Revolutionizing the Shopping Mall Experience
Overview
Mall Mate is an innovative app designed to transform the complex shopping mall experience into an intuitive, enjoyable journey. Our solution addresses critical challenges faced by shoppers in large malls, focusing on improving orientation, helping visitors achieve their shopping goals, and enhancing the overall in-mall experience.
By tackling these issues, Mall Mate aims to reverse the trend of mall abandonment and revitalize the physical shopping experience in the face of growing competition from online retail.
Overview
Mall Mate is an innovative app designed to transform the complex shopping mall experience into an intuitive, enjoyable journey. Our solution addresses critical challenges faced by shoppers in large malls, focusing on improving orientation, helping visitors achieve their shopping goals, and enhancing the overall in-mall experience.
By tackling these issues, Mall Mate aims to reverse the trend of mall abandonment and revitalize the physical shopping experience in the face of growing competition from online retail.
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The Challenge
Large shopping malls can be confusing and cumbersome for new visitors, making it difficult to navigate and find their way around.
Orientation challenges prevent visitors from effectively accomplishing their shopping objectives, leading to frustration and inefficiency.
Negative customer experiences resulting from these challenges are causing shoppers to abandon physical malls in favor of online shopping alternatives.
Orientation Problems
Difficulty in Achieving Shopping Goals
Mall Abandonment
Our research has identified three critical challenges faced by shoppers in large malls:
User Research
Interviews
We conducted in-depth interviews with 10 mall visitors to understand their experiences and pain points.
Key findings:
70% of interviewees reported feeling overwhelmed in large malls
80% expressed frustration with not being able to find specific stores quickly
60% mentioned missing out on sales due to lack of information
Personas
Daniel levi
25 years old
Haifa
Communication Student
Single
Pain Points:
Daniel is very busy with studies and work, and sometimes finds it hard to make time for herself. When she goes to the mall, it's usually for specific purposes, and she doesn't always know her way around the mall to achieve her goals quickly and efficiently.
Motivations:
She enjoys buying new clothes and accessories to update her wardrobe, eating at restaurants, and watching movies. Additionally, she is budget-conscious and wants to spend her money wisely.
Frustrations:
Sometimes she has difficulty finding specific stores in large shopping complexes.
She finds many products too expensive.
Sometimes there isn't enough signage in shopping centers, making it difficult for her to navigate.
Especially during peak hours, it's very difficult to navigate shopping centers due to crowds.
Information Sources:
She consults with her friends for recommendations on stores, products, and sales.
She searches for information on store and brand websites.
She follows stores and brands on social media to get updates on sales and new trends.
"Sometimes I find myself walking around the same place for a long time without finding what I'm looking for, and it can be frustrating."
USER PERSONA 1
Efrat Matzliach
58 years old
Ramat Gan
Marketing Manager
Married +3e
Pain Points:
Efrat feels frustrated when shopping in malls, struggling to find stores and often getting lost. She can't always locate the products she wants, leading to disappointment. The time spent searching for stores, navigating, and waiting in long lines feels wasted, adding stress and dissatisfaction. As a result, she avoids mall shopping whenever possible.
Motivations:
Desire to save time and effort while shopping.
Desire to find the products she's looking for at the best prices.
Desire to avoid unnecessary frustrations while shopping.
Desire to enjoy a pleasant and enjoyable shopping experience.
Frustrations:
She finds it difficult to locate specific stores in shopping centers.
She becomes irritated when she gets lost in large shopping complexes.
She lacks patience when forced to wait in long queues at certain stores.
Information Sources:
She consults with colleagues from work about worthwhile discounts and promotions.
She consults with friends from the gym about everything.
She receives a lot of information from the internet and social networks, mainly from Facebook.
"I often struggle to find stores and services in shopping complexes. I tend to forget where I saw things, and it's hard for me to navigate the space."
USER PERSONA 2
Empathy Map
SAYS
"I often struggle to find stores or services in shopping center."
"I prefer a mall with a wide variety of stores so that I can find everything I need in one place."
"I want clearer signage in the shopping center so that I can easily find the stores and services I'm looking for."
