Design Thinking Challenge
This is the first activity that we were asked to do during my UX/UI course at Neoland School, using the methodology of Design Thinking: the challenge of doing a digital proposal that solves a problem in the fitting rooms at Zara stores.
The problem
Most of the people who visit Zara stores and who decide to use the fitting rooms, they have chosen only do it once. In other words, if they do not like clothing, they will not search for the correct size and carry out the process again. Either because they are lazy to get dressed and undressed again, or for not waiting for the usual queues of access, a situation that increases the possibility that they buy less or do not buy at all.
The idea is to look for alternatives that improve that habitual trend of users and improve their experience in stores. With that, it is also expected that sales will increase by at least 10% compared to previous years.
During the interviews
I have done 10 interviews, asking them about experiences, emotions, and the situations in which they have found themselves being in Zara stores or similar stores. Once the user interviews were carried out, the problem did indeed emerge. It is not a nice practice to users going after the correct size, and make all the process once again in the fitting rooms. Most of them returned to the fitting rooms but claimed the process was quite tedious, especially when faced with having to wait for the queue to go inside.
Design thinking
During the Design Thinking process, while doing research, I got a lot of ideas on how that problem could be solved. The first thought I had was to minimize this phenomenon, however, some things did not quite fit … continuing the investigation, I stopped to think, what if instead of solving a problem, we seek to prevent it?
So that I started to think about more and more questions… how to prevent users from being in that situation? Is it possible to prevent it 100%? Clearly no, there is always a “percentage error”. So in such a case, it would also seek to improve the experience of that lower percentage.
I decided that the way would be to prevent and minimize.
“ «Prevention is better than cure», it sure sounds familiar to you. We have, in everything possible, to prevent any error that the user may commit. And given the case that this comet one, we have to put at your disposal all the possible options to be able to correct it.” David Arenzana.
So, Question 1:
Prevent what? Prevent users from making the “mistake”, leading them into the vicious circle of looking for the item again and returning to the fitting rooms once more time.
And Question 2:
Minimize what? Minimize the hassle of doing the whole process again, from users whom we could not prevent from making the “mistake”.
About the solutions
To the first question about prevention, how might we prevent this “mistake”?
1-Chatbot, repowering the current scanner function of the Zara app, and include a new requirement in user profiles: their measurements, emphasizing to users that all that will help them to improve their in-store and online experience.
To the second question about minimizing, how might we minimize the inconvenience of users who did not follow the previous process?
1- Using a QR code, the user will have the possibility to lock the fitting room. In this way, when the user leaves the rooms to look for another item, they will not have to worry about queuing because they can activate the “reserved fitting room” option, increasing the possibility that they buy the product.
Prototyping
Conclusion
Design Thinking is a functional methodology to solve problems. Although it is a new methodology for me, it was an interesting challenge to carry it out. And about the prevention of problems, it is impossible to avoid 100% human mistakes, but I think that is why we are here, and why we are trained, to avoid these inconveniences as much as possible in the future, and improve the user experience.
Want to learn more?
If you’d like to become an expert in UX Design, Design Thinking, UI Design, or another related design topic, then consider to take an online UX course from the Interaction Design Foundation. For example, Design Thinking, Become a UX Designer from Scratch, Conducting Usability Testing or User Research — Methods and Best Practices. Good luck on your learning journey!
References
https://es.semrush.com/blog/usabilidad-web-principios-jakob-nielsen/
