✦ Other Works
✻ Personal Notes
This project became one of the most important stepping stone in my career, because this is where I got exposed about design research for the first time and got connected with influential people which became my referral for my next full time job in Traveloka.
Role : Experience Design Intern
Contribution : Assisting research (in-depth interview & data analysis), creating research tools, co-fasilitating workshops with clients
Company : Mirum (Wunderman Thompson)
Duration : 3 months
Project backgrounds
This project revolves around the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT), which includes any internet-connected device, from cellphones to wearable devices. As the cost of connectivity decreases, our client sees a significant growth opportunity in distributing and selling IoT products. However, because the range of IoT products varies significantly in purpose, there are many different audience segments that our client needs to cater to. Using current channels might be challenging, as consumers currently have little regard for their present retailers because these stores are perceived as focused on mobile phones.
Project Goal
Explore the current market of IoT and identify the opportunity to develop a more relevant experience for IoT products
Design Approach
We conducted end-to-end research on both the users and the service providers to help us map out the entire ecosystem. We worked closely with the service providers and invited them to co-create with us along the way, ensuring that we developed a solution that was not only market-fit but also suitable for their business model.
My Contribution
As an intern, my responsibilities revolved around supporting the core team in executing research, conducting in-depth interviews, creating research tools, and facilitating workshops with clients. Even though I was new to research, I had the privilege of being totally hands-on with the execution and involved in each discussion. The learning that I gained here has become one of the foundations for pursuing my career as a Design Researcher.
In addition to research, one of my responsibilities was to assist the team in creating research tools. One such tool was a set of emotion stickers, which users could use to represent their feelings during their shopping journeys. Given the wide range of emotions, I realized that it might be inconvenient for users if we mixed all the stickers together. Therefore, I took the initiative to create a low-effort wallet using only leftover papers and staples to create pockets. Each pocket contained only one type of emotion, making it easier for users to choose. This small initiative earned me significant recognition from my leads for going the extra mile to assist the team.
Final Results
The New Store Experience
We proposed a new store experience in the form of a storyboard. There are many touchpoints along the customer's shopping experience where our client has the opportunity to demonstrate its new value proposition.
Impact
Learnings
It's better to try than not to do anything at all. Making mistakes is part of learning, and it encourages us to create new ways of doing things. Even as someone very new to this area, I've learned not to be afraid to speak up, initiate, and do what I think is right.
We began this project by starting with the experts inside—our internal stakeholders. This process was about transferring knowledge and ensuring that the project was framed in the same way by all parties involved. This ensured that we moved forward, seeking the right questions to build the project from the ground up.
We conducted visual observations across our clients' brand stores and their competitors. This process was to understand what the current shopping experience feels like, providing us with a reasonable understanding of users and their activities in a short period of time.
To better immerse ourselves in the experience, we pretended to be customers to see how the storekeepers would serve us in the actual scenario. We wore recording glasses and put a small recorder inside our pockets to record the conversations without their knowledge. This method helped us avoid distractions during observation and gain valuable findings from the field.
We spoke with many users to understand their perspective on IoT products—trying to gain insight into their actions, motivations, and ways of thinking that would help establish the basis for our solutions.
In order to better capture their sentiments towards the whole experience, we created some research tools to help the interviewee articulate their thoughts and feelings.
Analyze all insights gathered from research using affinity mapping to create consumer personas and a consumer experience map.
A brainstorming session with our client was conducted to address the design challenge and various problems identified in the initial and consumer research. In this session, we focused on solving the main question that sums up the core problem derived from our previous research and data analysis. We encouraged participants to express their ideas in various formats, such as drawings, text, or prototypes. To assist them in ideation, we provided a series of stimulus cards and concept templates that they could use to generate better ideas.
✦ Team Credits
Special mention to my first design lead, Stephanie Lukito, for accelerating my learning process, which became a crucial foundation in my professional journey. To one of the most humble managing directors, Dan V Leeuwen, for being compassionate and making me feel welcome. Also, to our head of design, Daniel Hagmeijer, for encouraging me and making me feel appreciated along the way. And not to forget, the senior designers, Tesia and Vito, for guiding me and making my intern experience one of the most remarkable!