Woolies' Self-service Technologies Immersive Futures
Project type
-
UX Research
-
Project Management
Tools
-
Figma
-
FigJam
Year
2023
Team
Team of 3 including myself
Speculative Client
My roles
-
Project management
-
Leading user research
-
Documentation
-
Facilitating collaborative and design workshop sessions
-
Interview, conducting the research
-
Presentation
-
Poster and GUI design
Background
Woolworths, a prominent service company in the Australian supermarket industry, has embarked on a new policy initiative to foster technology innovation through 2033, primarily focusing on enhancing automation and self-service capabilities in various daily activities and user interactions.
As a part of Woolworths' Innovation and Technology department, our design team has been assigned the task of conducting research into the future expectations and visions of user interactions with self-service technologies, specifically within Woolworths' central supermarkets where both assisted self-checkouts and Scan&Go systems are available.
To tackle this challenge, our team adopted a Speculative Design approach, developing a speculative design experiential scenario based on qualitative research insights from self-checkout services’ users and customers.
Design
Outcome
Poster
Project Goals
-
Research users' future visions and expectations for interacting with self-service payment/checkout technologies at Woolworths Supermarkets in 2033 (10 years from now)
​
-
Develop a speculative, experimental scenario based on this future context to inspire realistic design solutions
​
-
Present speculative technologies and solutions in design workshops with specific deliverables
​
For this UX research case study, the focus is primarily on the first two goals.
Personal Goals
-
Challenge myself in the Project Management role of an end-to-end UX research project
​
-
Gain understanding and insights into a complete UX research process and its applicable methodologies.
Research Process
Background Research
Research Plan
Research Methodology & Data Collection
Our approach centres on qualitative research methods inspired by the Design Ethnography approach, emphasising deep insights into participants' sensory and experiential aspects of daily life. We employ methods like observations, surveys, and in-depth interviews, utilising sensory tools like photography and audio recordings to collect data.
The collected data will be analysed using techniques like affinity maps to gather detailed insights, which will be visualised further into personas and empathy maps. These insights will drive the creation of User Journey Maps for present experience and future expectations and generate a speculative experiential scenario that explores the users' envisioned future possibilities. This scenario aims to envision, anticipate, and comprehend users' future interactions with emerging technologies.​
Deliverables
-
Data from observation, survey, and in-depth interviews
-
Affinity maps
-
Personas
-
Empathy maps
-
User journey maps (present experience and future expectation)
-
Speculative experiential scenario proposal
Data
Collection
Observation
Assisted Checkout
Scan&Go
Survey
We conducted the Future of Self-checkout Technologies and Experience survey to assess more participants' general feelings and thoughts (negative, neutral, positive) about their self-checkout experience for later analysis.
The survey was structured as follows:
1. Demographic Information
-
Gender
-
Age range
-
Nationality
-
Occupation
-
Grocery shopping habits
3. Future visions for self-checkout experience
-
Future visions for self-service checkout technologies that users find appealing
​
-
Potential worries or apprehensions regarding these types of technologies
2. Current self-checkout experience at Woolworths
-
Types of self-service checkout technology used (Assisted checkout / Scan&Go)
​
-
Positive aspects or features appreciated in Woolworths' self-checkout technologies and experience
​
-
Aspects or features of Woolworths' checkout technologies and experience found unfavourable
​
-
Overall satisfaction with the self-service checkout experience at Woolworths
​
-
Desired improvements in Woolworths' checkout experience
In-depth Interview Plan
1. Interview Goals
The in-depth interviews aim to delve deeper and gain a comprehensive understanding of user perspectives, emotions, preferences, and pain points related to self-checkout technologies.
These insights will be used to identify highlight patterns and create informed scenarios to enhance the self-checkout experience at Woolworths.
2. Location
3. Participant
-
Online
-
Face-to-face
-
Interviewers: All team members
-
Participants: at least 3 people
4. Interview materials
-
Consent form
-
Interview Questionnaire
(has digital format on iPad) -
Audio and/or video recorder
In-depth Interview Insights
1. Rewards and discounts
-
Users appreciate rewards being automatically added during payment, avoiding extra activation steps.
-
Some users face issues where discounts don't appear during check-out, requiring staff assistance.
-
Users express a desire for simplified reward systems.
2. Perception of self-checkout technologies at Woolworths
-
Some users see little difference between Scan&Go and traditional self-checkout, as both involve scanning items.
-
Users wish for smoother, lag-free, and glitch-free motion in the self-checkout screens.
-
Users generally like the current system but are open to more convenient technologies.
-
Users sometimes encounter inaccurate price labels, leading to concerns about pricing transparency.
-
Users find self-checkout suitable for a small number of items but frustrating for larger purchases, citing an average purchase of 20 items as an example.
3. Compulsive buying and Data trust
-
Some users are concerned about impulsive buying and overeating when items are automatically scanned.
-
Users generally trust corporations to use customer data responsibly.
Analysis
Affinity Map
Mapping common responses
from surveys and in-depth interviews about check-out experiences
Future Experience Insights
-
Quick & Easy
-
No/Short queues
-
Spacious bagging area
-
Ethical design & technology
-
Technology with no errors
-
Personalised reward points collection
Considered Technologies
-
Smart bagging area
-
Automatic item scanning
-
All-in-one scan (Profile, Payment, Rewards, Exit)
Personas
Empathy Map
Primary Persona
Secondary Persona
User Scenario
The User Scenario presents a brief narrative detailing the specific situation and interactions of our chosen persona during a grocery shopping experience at Woolworths.
This scenario aids in mapping the user journey and analysing the persona’s actions, emotions, pain points, and future expectations regarding self-service technologies.
User Journey Map
Current Experience
Future Experience
Journey Map Summary
-
The user, without hesitation, pursues the option of self-checkout as she is aware of the quick and easy process.
​
-
The user doesn’t have to worry about the struggle of scanning the items with her belongings in one hand and her shopping bag with the items in the other. She can simply put all the items as it is on the smart counter.
​
-
The user is confident with her points being used or collected since she pays for her items through her Woolworths account by scanning the QR code. Her account will hold all her information, such as purchase histories, invoices, rewards, etc.
​
-
As the user is done quickly with their checkout, they reduce the wait time for other users.
​
-
Overall, the smart counter allows the user a quick and hassle-free self-checkout for large amounts of purchases even on spontaneous visits.
Experience
Proposal
Combining the functionalities and interactions of assisted checkout, Scan&Go checkout technology and smart AI-powered counters, we present the following design solution for the problems discovered through this research.
Imagine a self-serving smart checkout counter with ample space, deep enough to hold at least 15 - 20 items.
It operates autonomously and effortlessly, scanning the items and handling the entire process simultaneously, such as
Profile --> Payment --> Rewards --> Exit
