Frigidaire: Personal Shopper App

Frigidaire came to us with a very interesting vision: design a premium brand experience in retail stores across the US that helps shoppers manage the complex choice of appliance selection. Our client wanted to launch this experience in approximately 3 months and spend as little money as possible at first, so we decided to design an MVP that was focused on the Frigidaire Professional line of products that we would use to test the experience. In parallel, we continued working on the longer term vision by partnering with our research team at Electrolux to better understand our user’s shopping behaviors and pain-points

I was the UX lead in a group of three designers and pushed the team to think about innovation ideas while being mindful of our time constraints. I also was in-charge of pushing the ideas we were coming up with to our client and stakeholders. We spent the first couple of days doing some quick and dirty guerilla research by going in-store to observe and interviews shoppers about their pain points, looked up what our competitors where doing in the retail space which helped us design a user journey that described all the touchpoints a user will encounter and identify opportunities and features. After that, we mocked up very roughly an app idea and explained what was the value of it from a business and user perspective. After a lot of back and forth with the client, we scaled back the experience to a mobile web app which was focused solely on the features in-store and perfected the UI. We designed mobile wireframes and worked hand in hand with visual designers and developers.

How can we create an experience that will help shoppers in their purchase decision while surprising and delighting them?

Phase 1: Optimal Product Experience

User research helped us design personas and the user journey. We identify the key principals of the experience which are the following:

Immediacy: Interact with our users at a key moment in the decision making process

Transparency: Compare Frigidaire products to competitors’ offerings

Customer Service: Provide real-time support with a knowledgeable specialist

Phase 1: Concepts

We mocked up the personal shopper mobile application which is a shopping companion:

Help users with their selection process at home using a real time comparison tool

Help users locate Frigidaire product in-store through NFC navigation (Beacons)

See the product in action via video content by scanning the product in front of you

Use in-store tablets to talk to an expert via remote video chat or demo product in a larger scale

Help users share their product with friends and family via social media and email. Users are prompt to submit their email to share the product. This is used to promote the app for new users and send promotions to signed-up users

Suggest products based on their geolocation

Notify users about promotions and support information but also suggest products for signed up users based on their past purchases

Phase 2: Minimum Viable Product

We aimed to launch an experience that provide shoppers with a complete in-store experience from point of entry via displays & POP to an engaging mobile experience that informs purchase decisions and drives conversion

Phase 2: User Flows and Wireframes

There will be two scenarios that will serve as the point-of-entry to the mobile experience, both stemming from static in-store point of purchase displays and a quick URL to the tool

Scenario 1: Link to Product with feature specific messaging that relates to an individual product

Scenario 2: Link to homepage with messaging that is applicable to the full suite of Frigidaire Professional Appliances

Phase 2: Concepts

We worked in collaboration with WD partners to design the point of purchase displays:

Educate users about product through tailored content

Product page will include:

• Video content and images of the product
• Reviews of the product
• Features and Specs of the product
• Share or save product manuals directly

Help users make their purchase decision by accessing experts advice through live chat or/and sharing it instantly with family and friends

Showcase all the offerings of the web tool

Offer all ratings and reviews for all the products

Offer all video demos of all the product

Help users view all the product line

Phase 3: Comparison Tool App

After launch of our MVP, we collaborated with our partner WD by writing test scripts and testing the experience in a lab. The interface was well received but the entry point was difficult, and users felt like they wouldn’t type a URL to view the mobile web app. Also, we identified a big opportunity which was that users want to compare Frigidaire products with other brands in order to make their purchase decision. Our next iteration, which was a completely new branded experience was focused on a comparison tool where users could compare all Frigidaire products with other brands. Despite voicing the issue of user’s entering the URL, our client thought that simplifying the nomenclature of the URL would solve this problem.

Phase 3: User Flows and Wireframes

Our focus was to make an easy to use comparison tool UI and solve the URL issue at a later stage:

Phase 3: Concepts

Browse products or enter a serial number to find specific product

View tailored content and compare with other brands instantly

Compare product using side by side comparison tool

Find products using category and subcategory with a clear navigation

Results

After many rounds of testing, we identified several issues to the experience which lead us to think of pivoting the idea completely:

Our findings included the following:

Obstacles: We are relying on users to quickly & accurately enter complicated, lengthy product model numbers & names on a mobile keyboard.

Weak upselling: Users leaning toward Frigidaire may need help comparing models, and often need accessories and related products.

Unreliable bandwidth: A mobile website relies on potentially erratic or poor in-store connectivity.

Truncated experience: We are missing opportunities to engage the user: while they are researching products before visiting the store, the act of purchasing a product, and as an owner.