In-Store Kiosk
The Ask
Home Depot has made improvements to its smartphone app and website, recently, and they want to build on that momentum by providing a tool to assist their customers in the DIY process. Working in a team of three we developed a solution utilizing Human-Centered Design methodology in a period of two weeks.
Role
Researcher, Information Architect, Team Facilitator
Activities
User Interviews, Ideation + Sketching, Prototyping, User Testing
Deliverables
Wireframes, User Flow, Journey Map, High-Fidelity Prototype
Tools
Sketch, Adobe XD, InVision, Pen + Paper
Research
The team needed to plan, discover, and explore in order to develop an understanding of the DIY process and the experience shopping at Home Depot.
Graphic by Flynn Hannon
Landscape Analysis
We did a deep dive into the Home Depot website, mobile app and robust web presence. We quickly realized that Home Depot provides many tools and original online content for their customers with much of it focused on DIY projects.
Guerilla Interviews
our initial research the team traveled to a Home Depot store and conducted informal interviews with Home Depot employees and customers. From these interviews we gained insights into the customer in-store experience, customer goals, and paint points.
Survey
To find out more about the DIY process we sent out a survey and received 35 responses. We began to plot the responses. Patterns began to emerge. The level of DIYer (self-assessed) and their willingness (for numerous reasons) to ask a Home Depot employee for assistance for a DIY project.
Graph by Stephen Schafer
Survey respondents self-assessed their skill-level 1 through 10. Then in a short answer these responses identified willingness to engage with an employee as their pain point at Home Depot. Patterns began to emerge. We needed to dig deeper in the “medium” skilled DIYer process.
In-Depth Interviews
The team identified and conducted seven in-depth interviews with “medium” skilled DIYers. We uncovered motivations behind the DIY projects and more patterns began to emerge with the DIYer. With the results of the survey and the notes from the interviews we affinity mapped to find patterns and identify gaps.
Define and Synthesize
Insights that Emerged
Users take on DIY projects for both practical and emotional reasons, often attaching familial association to projects with partners and friends.
DIYers usually prepare before going to the store; however, they often hit roadblocks in-store and can be hesitant or averse to ask employees for help, with the exception of asking for directions.
Customers are hesitant to interact with Home Depot employees because: employees can be hard to find, customers can’t tell if they are busy, or the customers’ questions may arise after their initial interaction with an employee.
You can have the best app or the most informed, well-trained employees, but that doesn’t matter if customers aren’t utilizing them for help or as a source of knowledge.
Challenges
Graphic by Flynn Hannon
Many users go into Home Depot with a project in mind (some even have plans). However, they still hit roadblocks in-store. Though Home Depot employees are generally friendly and knowledgeable, they are either hard to find or seem busy, and therefore, users only ask them for help when locating a specific item. Users need a way to tap into the employees’ knowledge and guidance when they hit non-location based project roadblock during their in-store experience.
Design Principles
Help the medium-skilled DIYer complete a project
Provide knowledge to the DIYer at the needed time during the in-store experience
Home Depot should help facilitate the DIY process and be an integral part of making a space more of a home, not just a hub for tools and materials
Solutions
Development of User Profiles
Utilizing the research and interviews the team decided on 3 user profiles as they represented the “medium” skilled DIYers. We utilized these profiles as we created flows within the design concepts.
Graphic by Flynn Hannon
We also chartered the top motivating factors of our User Profiles and matched them with a study referenced during discovery. We can see that DIYers are motivated for multiple (both emotional and practical) reasons.
Ideate and Sketching
It was time to sketch.
We did quick sketches to brainstorm and iterate on our ideas. The sketches ranged from focusing on employee apps to project tracking with a customers account.
The team also held a design workshop and invited designers outside of the team to generate solutions based on our user profiles and scenarios we developed.
Build, Test, Iterate
To complete user testing the team quickly created a lo-fidelity clickable prototype. We conducted A/B testing with two different user flows and gathered additional feedback on the prototype.
Making adjustments our team developed 2 iterations of hi-fidelity clickable prototypes and conducted multiple rounds of user testing.
Our team wanted to develop a simple interface to counter the overwhelming nature of the user experience. The “I Need to Locate a Product” link would utilize the existing database of products. “I Have a Question” button would connect customers to an employee with expertise in their project.
Results
Home Depot has provided its customers with a variety of tools to assist in the DIY experience. However, you can have the most robust smart-phone app or the best informed employees, but that doesn’t matter if customers aren’t utilizing them as a source of knowledge.
We decided on the in-store kiosk to help Home Depot facilitate the DIY process. To connect the employee with the customer in an efficient way. Ideally, this will eliminate one of the major pain-points of the medium-skilled DIYer. Which could lead to more completed projects and overall positive in-store experience.
There will also be enormous value to the business of Home Depot. To name a few, they will have the opportunity to track areas of questions by customers, track employee productivity, and gather email addresses of customers.
You can check out the flow to page an employee here:
The in-store kiosk landing page. Research illustrated the importance of connecting employees with the customers.
In order to curate the in-store experience the team needed to develop broad categorizes.
You can connect with the a employee who’s expertise best fits your needs.
We used conversational language to help curate the in-store experience. Research demonstrated the importance of connecting the customer with a qualified employee.
The user is able to scroll and match with an employee who is an expert in the area the user needs help with.
The employee will meet the customer near the kiosk. Confirmation is provided as well as wait time.
Check out the two flows here:
