Problem
Retail employees at REI were spending too much time navigating through an inefficient user-interface to find the information needed when helping customers. The mobile application being used by employees needed to be redesigned to provide easy and efficient access to product and inventory information. Additionally, several new tools needed to be developed to provide operational efficiency for the Co-op and to provide better methods for employees to help customers while in the store environment.
Approach
Before beginning any design work, it was important to understand the store environment and the various tasks that employees are performing as part of their daily activities. This was accomplished by visiting multiple stores, and conducting interviews and observations to better understand their daily routines.
EMPLOYEE MOBILE
Research
Research
Along with interviews and observations, it was also important to understand the demographics of the broader group of employees working in stores across the country. This information, combined with the employee contextual interviews and in-store observations, was used to produce a set of employee personas. The personas aided in the design process and kept the team focused on the individuals who would be using the software daily. In addition to the persona work, evaluative usability testing was done to measure baseline time-on-task for the applications primary features.
EMPLOYEE MOBILE
Employee Personas
Initial Concepts
Drawing on the information received during the initial research, various usage patterns and behaviors were uncovered within the original interface. Understanding the user goals was imperative in developing solutions that made their process of scanning and finding information quicker and more efficient. Once several ‘pain points’ had been uncovered, I began working on changes to the interface by developing a series of wireframes that eventually led to a rough prototype that could be used to conduct usability tests.
EMPLOYEE MOBILE: Initial Concept Explorations
Primary Task – Product Search/Scan
Final Design
After conducting several rounds of usability testing and iteration, the design began to solidify. Once identifying how employees were interacting with the application while working, the final design was developed with employees specific needs in mind. More emphasis was placed on inventory information with global access to the search and scan features so information could be gathered quickly and easily.
EMPLOYEE MOBILE: Final Design
Primary Task – Product Search/Scan
Prototype and Implementation
Once the prototype had been tested with users and there was a high level of confidence that the design made sense for the employees method of working, it was shared with the Engineering team to determine a level of effort and feasibility with the current backend systems. It was then story mapped and integrated into the team’s Agile development process. As new features were discussed, a UX roadmap was developed in coordination with the team’s engineering roadmap to provide continuity in the design and development process.
EMPLOYEE MOBILE: Prototype
Primary Navigation
Results and Ongoing Improvements
Based on feedback from Employees, revisions are continuing to be made to the prototype and shared with the development team. Baseline metrics have also been developed to monitor the employee satisfaction with the app. The overall benefit to the Co-op, produced as a result to the changes made to this app, is equivalent to a saving of 20,000 hours of time not spent navigating the interface per year. Time that is given back to the employees so they can interact with customers and not a mobile device.
EMPLOYEE MOBILE
Style Guide
