INDOOR Navigation
- Mobile App-
The Process
Project Overview
This project is about Indoor Navigation in Bucharest Shopping Centers. We studied as a team the challenges that users encounter when they are searching for different locations inside a Mall.
And after that, individually we analyzed the findings and created different solutions for the problems that emerged from our research.
The solution I found was to create a Mobile App that will solve the user problems identified.
TEAM
Ioana Franciuc
Mircea Dan
Gabriel Stoica
Cerasela Radu
Duration
3 Months
(Autumn 2019)
Project Skills
Research
Analysis
Ideation
UI/UX Design
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Strategy
GOALS
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1. Identify Usability issues through user research.
2. Study what solutions already exists both locally and on an international scale.
3. Create and validate possible design solutions.
4. Improve usability and make the solution more user-friendly.
5. Improve user's trust.
6. Discover more about the Mall.
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Discovery
Current situation in Malls from Bucharest
Right now in the Malls from Bucharest you can find 3 Navigation solutions
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1. Digital Tablet
2. Info Desk
3. Orientation Panels
Digital Tablet
INFO
Desks
Orientation Panel
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We went inside the Malls and observed User behavior and their needs.
After interviewing a few users we found out the reasons they came to the Mall and what was their experience when they were looking for specific functions in the Shopping Center.
We went through card sorting for all the needs we identified.
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The User Needs to...
Finding a digital tablet
Digital TAblet Needs
Search for product
translate
Info Desk
Search for
Shop
Relaxation
and fun
Food
Problem Statement
The Mall Navigation System (Panels, Info desk, Digital tablet) Was designed to help users get from point A (their location) to point B (the destination inside the Mall).
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We have observed the system isn’t meeting all the navigation goals, which is causing less profit for the shops inside the Mall.
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How might we improve the Mall Navigation System so that our customers are more successful based on number of people that use the new system to get to their destination?
Asumptions
hypothesis
Desk Research -Competitor Analysis
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On Google Play I found a few Indoor Navigation apps. After analyzing the top 6 apps, I made a list of the innovative solutions they offer:
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Path Guide - offers a way to share your paths with friends.
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Google Indoor maps - offers a similar navigation with Google Maps. Works sinless between outside and inside of the building. A lot of the users already have it installed.
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Situm Mapping Tool - Allows you to upload 3D models of your building.
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Indoorway - Enables you to create a digital map of your space and extend it to the web or mobile app.
I studied a few of the Shopping Centers Mobile Apps and compared them based on Ease of navigation, Search Experience, Time taken to find a shop, Overall appearance and Feature Complexity
I Compared the features of the Mobile Apps competitors. I was able to make an analysis of their how much they help a user navigate inside the Mall.
Surveys
I asked 74 people with ages between 12 and 69 about their Mall experience.
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Gender
Ages
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How opened to technology are you?
55% - 5/5 - very opened
28% - 4/5
10% - 3/5
2.7% - 2/5
2.7% - 1/5 - not opened at all
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Do you use Mobile Apps for outdoor Navigation ?
98.6% ( 73 ) - Yes
1.4% ( 1 ) - No
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What do you use for Mall Navigation?
(multiple answer question)
51% (38) - Digital Tablets
33.8% (25)- 4/5 - nothing specifically
28% (21) - Info desk
18.9% (14) - Physical map
12.2% (12%) - Mobile App
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How do you get to the Mall?
(multiple answer question)
67% ( 50 ) - Personal Car
62% (46) - Public Transportation
27% (20) - Walking
10% (6) - Other
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What matters for you when you choose what Mall you're gonna visit?
(multiple answer question)
79.7% ( 59 ) - Have the specific shops that they look for
59% (44) - Being close to home/the office
24% (18) - Mall Ambiance
13.5% (10) - How Well I know the Mall
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What is the hardest space/function to find in a Mall?
20% - Toilets
19% - Relaxation Area
17% - Book Shop
15% - Parking lot
14% - Specific Shops
13% - The Exit
If you would have a magic wand what would you change about the Navigation inside a Shopping Center?
A few of the answers:
“Color Coding functions".
“Audio Orientation in your Headset".
“Mobile Navigation App".
“Teleportation".
“AR glasses or at least AR on the phone" -"Trail of cookies leading to the best parking spot or the shop you're looking for".
“An app that includes maps for all the Malls".
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User Interviews
20 users interviewed in 4 different Malls
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Man 30
Unirii
Shopping Center
In the UK we have a mobile app that I use for the Mall. I had difficulties finding the Food Quarter here.
