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At the time of the challenge, I was home for a family and friends dinner before Valentine's day. I shared the guidelines of this challenge with the guests; after some people shared some irks they had with typical consumer experiences such as using a vending machine, one person mentioned recently buying a gift for his significant other for Valentine's day. He talked about buying her a set of candles and his experience in the candle store and how the overbearing candle smells prevented him from distinguishing different aromas.
Context & Research
01 -
Users Research
To find out more about troubles with the candle purchasing experience I interviewed friends and family members. I asked non-leading and some general questions to ensure conversation flowed and to get interviewees in the context of purchasing candles. Once I felt the interviewee was comfortable, I proceeded to ask more in-depth question, yet still open-ended, so as to collect honest and more valid feedback.
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Have you ever been in or near a candle store before?
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What was that experience like?
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For stores that sell candles or scented things like perfumes, what has been your experience with them?
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Do you like how these stores smell?
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Where do you buy candles?
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Why do you buy candles?
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When do you buy candles?
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How do you decide what candles to buy?
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How is your experience with buying candles? Would you change anything about that experience if you had the chance to?
Overall Trends & Insights
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The overwhelming smells in candle stores mask the different smells of candles and complicates the purchasing process.
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Having a break in between smelling candles is an important step for customers because otherwise, they can't distinguish smells.
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63% of interviewees buy candles for other people.
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75% of interviewees mentioned having trouble browsing candles when walking into storefronts.
Intended Users
Given these findings, I came up with two users representative of what I believed the main customers of my redesigned experience would be.
Jenny Zhang, is a Candle Enthusiast
Goals:
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To have a relaxing atmosphere at home
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To be able to accurately identify a candle scent
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To spend less time searching for and testing candles and more time enjoying them
Bob Ness, has Smell Sensitivities
Goals:
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Not feel nauseated or sick whenever he goes candle shopping
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Smell the candle before purchasing
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Easily buy candles for whatever occasion
To mediate the overbearing smell in candle stores, I envisioned an interactive candle vending machine, where a user would smell a scented strip (much like one tests a perfume at Sephora) before deciding to purchase a candle
Given browsing issues, candles should be displayed under specific categories such as occasions and smells so that users can logically access and view available candles. It seems like adding a “gift”/wrapping feature would make the interface desirable to a wider range of users, such as users looking to get a gift for someone.
02 -
Designing a Solution
Initial Sketches & Wireframes
First sketch of the vending machine.
Higher fidelity sketch of the vending machine (renamed kiosk).
The screen component was to feature the main interactive component that would satisfy the challenge guidelines. I began with a paper mockup to get a general sense of what the customer experience would feel like. Full wireflow of sketches can be found here:
(Note: at this point my Adobe trial expired so I used Figma which is a similar tool to create wireframes)
Paper prototype of the Kiosk with the screen in the middle. The strip dispenser is on the bottom left and bottom right is for payment.
Testing my Concept
To put my concept to the test I asked people to perform a specific task:
Click through the paper prototype; purchase a candle you like, test its smell, add it to your cart, gift wrap it, and checkout.
From the user testing, I gathered this data:
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Average task time: 30s
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Task success rate: 94% of participants were able to get to the checkout screen
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Participants took longer to find the test smell button than the add cart button
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Only 65% clicked on the gift wrap button
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Satisfaction Questionnaire: 90% of users reported that the interface was intuitive and the process was engaging.
Note: Participants' ages ranged from (21-57) and consisted of 4 males and 6 females.
With these results, I decided to make small changes to the interface:
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Outline the scent button in a bright color.
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Make gift wrapping button as important (in size) as other buttons on the checkout screen
Style Guide
