Critical Reflection Paper || RSA Supermarket Project

 
My project for the first term of MA Design for Communication was related to the supermarket project brief of RSA, and working on it made me go through several design steps that I experienced for the first time. I learned a lot about process of design, especially research and problem solving.
The first step was selecting the brief we want to focus and within various briefs I chose supermarket brief because it is an topic that I can relate myself as a customer as well and also the role of supermarkets in society is so massive that even a small idea of change in a good way can become a very big development.
With the classmates we did a mapping, which was a real success and came up lots of possible ideas and areas need to be reconsidered in supermarket’s service systems. Actually this project was not just about design cause brief did not address the problem. The tricky part was which also had become a very nice experience for me; we had to find the problem as well. In order to develop relationships between local communities and supermarkets we saw that we had to make a very good research.
In terms of secondary research there are tons of reports, essays, surveys, blogs, and even customers societies but in order to be able create my own approach I aimed to understand the situation with my own research. Firstly, I went to my local supermarket, which is one of the biggest ones in UK and observed people. Who they are, what they buy, around which products what kind of customer profiles are common and customer and service workers relations. For a lot of people supermarkets seem to be a place you go and get out as soon as possible but there are varieties of customers who actually see the place as a social ground. I also reached and try to talk to people but in general they were not quite keen to spend more time in there with chatting however I was able to talk several elderly people who have more time and seemed positive about spending their time at there, they even use the small coffee place inside the market. Talking with elderly people change the way I think about their expectations. The first think comes to mind for a service that can satisfy them is a possible delivery service to their houses, from our point of view it seems to be their biggest struggle but the actual case is so much different.

Firstly what they dislike about supermarkets were:
·      When there were more local markets, local shops they were mostly closer to everyone's houses. Today there are very big supermarkets but generally they are far away and if you do not have a car, or not on a bus route you have to walk all the way, on the return with bags.
·      Supermarkets think that they are so organised and fast, but they are still very much complicated and because they are so big, even buying 3-4 things might require walking through inside building.
·      Especially on rush hours it gets harder for them to shop, so many people, confusing storage systems and queues turn shopping into a challenge.

Delivery service by supermarkets idea at first seems to be a perfect solution but it is actually far away from solving anything. Elderly people, despite the effort they have to put, actually like shopping possibly more than most of us. They want to be outside, be a part of society and more active. Shopping is not just about getting necessary items but also a chance to chat, run into familiar faces and a reason to be outside.
For my other part of target customer audience I used an online survey. I created a survey, which helped me to observe different age group’s habits, problems or favourite things about supermarkets. I manage to gather feedback more than 50 people with posting my survey’s online address to other websites and online social platforms.
In the results in detail, several points stand out:
·      People spend quite a lot of their free time in supermarkets actually more than they think they do.
·      They like product variety and being able to buy not just food but generally most of their needs in one place.
·      They dislike crowds, queues, payment systems, unpleasant staff and complex price tagging and shelf systems.

What was surprising about these results was they showed several demands from customers actually in contradiction with each other. Customers still want a
faster, smoother, shopping systems, which actually promotes a more mechanical development but at the same time they dislike the inhuman approach of supermarkets, staff working like robots, fast and careless about individual needs of customers.

They both want speed, but also more human experience, which is hard to achieve at the same time. On the other hand, this fact, at some point explains why with all the self-payment machines and development on speed are not still enough. In some supermarkets you can go, shop, pay by yourself on the machines even without saying a single word to anyone but this is not considered as a pleasant experience.
 
While I was doing my primary research I started another research about tangible interaction, interactive media, human-computer interaction and future technologies of interactive design. The area itself is very new and may be one of the most promising areas of design and technology. Since the goal was to come up with a new service idea for a better experience, I imagined it should be innovative and futuristic. I have read about innovation, customer based interactive services, the technology used in them and try to figure out what is possible and by that tried to think out of the box.
 
Around the end of my research one of my classmates, Bruno Molena approached me for a possible partnership and after talking about our direction and ideas we saw that we are in the same page and for such a big project it would be rewarding to act as a group of two, which also turned out to be a compatible partnership and a great experience. From this point on we combined our researches, ideas and did lots of brainstorming in every step of the process.  We set goals and timeline, which moves us to next step. What on our mind was huge and we had such a small time to spend on it.
 
First in the idea we combined technology with our service and determined what we were using. And then we made the information design; listed things in the menu, choices to offer customers, combining selections…etc in other words we made mapping of the system content. After this we designed the navigation within system; interaction system inside application. After this point we started the visual design of whole system.
 
First we created our concept, colour scheme and logo. Bruno already had a name in his mind, which was MoodFood, and it suited project perfectly. We determined colour scheme made lots of sketches and got feedback from our friends and instructors since they are also part of our target audience. We made several designs in scratch but we had so many different ideas about visuals we independently made several designs both aiming to use iconic, clear and vector based designs. We went through them and choose one and used it. We also had an idea about delivery system as a part of MoodFood and named it MoveFood but in order to complete it on time we did not focus on that part and finished the project.
 
Before and during the term break, I tested our project with especially people around me who do not know about if beforehand.  Testing part was more difficult than I expected because the technology we used while creating the project was hard to understand most of the people I talked with. It mainly caused by lack of experience they had with a tangible interactive tool. They use in on Internet and also poorly on cash machines but I needed to explain the system to them in order create a visual representation of it in a supermarket on their mind. Most of them really liked the way we used visuals, colours and menu items. There were several comments on possible future developments as well such as;
 
A screen attached to the market trolleys so that user can send the information to the screen in front of them and while doing the shopping can check it anytime they want.
 
Having the screens not just at the entrance of supermarket but nearby the shelves as well even may be on them.
 
Almost everyone suggested the improvement on delivery system, which also will help elderly people as well, and since I wanted to pay special attention to elderly people but because of the time constriction left that out of project, I agree with this one completely.
 
After testing and reviewing final shape of our project made me feel both satisfied and also eager to do more of it. I think we created a successful idea and final product serves our goals but at the same time it is such a complex and promising idea without the time constriction we could develop it much more than this point. Even being just a two people group we have done a good research and brainstorming that led us to this stage of project. If I had the chance to do the project again with the experiences I gathered I would like to:
·      Contact with a professional of the technology and get his/her opinion and review in every step. We have done a good research but both of us have not been a part of any tangible interaction project before, so someone who has a real experience in this field would help us a lot.
·      Spend more time on primary research and gather info from larger amount of customers. Sometimes just one opinion from the audience changes the whole approach about possible solutions.
·      Get especially both ideas and feedback from handicapped people. The whole living style should be designed with considering them and I feel bad that I have not done that.
Both during research and testing period I observed and surprised actually how bright ideas people have about their environment and how their opinions can help a lot a designer a problem solver. I did know much about primary research and now I feel like no real improvement is truly possible without it. It is like doing a brainstorming with a huge crowd and just one person or even a team can get a success on their projects with avoiding it.
 
My interest in the technological part of the project first started as a tool to think out of the box and I also was aware its effect on user because I actually seen and used it before in several exhibitions. Interaction is a powerful tool, which can make even a boring duty in a supermarket turn into a fun and learning experience. I knew that if I can find a way to combine it to my project people would also feel exited about it, which was also one of the main goals. In the end when I got their reaction and saw how exited they got with this idea, even it was what I expected to happen, I felt satisfied and this made me believe more in doing researches about multiple fields while working on a project.