Man 23
MageMall
Shopping Center
I use the Digital Panel and I usually find on it everything I want. I have problems finding the parking lot
Mother 45
AFI
Shopping Center
I am looking for a specific Shop.
I couldn't find what I'm looking for on the digital tablet after I typed the Shop Name.
Girl 12
MegaMall
Shopping Center
I come here with my friends to relax or do some shopping. We use the digital tablet to navigate the Mall and it's really easy to use
Man 42
MegaMall
Shopping Center
I don't like wasting time in the Mall. I like to come here with a shopping list or knowing specific shops I want to visit.
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Woman 60
MegaMall
Shopping Center
I don't use technology much other than my phone. I come here for grocery shopping and I have a few favorite stores.
General observations:
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Most people that need a solution for Shopping Center Navigation, are looking for a specific product or shop.
A few of the problems they encounter:
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Not understanding how the Digital Tablet works.
Not enough sings or digital tablets.
Not finding on the Tablet what they looked for.
Finding the parking lot.
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There are some people that just come to the Mall to relax, socialize or because they feel alone at home and in these situations they don't need a standard navigation solution.
Problems they encounter:
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Finding a friend.
Finding promotions.
Be aware of events in the Mall like: children live shows.
Analysis
User Personas
From Interviews, Surveys and user observation I identified 4 User Personas
Analysis
Looking at the 4 Personas I realized that a solution for Navigation in the Shopping Center will be most useful to someone like Mario who doesn't like wasting time and go from Shop to Shop and doesn't know the Mall very well.
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About 30% of the users are in this category at one point when they visit the Mall.
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I continued the project focusing on him and his need to be efficient but I checked with the other personas as well thinking of their needs also and looking for feature opportunities for the next steps.
Corina - improve experience to finding the parking lot
- ease of use
Mara - promotion and sales tab and notification system
- social media integration
- route to friend
Sebastian - calendar with events
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Empathy Map
Empathy maps helped me realize how the user thinks and feels when they are in a Mall.
Customer Journey Map
Creating and analyzing the Customer Journey Map helped me identify a pain points of a user during a visit in a Shopping Mall.
The most critical ones are:
1. the user can't use the Digital tablet as he intends.
2. after he reaches the first shop he has no digital tablet to guide him to the second destination.
After analyzing the findings from the research a few more questions emerged so it was time to go back to Discovery step and make a new Survey.
Survey No. 2
The new survey had to verify the hypothesis from the Discovery step and check if some of the features our competitors offer, would be useful for our users.
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70% of users prefer to have a single navigation App for all the Malls in the City.
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88% of users want to receive personalized notification about promotions when they go shopping.
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88% of users already know the shops they want to visit.
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57% of users use a shopping list.
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63 % of users would prefer a 3D Map rather Than a 2D Map (42%) or Augmented Reality (37%).
Design
The design objective was to utilize the UX research to create a better experience for the users.The flowchart paved the way for the first iteration of sketches, I was able to sketch all my ideas for the app experience and tried to translate it to content and the main tasks on the screens.
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Flowchart
Wireframes
prototype
Usability Testing
I prototyped the basic features of the app which are
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- Search
- Shopping List
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I gave users 3 tasks:
1. Add a new item in the shopping list and display it on the map.
2. Search for a store and display the Route to that store.
3. Go to the Shopping list and select what stores to display for the first item.
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from the prototype I noted pain points as user navigated the screens.
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- They didn't understand the List Icon.
- Navigation bar didn't work.
- They Wanted to click on the text and not on the arrow.
- They Didn't see the "Show on Map" button.
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Next Steps
It was time to go back to iterate and then prototype and user test again, compare the results with the previous test and see if there is an improvement.
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A few other very important features will be designed next. I received a lot of questions from the users and suggestions for useful features. I will go back to research and use surveys to verify how many users see the need for these features.
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What I Learned from this Project
1. Research is very important!
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When starting this project, I wanted to improve the navigation from the digital panel already present in the Mall but going through all the research I realized that a Mobile App will better respond to our user needs.
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1. The Process is not linear!
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Finding out more things about the users and the existing solution made me realize how little I knew and how much I needed to go back with new questions in interviews and surveys.
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3. Usability testing Rocks!
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Giving users the prototype was very helpful to see what the pain points are but also users were happy to share a lot of ideas for other features they would like to have in the app.