How to make a retail future-state a reality?
In phase 1, we focused on researching and proposing a conceptual future that eliminated today’s frustrations for retail associates in stores. In phase 2, we look at how we could make that a reality.
Client
ADUSA
Role
Project planning, research, synthesis, led prototyping efforts, usability testing
Length
8 weeks
Rave reviews
“I’ve never seen such a great deliverable created at this company, it’s really impactful to see the associate experience. I want to see something like that at every call!”
— Leadership stakeholder
“I’m blown away by this work…this is so cool, what an impact this will make.”
— IT Director
Retail associates perform many heavily manual processes in stores despite access to modern technology.
In phase 1, we proposed a world that replaced these labor intensive processes to better leverage available technology, create greater data accuracy, and increase efficiency across store operations and associate roles.
Now let’s look at making that world a reality.
The challenge:
Based on our research and our vision of in-store processes, build a conceptual prototype to communicate these future possibilities.
The survey
We validated our feature priorities from Phase 1 by issuing a survey to 100+ retail associates across our stores.
Ordering, item tags and signs, and item disposal came in as the top frustration for surveyed associates.
After collecting data from retail associates, we ran a 1-week design sprint to make these features a reality.
Design sprint plan:
Day 1
Information architecture
Day 2
Wireframing
Day 3
Low-fi prototyping
Day 4
Mid-fi prototyping
Day 5
Final touches
We met daily with an engineering team during our design sprint to get technical feedback so that our prototype was as feasible as possible.
We used engineering feedback to quickly make adjustments and test updates with real associates at the end of every day.
A fresh look
Retail associates have a personalized and intuitive dashboard experience that lets them customize pinned tasks according their store role and preference.
Accurate data
Associates can pull up more detailed item information without interrupting their workflow. Item sale forecast, order history, pricing and sale information, and location within a store are readily available when needed.
Intuitive ordering
Associates can quickly access active store orders and get detailed and accurate item information. Smart flagging earmarks high order counts for review which associates can quickly see and adjust if needed.
