Challenge

The challenge was simple. What if tomorrow we can't print any more paper catalogues? I needed something to get into the head of people that read these catalogues today as they seem pretty useless to me personally. "Cultural probes" came to my mind. The probe consisted of the latest catalogue, stickers, seven booklets - one per day of the week and an analogue camera. I illustrated the booklets, and we worked on the tone of voice to create an engaging and quirky experience. We asked cashiers to help us recruit clients at the check-out in the supermarket. It started as a complement to our in-store observations and interviews. Still, it quickly became the central piece of our explorative research, laying the basis for the rapid prototyping iterations to come. The response rate was incredibly high, more than 85%, the effort we put in paid off. One of the key insights from the research was that paper catalogues are essential in some people's shopping experience; motivation ranges from saving money, taking pleasure in flipping through pages and annotating interesting products, and appreciating the habit of receiving it weekly.

Approach

A pivotal moment in this project occurred when we held a one-day workshop at our office. Besides the usual guestlist of clients from different departments, we also invited four shoppers with varying behaviours of shopping. Two of them were very price-oriented, and two were more service-oriented in their decision making. The workshop focussed on putting the customer in the centre, treating them as experts. To conclude the day, a role play, starring not just the client but of course its customer embodied their vision for the future paperless catalogue.

Rapid prototyping and testing were some of the main activities of this project. Each week half our time was spent in bigger and smaller supermarkets, observing clients and cashiers. We tested every one of our three final concepts in-store with shoppers or let them try it independently. First iterations were tested on paper to move to digital iterations of the prototypes afterwards. Some of the participants were returning for multiple tests, and some others were recruited on the spot.

Sharing our work

Keynotes are a thing of the past. No time for them anyway! Publishing your week's work in the form of an article on a mini-site allows you always to have something to show at your demo and lives on after finishing the project. Writing down what you've tested, created or learned is not only beneficial for client communication but helps the team to clarify and synthesize their week. Words are one thing; everything we did was captured on video (dirty and rough) and embedded in the articles.

Team

+ Guillaume Krystlik, visual design
+ Guillaume Chabot, interaction design
+ Yalenka Mariën, interaction design & research
+ Thibaut Langlet, project management
+ Lalao Rakotoniaina, design lead
+ Nathan Delavictore, creative technology
+ Mateus Barreto, project lead
+ Oceane Malemant, visual design

Let’s have a  ☕️
yalenka.marien@gmail.com

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