Background
We were assigned a school project to develop our User Research skills. We were tasked to conceptualize new functions and features for a grocery application.
Goal
The goal of the research conducted is to define opportunities to design functionality for the application that will support the customer’s grocery shopping activities in a new and innovative way that improves upon the customer’s user experience.
Solution
To find out what would benefit the grocery application users I interviewed users and performed several other user research methods. It was found that the users were extremely busy and were looking for an application that was convenient and would save them time to use. Requirements were then developed taking this into account. Building upon the requirements I put together two visions, a product concept and storyboard.
Interviews
Traditional and contextual interviews were conducted to see how the user prepares to shop at home and how they actually shop in the store. Valuable information was gained from these interviews.
Affinity Diagram
After assembling the Affinity Diagram I came away with 3 main themes. The themes were I do the shopping in the household, the brand or generic can determine my purchase, and I can get frustrated while grocery shopping.
- I do the shopping in the household
- Users shopped for themselves
- I shop for multiple people
- Regularly shopped every 1-2 weeks
- Brand or generic can determine my purchase
- Valued quality over price when making a purchase
- Valued price over the brand name of a product
- Frustrated grocery shoppers
- There are somethings I don't like about grocery shopping
- I can’t find what I want easily
Persona
Taking the data from the Affinity Diagram I developed a persona for a typical user. The typical user was the primary shopper of the household. They were organized and saving money and time were important to them. The user would use coupons and look for sales to meet this goal so the family could spend money in other ways.
Frustrations for the user were that they could spend too much time shopping and would rather spend that time doing other things. They would like an easier way to manage coupons and finding items could be difficult. Major motivations were price, convenience, and speed when it comes to shopping.
Experience Model
The key aspect in the Experience Model is that the user is an extremely busy person. Their time is very important to them. They are looking for an application that will save them time and is convenient for them to use.
Requirements
From the various methods of research conducted I put together some requirements for the grocery application that would enhance the customer’s experience.
Vision
I did some brainstorming and put together 2 Visions with lists of pluses and minuses for each. Vision 1 focused on sharing lists with others and using previous orders to make purchases. Vision 2 was voice activated to make it easier to multi-task.
Product Concept
A Product Concept important to the users based on the data collected from our research is having the ability to create and share a grocery list. The Product Concept begins with the user creating the list. They are then able to add items to the list as desired. Recipes are also an option to be added to the list to enhance the user experience. The list creator can then share the list with other users so they can make their modifications. Contacts can be quickly accessed from their phone, email accountant and social media.
Storyboard
The tasks outlined in the storyboard consists of a new list being created and sharing the list with another user.
What I Learned
This was the first user research I have conducted. I enjoyed the assignment and it made me even more interested in the user research field because I was able to conduct several methods.