Field Research

Looking into a Real Shoppers Experience

To inform my future design decisions, I went into town to document the user experience of a real life shopper visiting actual shops.

Shopping experience & what I wanted to find out and document:

- Identify what makes shops and shopping enjoyable
- Document the full shoppers experience
  > walking around finding shops
  > entering a shop
  > looking around and potentially buying

- Document this process in clothes shops suited to target audience

- Customer Service
  > is it useful/annoying etc
  > do they work

- Deals / offers ?
  > do they work
  > do they draw you in

 CHIMP 

Chimp is a skater brand clothes shop found in one of the shopping arcades in town. 

Experience :

- Blackboard outside advertising 25% off
- on entering, a bell rings to notify shop keeper of my arrival 
  > he then asks how I'm doing
- Shop layout is one constant circle
- Music playing around the store - music relevant and suited to target audience (younger / skater) etc
- warm, welcoming, clean smelling room
- Displays make for a stress free experience
  > displayed in a way so nothing is hidden behind anything
- changing room at the back, well lit up

Overall experience was relaxed and easy to find clothes of interest. The display techniques meant I could flick through the items easily without much effort, making me want to look more.

SCHUH

- Confronted with messy / cluttered array of shoes 
- difficult to know where to find the men's shoes
- music suited to a wider audience as products are too (UK top 40)
- found an interface on a wall, was too scared to use it due to the intimidating / unfriendly design
- wasn't greeted or asked how I was

- I didn't know if this was meant for customers or staff, but either way I didn't want to attempt to use it due to its unfriendly and intimidating interface.

Louis Vitton

As well as shops aimed at my target audience, I thought I would experience a high end shop to compare and contrast.

- Walked in to be greeted by shop attendant asking how I was
- No music playing, can hear voices of sellers helping customers
- Displays are very minimal, lighting helps make them look luxurious 
  > along with materials and textures used for shelving
- Higher ratio of shop keeper to customers, all smartly dressed
- The price displayed differently - small tiles in front of or behind each item

Harvey Nichols 

- Very busy, exciting, buzzy
- lots going on in a good, controlled way
  > music (festive)
  > plenty of staff there to help
  > security
  > nice smells
  > smiley staff
- the more expensive items are usually displayed more on their own to stand out and attract buyers
- classy Christmas decorations
- some displays are unnecessarily embellished like a piece of art

- brand name displayed in bold vinyl stickers on blank walls
- each logotype uses the brand typeface
- the simplicity makes for a luxury display that you wouldn't see in standard shops
- showing off the size of the store

App features informed by research

Music

- clothes shops almost always have background music playing
- the music often relates / is suited to the target audience
e.g. CHIMP - playing hip-hop / rap to match with sub culture
       Shuh - plays pop music as their target audience is broader
       LV - no music playing
- music tends to play quieter the more high end the shop is

Informed app feature

- different genres of music plays out of smart phone / earphones depending on what you're looking at
- possibly pair up with spotify / Apple music
- paired with spotify, the app will find music in your library to play that is matched with the department / label / gender etc that the user is looking at
- this would further personalise the app.

Questionnaire