Embodied Shopping
Enhance the in-store grocery shopping experience through embodied experience
Project - Course work
Duration - 3 weeks
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Role - User Interviews, Affinity Mapping, Hi-fi Prototypes, Testing and documentation
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Tools - Figma, Miro
To understand the needs of the contemporary grocery shopper and design a solution that enhances the grocery shopping experience and maximizes positive as well as empowering embodied interaction.
Problem Statement
There is a lack of product discoverability and recommendations for the shoppers at Walmart stores. Users who don't use the Walmart app are often struggling to find the product they are looking for.
Objectives
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Enhance the overall experience of the grocery shopper at Walmart.
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Provide product discoverability and personal recommendation systems at the physical stores.
Final Solution
I worked on the final prototypes of the kiosk and took the Ipad screen as reference in Figma for this.
Research Methodology
Primary Research - Interviews and Contextual Inquiry
Affinity Mapping
Secondary Research
Contextual Inquiry
Understanding the current shopping experience of shoppers
The contextual inquiry was done by observing around 10 shoppers in the grocery section of Walmart.
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We tracked movement patterns and identified challenges customers faced while navigating various sections.
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Some shoppers had a list with them, and some were exploring various products.
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Half of the shoppers we observed used mobile phones while shopping, while some did not.
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Most of the elderly shoppers did not use any technological aid while shopping.
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Informal interviews with the shoppers also revealed that they were frustrated because it was difficult to find the products they were looking for
User Interviews
​We conducted 5 interviews with participants who were students at Purdue, and who visited Walmart for grocery shopping. Key insights from the interviews are:​
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Interviewees highlighted challenges related to wayfinding, unclear signage, aisle congestion, difficulty locating specific products, and inconsistent layout, contributing to confusion and a less-than-optimal shopping experience.
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They noted variations in product display areas, and lack of product signages, which led to inconsistent shopping experience.
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They discussed the impact of store ambiance, lighting, and overall aesthetics on their shopping experience, emphasizing the need for a pleasant and inviting atmosphere.
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Clarity of product information, including pricing and discounts on the products was emphasized as crucial.
Secondary Research
Through primary research we understood there was a need for personalized product recommendation and discoverability system for in-store. Based on this we extended our secondary research and had some key insights:
(Walter et al., 2011) mentions that recommender systems have successfully been deployed in e-commerce settings and they have the potential to also be successfully deployed in the retail world, potentially leading to the next generation of retail stores.
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Product recommendations are a hit in the digital domain, and bringing that to the physical world can be a unique and challenging experience.
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It has the potential to increase sales and boost user experience in the store.
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User generated recommendations (ratings and reviews) holds more value than system generated recommendations.
Experience Map
By identifying pain points in the shopper's journey, I came up with an Experience map of the shoppers' journey in the store. It helped us in identifying opportunities which could address users' pain points.
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Ideation
We came up with various ideas for product recommendation, but due to the nature of the Embodied Shopping, which was the basis of this project, we decided to go with an Interactive Kiosk.
Sketches
Exploring opportunities to enrich the shopping experience at Walmart, we focused on product discoverability and recommendations. Leveraging the existing recipe-based recommendation feature within Walmart's grocery shopping app, we aimed to enhance its functionality to provide more personalized suggestions to shoppers, whilst helping the users find the products they are looking for.
We came up with 4 ways for the users to discover the products and get personalized recommendations through the kiosk.
Search for a product: Users can search for a product by typing or through an audio.
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Scan the Product: Users can scan any product from the store and look for alternatives, get the location of the product in the store, get product recommendations and explore recipes related to that.
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Browse Recipes: Users can browse recipes which are provided in various categories like lunch, healthy snacks, occasion, etc.
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Create your own recipe: Users can select products and curate recipes of their liking.
User Journey
The user journey begins with a customer approaching the kiosk, unsure of what product they need or looking for a product which they can't find in the store. Through a series of intuitive interactions, the kiosk guides them to discover suitable options and even suggests personalized recommendations based on their selections. I mapped out the user journey focusing on main aspects of the interaction. To keep the app usable for all the shoppers, we didn't add an onboarding feature.
Kiosk screens
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Users get the results with various products and related products recommendations and product discoverability.
Through product details users get to see alternative and related products which is a direct product recommendations and product discoverability feature
Users can also scan the product location to get the map on their device.
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Recipes are a medium to increase product awareness and discoverability, which also leads to increased sales.
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List of ingredients and alternate ingredients help with indirect product recommendations.
Users get the entire ingredients list through a map, which users can scan and get it on their device. This reduces the cognitive load of the users to find each ingredient on their own.
Limitations
Grocery stores like Walmart often have limited space, making it challenging to find suitable locations to install interactive screens without obstructing aisles or interfering with other store operations. Making the screen more accessible by providing options for different languages, accommodating various interaction methods (e.g., touch, voice), and ensuring that content is easily readable and understandable. The screen could also be used for promotions and advertisements.
Reflection
it was challenging to come up with something to enhance the shopper's experience at Walmart, who is a pioneer in retail innovation. Seeing the lack of product recommendations and product discoverability, prompted us to work in this area. Recommendations through recipes is quite common on grocery shopping apps, Walmart has it too. So we leveraged that and used it in our proposed solution.