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 actually read these catalogues today, so "cultural probes" came to my mind. The probe consisted out of the latest catalogue, a set of stickers, seven booklets - one per day of the week and an analogue camera. The booklets were illustrated 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 compliment to our in-store observations and interviews but 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. 

Workshop

An pivotal moment in this project occured 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 different shopping behaviours. Two of them were very price oriented and two more service oriented in their decision taking. The workshop really focussed on putting the customer in the centre, treating them like experts. The conclude the day, a role play, starring not just the client but ofcourse its customer embodied their vision for the catalogue.

Approach

Rapid prototyping and testing was one of the main activities on this project. Every week we spent half our time in supermarkets, observing clients and cashiers. Every one of our three final concepts has been tested in store with shoppers. First iterations were tested on paper, to move to digital iterations of the prototypes afterwards. Some of the participants were returning for multiple tests, some others were recruited on the spot.

Share

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 to always have something to show at your demo and long after that. 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 or one thing, everything we did was captured on video (dirty and rough) and embedded in the articles. 

Team

• Guillaume Krystlik - visual design
• Guillaume Chabot - service & interaction design
• Thibaut Langlet - project management
• Lalao Rakotoniaina - design lead
• Nathan Delavictore - creative technology
• Mateus Barreto - project lead
• Oceane Malemant - visual design

let's have ☕️

yalenka.marien@gmail.com

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