
The revised app takes into consideration major customer pain points across different stages of the customer journey, and aims to support users beyond just the in-store experience.
Alongside this, we also looked to address the problematic areas of the user flow.
Feature Prioritization and Considerations
Key priorities:
Side note:
We had also considered image recognition as a replacement feature for the current barcode system - it could not only help users identify items. but also add to the novelty factor.
However, there were certain limitations, hence we decided against it and went with barcode scanning instead:
Key
Improvements
Improvements were also made to resolve the heuristic issues with the app:
Key Iterations
Users testing the redesigned prototype did not appear to have issues with the key task scenarios. Instead, feedback for iterations revolved around the following areas.
Match between system and the real world
Visibility of system status
User Interface
Usability Testing: Current vs. Redesigned App
Usability resting on the redesigned app was done for the same tasks tested previously, with a higher usability score and quicker completion timings achieved by users. We achieved positive results with scenarios based on the new features of the app.
Potential Features
for the Future
Never stop improving! Future app features could include those that are relatively low effort/expensive, yet are still relevant to users by easing pain points in other parts of the customer journey - specifically:
Challenges Faced and Pivoting from that
We had an initial idea to include an inspirational moodboard as a feature, where users could select items from the IKEA catalogue, mix and match them together in a template of an empty room, to create their ideal room.
Our thought was this would create excitement and enhance the sense of inspiration for shoppers, to let them bring their own 'showroom' to life - similar to what the physical IKEA showrooms do for shoppers.
Instead, user interviews revealed issues when we tested the concept:
We had to pivot, going back to the drawing board, and refocusing on IKEA shoppers' needs and pain points, so that we could elevate existing features or add new features to improve the experience.
The resulting features did well during both usability testing and qualitative interviews after the redesign.
Key Takeaways
Users ALWAYS come first in design thinking.
In future, first speaking with users to gather meaningful insights, followed by building relevant features that meet their needs, would allow for more meaningful outcomes - for the business, product and users.
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