EXPLORATION / UX RESEARCH - This is the early stage of design process: researching, taking notes, understanding competitors, sketching rough mock-ups, no idea is a bad idea, thinking out side of box, pushing boundaries and be creative.
Project overview timeline; having clear break-down of tasks and review dates. Project Planning, resource allocation, online scheduling, reporting. Identifying and detailing activities required in each phase of a project and lead teams with members of your staff to carry out each phase.
Design Process + Case Study
It is very important to have a design process, it helps to set clear expectations; it allows us to establish realistic project deliverables. Design process should be flexible so it can fit for different projects and clients.
DESIGN PROCESS FRAMEWORK
Have clear user goals of the product before using any creative tool. Understanding end user needs, better user experience. The outcome is how end users are going to benefit from it.
(1) EXPLORATION / UX RESEARCH
The goal of the exploration is to collect information at an early stage of the project process.
(2) FOCUS ON RESEARCH FINDING
(3) INVESTIGATING OPTIONS
(4) DEFINE INTERFACE, INTERACTIONS AND USER FLOW
- Sketching, whiteboard sessions
- Wireframes
(5) VISUAL DESIGN
- Conceptual design
-Visual design
(6) USABILITY ANALYSIS
- Prototype
- Usability testing
(7) PRODUCTION DESIGN
(8) REVIEWS
(9) DELIVER
Wireframing mock-ups with different user cases. This is the early stage of project process, start exploring all possibilities, applying user centered design as foundation.
WRAP SOLUTIONS
about
Wrap is pre-packaged templates, a mobile app-like experience for commerce, digital companions, lead gen forms, or branded content in a few easy steps.
RESPONSIBILITIES: Art direction / review check points / design
TEAM: Partner with WORLD DESIGN Agency (4 designers)
Goals
(1) Creating user friendly easy to use wrap solutions
Authoring / template tool:
Easily create, design, write, and send without having to start from scratch.
(2) Widget Components
Weather, sound, video, location-nearby, click to call, chat, calendar, review feedback and rating, download PDF, subscribe contact form...
(3) Personalization
Creating wrap with customized data, from an existing authored wrap. (name, references prior behavior, dynamic call-to-action, follow up email thanking the customer for converting and makes recommendations for next actions...)
Benefits of personalized content:
- Increases conversions / easier conversion
- one-click purchases, by remembering their behavior, preferences, and information
- Builds a passionate audience
- viewers usually pretty specific about what exactly they love about or looking for
- Improves lead nurturing (the process of developing relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel and buyer’s journey)
- personalize content to each person’s interests and behavior
- Welcomes newcomers
- showing new viewers information relevant to their interests or needs. It could be the first offer they convert on, the campaign that drove their response, or even the pages they visited on your website
(4) Detailed Analytics
Engagement metrics:
Beyond the impressions and click-through rates of standard ads, engagement metrics can offer a clearer picture of audience engagement. The tracking capabilities to measure when, where and for how long someone interacts with an ad. The better engagement rate, the higher lifetime value translates into greater customer retention
Data / Monitoring ad campaign / Measurable results:
Providing data and campaign results with easily understood format of how each creative element in a campaign is performing so can craft a more effective marketing strategy and give better directions. Wrap analytics monitoring tool with break down of each cards; total views, CTA clicks, CTR rates, bounce rates, avg. time in wrap.
DESIGN CHALLENGES
(1) Prioritizing the contents for mobile use (2) Maximizing CTA placement with clear purpose (3) Creating App-look layout with elegant, clean design and strong marketing content (4) Maximizing all usage of components in wrap solutions (5) Creating parallax animation transition with purpose (6) Cover card optimization (7) Improving campaign by iterating design layout based on analysis of data
TEMPLATES
Template structure; we started with single wrap with 1 story arc. In this particular case, we had limited space to cover all different user cases.
Afterwards, we used a traditional marketing funnel concept to showcase different stages of the campaign. I will use the Equinox sales pitch as an example. * All images are copyright by Equinox.
Here are the 6 steps of the campaign wraps:
(1) Awareness (2) Discovery (3) Consideration (4) Conversion (5) Customer Service (6) Retention
Under Wrap authoring environment we have 11 categories:
My templates, commerce, lead generation, landing pages, events, digital companion, real estate, content publishing, business publishing, sales enablement and other
PHASE 1:
- Creating template with different fonts, mood, styles, different user cases
Mapping out all marketer user cases with all possible built-in component widgets.
PHASE 2:
- Creating templates with marketing funnel user cases, using different fonts, mood and styles.
Example of marketing funnel, small business, service with font style - billboard and Condensed.
Example of marketing funnel, small business, retail store with font style - elegant modern serif.
Example of marketing funnel, artist, design, life style product with duotone modern magenta.
PHASE 3:
- Creating template follow with Marketing funnel user cases, using few font styles, but all focusing on modern look and feel.
Example of Apigee pitch with user story and outcome
User story: I don't know Paris that well. I am pleasantly surprised that I got this sharing hotel text. Accorhotel group has some great hotels. I love Sofitel! "I love how this experience seems to pop up just at the right time."
(1) Solution space - give user enough interest to lead user to web check out
(2) Preferred path: Have the full mobile experience
(3) Entry point - The Wrap
Outcome: "I got what I needed. It was easy and I felt everything was well thought out for me during my stay."