"I would like shopping mall mobile apps to have improved digital maps that are easier to use and navigate."
THINKS
"I don't want to waste time searching for stores or services in the mall."
"I want to find what I'm looking for quickly and easily."
"I want shopping to be an enjoyable experience, not a frustrating one."
"I want to save money and get the best deal."
"I want to feel good about myself after shopping"
DOES
Wanders around the shopping center searching for stores or services
Buys products she doesn't really need
Uses coupons or promotions
Uses a floor map or mobile app to navigate
Becomes frustrated and gives up on the search
Asks employees or other customers where to find what she's looking for
FEELS
Frustrated
Happy
Irritated
Satisfied
Impatient
Lost
Confident
User Journey Map
User Scenarios
We developed user scenarios to guide our design process:
Scenario 1: Shira is looking for a gift
Shira, 28, is a programmer who works long hours. She remembers that tomorrow is her best friend's birthday, and decides to buy her a present at the mall near her home after work. At 19:30, Shira arrives at the mall. She takes out her phone and opens the mall navigation app. She enters the name of the mall and searches for "gift shops". The app shows her a map of the mall with her current location and marks all the relevant gift shops.
Shira chooses a store that looks interesting to her on the second floor. She activates the navigation in the app, which directs her to the nearest elevator. While walking, she remembers that her friend likes jewelry, so she changes the search to "jewelry stores."
The app updates the route in real time and offers Shira a jewelry store closer to her new location. Shira arrives at the store, buys a beautiful bracelet, and decides to look for a greeting card as well.
She uses the app to find a suitable store, and while walking she sees a message about a sale in a bookstore. She remembers that her friend likes to read and decides to buy a book as well. The app updates its route accordingly.
After she's done shopping, Shira uses the app to find the nearest exit to her parking lot.
She leaves the mall satisfied, with the gifts and with the feeling that she saved a lot of time thanks to the app.
Efrat, a 38-year-old marketing manager and mother of two, arrives at a large mall on Friday afternoon to buy clothes for her children for the winter season. She is stressed and busy, and wants to finish shopping quickly and efficiently.
Upon entering the mall, Efrat opens the mall navigation app and enters her goal: "Winter clothes for children."
The app shows her a map of the mall with the relevant stores marked and an efficient route between them.
While walking to the first store, Efrat encounters a lot of commotion and gets confused. It deviates from the route offered in the application. The application detects that Efrat is not on the planned route and offers her help through a message on the screen. Efrat confirms, and the app activates voice and vibration instructions on the phone to help her get back on track and reach the first store. In the first store, Efrat finds some suitable items for her children. Efrat decides to continue to the next store according to the route suggested in the app, hoping to find more items. While Efrat continues shopping, the app alerts her to a sale at a nearby shoe store. She decides to stop there and finds winter boots at a good price for her children.
After finishing the main shopping, Efrat feels tired and hungry. She uses the app to find a nearby coffee shop.
At the end of the mall visit, Efrat uses the app's navigation to find the nearest exit to her parking lot.
Task Analysis
The Chosen Solution
Our final solution for Mall Mate includes the following key features:
Advanced Navigation Interface
Aggregates information on multiple shopping centers
Automatic identification of user's current location
Precise in-center navigation with voice and haptic feedback
Personalized route planning between stores
Smart Search and Results
Product search with price comparisons, store categories, and sale information across the mall.
Enhanced User Experience
User-friendly interface with multiple display modes and additional features:
Gamification elements like digital coupon collection
Real-time location sharing for group shopping
Real-time Updates
Notifications for store hours, ongoing sales, and mall events.
Comprehensive Mall Information
Detailed store information and mall services (e.g., restrooms, nursing rooms, charging stations).
Prototyping and Testing
Based on the research insights, we developed a prototype of a dedicated navigation application for shopping complexes. The application offers an interactive map of the mall, options for searching and filtering stores, precise navigation between different points in the complex, and information about promotions and services.
The prototype faces the main difficulties that arose in the research-
Difficulty in spatial orientation
Difficulty in achieving goals that leads to a negative customer experience and mall abandonment
The prototype provides an accessible and uniform technological solution that enables easy and fast navigation in shopping complexes.
