Design Research Portfolio
Challenge: Retail environments are a key touch point in shopper lives, especially for technology devices. Shoppers use a variety of tools including those in-store (signage, store apps, salespeople) as well as their phones and laptops (online reviews, price comparison sites, coupon sites). Mapping the journey of customers through a retail experience is key to creating delight.
Process: Secondary research was collected to establish retail market landscapes, key theories and concepts. By focusing on knowledge gaps, stakeholder needs and resource constraints, several research methodologies were chosen to work in tandem. The keystone of this research was shop-along studies (aka shopnos). Recruited shoppers were met in-store to be observed performing a shopping task. Mostly observational in nature, this method allows insights into what elements are useful, appealing and critical for purchasing products in-store., as well as where opportunities and challenges exist. Additionally, observed characteristics were collected (what signage was around) and counted(how many people visited a particular aisle).
Outcome: The observational and counted items provided directional data for product marketing leading to adjustments in packaging and content (i.e. pink resonates!) while the behavioral data of shoppers led to new product opportunities (i.e. new subscription model).
My Role: As lead researcher, I designed and conducted all shopnos and observational research across a variety of stores and locations. I synthesized data points with my clients during workshops and built the resulting stories and presented to management.