How to incorporate digital flexibility into physical stores?
The story of creating an innovative app concept in 3 steps
Context - an augmented reality (AR) interface for an innovative e-Commerce app that transforms brick-and-mortar storefronts into interactive shopping experiences. The app enables passersby to buy products exhibited on the storefront using the app virtually.
Challenge
Create an AR interface that seamlessly integrates with the AR app's features and provides an engaging and user-friendly shopping experience.
Results
The AR interface supports innovation by allowing store owners to create unique shopping experiences that attract and engage customers. The interface enables users to interact with products in an immersive way, view product information, and make purchases directly from their mobile devices. The service enabled store owners to overcome the challenge of competing with online retailers. It has allowed physical shopping to reinvent itself in the digital age.
Role
Co-founder, Product design, Design thinking, Strategy, Research.
Contribution
I co-invented an AR application that provided an engaging and seamless shopping experience. This solution could transform how people shop in physical stores, adding digital flexibility, customization, and targeting to boost sails and fight the allure of e-commerce.
How to harness the power of AR to alter physical shopping?
Step 1: User research
I conducted user research to understand the needs and pain points of potential users of the AR interface. I also used interviews and social software searches to gather user behavior and preferences data. This research helped inform the design of the AR interface and ensure that it met the target audience's needs.
Step 21: User personas | B2C
I discovered user personas based on the insights gained from user research. These personas helped define the target audience and ensure the AR interface was designed with their needs in mind. The personas were used throughout the design process to keep the user at the center of the design.
Step 22: User personas | B2B
Store owners: Small business owners looking to compete with larger retailers and provide a unique shopping experience for their customers. They want to implement the Spligit app and AR interface to attract and engage customers and increase sales.
Marketing managers: Professionals who create marketing campaigns and promotions for physical stores. They are interested in the AR interface to create immersive customer experiences and drive traffic to their stores.
Sales representatives: Employees who work directly with customers in physical stores. They are interested in the AR interface as a tool to help them demonstrate products and provide customers with a more engaging and interactive shopping experience.
IT managers: Professionals who manage the technology infrastructure of physical stores. They are interested in the AR interface to integrate new technology into their stores and improve the overall shopping experience for customers.
Step 3: Journey mapping
I developed a journey map to understand the user's end-to-end AR interface experience. This map helped identify pain points and opportunities for improvement in the user's journey. The journey map guided the design of the AR interface and ensured a seamless shopping experience.
Hand gesture navigation
This design process deals with the challenge of interaction in horizontal handheld devices.
I designed the AR interface integrated with the Spligit app's features to provide an engaging and user-friendly shopping experience. I also worked closely with the development team to ensure the AR interface was technically feasible and aligned with the app's overall vision.
The AR virtual space
The pain: How can you use one hand to click on a button when holding the device in front of you in one hand?
The challenge: Create a hand gesture that will not embarrass the user. Holding the device in front of you was weird back in 2015, and allowing the user to act on one hand was imperative to simplify the process.
Selecting in AR
The solution: An intermediate digital pane is positioned in front of the store. It contains a zoomed replica of reality and serves as the context for buttons. A cross-hair guides the user to move the mobile around as if using a magnifying lens. I suggested we use a new hand gesture that tilts the mobile and can be considered a click.
The AR interface designed for the Spligit app supported the innovative approach of the startup and allowed store owners to create unique shopping experiences that attract and engage customers. The interface provided an engaging and seamless shopping experience that helped store owners overcome the challenge of competing with online retailers.
Overall, with a successful collaboration between UX design and development teams, the project has the potential to transform the way people shop in physical stores.
To sum it up
I co-invented an AR application that provided an engaging and seamless shopping experience in 2015, way before in-shop kiosks. This solution could still transform how people shop in physical stores, adding digital flexibility, customization, and targeting to boost sails and fight the allure of e-commerce.