Project description
Little Einstein is a new online retailer of curated and innovative learning kits for kids.
The owner wants to convert the store to online only and the owner (Alberta) now wants to focus her inventory on technology and electronics products geared towards kids ages 4 - 15.
The primary goal for Little Einstein is to become the #1 resource for parents that want to incorporate hands on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Art + Design) education into their child’s everyday learning experience.
Click on the button below to read the complete brief document.
Team:
Folajimi Onadeko, Naz Karnasevych, Pratik Jain, Karan Sancheti
My Role:
I was the team lead on the project. My first task was to strategize our research approach. Also, I would allocate weekly task to the team members to make consistent progress and meet the deadlines. My background in design played a vital part in developing visuals for presentations and layouts for wireframes.
Research
Contextual Inquiry:
We set out to explore the toy stores in Brooklyn, in search of answers. Our team set out in different directions of the city to ask questions to the toy store owners, parents and other customers. Our starting point was the NYU Brooklyn campus and we set out to explore toy stores in the surrounding neighborhood of Barclays Center, the residential are of Park Slope and Bensonhurst.
We used the data to draw comparisons with our direct competitors to analyze the user experience of their customers.
Click on the button below to read the details of the inquiry.
Fig 1. (L to R): Acorn(2), Little Things(3), Norman & Jules(4), Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.(5), Toy Space(6), BB's Corner(7)
User Persona:
We then translated our interviews to create user personas to better understand our primary target consumer base.
Fig 2. User Persona's created through the contextual inquiry to understand the target audience.
Design Process
Brainstorming:
Immediately after visiting the toy stores, we began discussing our experiences of the interviews and observational research. During this session, we noted down keywords that were important for the buyers.
A few important observations included:
1. Disguised educational toys
2. Play area and library for workshops
3. Parents weren't sure about what to buy
4. No electronics in the field of view within stores
5. Sustainable materials
Fig. 3 - Brainstorming
Mind-Mapping:
This was the second brainstorming exercise we conducted. We took items from the first session (Brainstorming) that needed to be on Alberta's website, and organized them into categories.
Note: Categories were identified as Features, Products, Community, Design and Personal Touch. These were the foundations of the site map.
Fig. 4 - Mind Mapping
Card Sorting:
After carefully selecting 50 toys to include in the inventory, our next step was to categorize them through card sorting and distinguish how the toys need to be listed on the shop page of the website. Also, it helped us start developing on the filtering options of the shop page.
Card Sorting by Age
Card Sorting by Category
Site Map:
Fig. 7 - Site Map
Paper Prototype:
Fig. 8 - Paper prototype for quick user testing.
Fig. 9 - Key interactions on paper prototype
User Testing:
Conducted a quick user testing to ascertain the functionality of the features with the users.
Low Fidelity Prototype:
Going ahead we developed a low fidelity prototype from the feedback received in the user testing session.
Some of the features to check include:
1. Quick Gifts Page - Located on the navigation tab
2. Events Page - Located on the navigation tab
3. Check Size - Click on a gift to view its details and check the size in augmented reality
The Check Size feature was especially well received by the users as they found it helpful in making decisions to buy toys based on weather they would have the appropriate storage space for it, considering the tiny apartments we have in the city.