PHASE 4:
Richness of template categories:
- Commerce: companies bring revenue by offering “buy now” capabilities through a partnership with Stripe.
- Digital companion: digital receipts, providing relevant information and up sale more products
- Lead Gen: focus on CTA, get user information.
- Landing pages: with a rich content delivery experience, you can craft a story or extend your brand’s presence
- Events: connect with your attendees, during and post event with RSVP capabilities, ticketing, real-time updates and post event communications
- Business publishing: empowers businesses to easily share information in a format which is easy to consume for their consumers or their employees with front cover personalization card to increase viewer engagement
- Real estate: real estate agents can customize templates or create one from scratch to market themselves and offers
- Sales enablement: empower team with quickly executed collateral that can be shared effortlessly via mobile
- Content publishing: marketers can easily create and share listicles or provide a personalized daily feed to stay connected with users and keep them updated with branded content.
Example of Awareness Wrap.
Here we are focus on the brand background and high level information about the brand to get user interested.
Example of Discovery Wrap. We added more details on all classes and CHAT widget.
DIGITAL MENU TABLET
about
Tanjerine is a integrated tabletop ordering solution, a solution combining tablet-based ordering, server handhelds, pay at the table and guest entertainment.
The solution offer large chains or independent casual dining restaurants with all of these capabilities: menu customization, real-time data and on-menu browsing, Individual and multiplayer games and POS integration.
Project scope: Dashboard and screen server, payment alerts, games, menu payments, NAV log out, build drink, welcome global elements.
RESPONSIBILITIES: Oversee all creative projects, working with HUGE agency based in NYC for all creatives, team of 4 designers, art director, copywriter and PM.
1. Goals & methodology
User research goal:
Identify how an in-venue digital experience can resolve key user pain points and create new opportunities to deliver value to restaurants and patrons.
What we wanted to learn:
- What is the appetite for a tabletop digital experience within casual family restaurants and sports bars?
- What key factors influence satisfaction and dissatisfaction for staff and patrons within the restaurant/bar experience?
- How are digital strategies currently employed, and how might they be employed more effectively to increase enjoyment and drive purchasing?
We spoke to members of four distinct groups as part of the qualitative research phase.
(1) Restaurant / bar managers:
In each target market, we spoke to local bar and restaurant managers about business challenges and processes.
(2) Bar/restaurant waitstaff:
We interviewed bar and restaurant staff to understand different processes and challenges.
(3) Restaurant patrons:
We recruited a mix of patrons who dine with young children and patrons who go out with friends, to understand how needs differ between the two.
(4) Sports bar patrons:
We interviewed sports bar regulars to understand the bar culture as well as opportunities for digital enhancement.
Methodology
In-depth interviews with participants in three cities. (New York, NY, Cincinnati, OH, Houston, TX)
Finally analyzed all research footage/documentation to identify patterns and opportunities.
2. Key findings
Management told us that digital could free them to focus on customer service
“I spend 75% of my time checking up on whether waitstaff are doing their job, when I really should be spending most of my time thinking about my customers.”
-Ginger, Luby’s Restaurant Manager, Houston
For waitstaff, digital presents a useful opportunity to delight their guests and keep them entertained
“If there are toys in the bar to keep my customers happy, then we have the time to provide better service .”
-Sarah, Bartender, Cincinnati
And they all agree
Frustration from bad service far exceeds the pleasure of good service.
3. Social impact
One common characteristic:
Acceptable digital usage enhances the in-venue experience rather than distracting from it. For in-venue digital entertainment to be successful, it needs to add value, and not create additional pain points.
4. User needs and pain points
Within one venue, there are multiple social scenarios:
- Casual dining with friends
Dining for convenience (lunch)
Dining with children
Event-driven dining/drinking
Regular happy hour drinks/snacks
Patrons share a number of common needs:
- Consistent food quality and cleanliness
- Orders taken and served in a timely manner
- Ambience that’s appropriate to the occasion
- Attention paid to food/drink orders
- Ability to pay bill upon desire to leave
Failing to meet these needs affects the overall experience and can lead to lower tips or even prevent return visits.
Management duties are ongoing
4. Opportunities for digital solutions
Users generally need features that help them take control of their experience
- Better timing information
Venue-specific entertainment: Digital entertainment is appealing, as long as it enhances the bar or restaurant experience
Improved waitlisting
Servers need a number of features to reduce the possibility of mental error
- Alerts from kitchen or customer: Many duties aren’t currently performed systematically
Order verification: Mistakes in order notation can be resolved quickly if patrons can see what waitresses took down before the food arrives.
Hostess notes - request baby seats/crayons/kids menus.
Management needs freedom to improve processes
- Waitstaff performance tracking
Checklists: Management performs routine checks throughout the day
Mobile alerts: Management is ultimately accountable for any issues within the venue, and need to be able to address problems 24/7.
Bartender pain points can be resolved with more systematic approaches
- System to track when certain drinks are running low
System to organize tabs
Tracking previous orders for regular customers
Ways to generate recommendations for regular customers, to push particular products and get rid of stock
icons
Module System
welcome screen
Menu
Gaming
newsletters
payments
feedback
