From user experience design to behavior management | Future of design and AI
Vijani Bulumulla & Josua O’Shea
Last week, myself and Josh conducted a seminar to our colleagues of Master’s degree of Interactive Media, University of Limerick, on the topics, “From user experience design to behavior management “ and “Future of design and AI”. We discussed theories and principles which based on papers and articles of scholars along with effective examples of its applications in different industries/ sectors which helped to elaborate the idea of the topics more.
After conducting the seminar we did a workshop, which had multiple activities related to the topics we discussed. The workshop was a board game. It helped the participants to gain an in-depth knowledge on application of artificial intelligence for an identified brand and to study how it effects / how it can be used to manage consumer’s behavior.
The Board Game
We used an open source toolkit and amended the components and tasks to fit into our framework.
The IoT Service Kit is a board game that brings domain experts out of their silos to co-create user-centric IoT experiences.
Source: IoT service kit
Components of the Game
- Maps
Context is essential. We selected a map of a super market as the location and gave it a specific brand; SuperValu, so that the participants can relate its brand values and image when considering the design applications and executions. - Shopping lists
For each group we gave them shopping lists with different items. - Cards of channels
These cards represent channels where machine learning might be added. They give a set of technologies and physical elements to design service around. These can be applied to enhance the consumer experience in SuperValu. In one side of each card contained a small description of the particular channel.
Channels: Artificial assistant, face recognition, augmented reality, bar code, in-store campaign, beacon, interactive screen, smart shelf, motion sensor, QR code, smart shopping basket, smart mirror, sound/voice recognition, targeted marketing campaign. - List of Brands to Market
A list of products was given to each group. And these products are the ones the super market needs to promote and sell. - Bugs & Bug cards
A set of cards with different types of bugs that can affect each channel, with a bug prop.
Bugs: Bias in, bias out, loose cannon, filter bubble, echo chamber, chucky, network crash, pretty bird, breach, flat line, hydra, uncanny valley - Printed Brief and documents (Smart service storyline and confusion matrix canvas)
Task 01
Creating a consumer persona
We gave them a map of SuperValu super market and a shopping list with multiple items.
They have to create the consumer’s persona considering the items on the shopping list.
Task 2
Creating Customer Journey
Once they have identified the consumer they had to start mapping out their user journey. When they were completing the tasks they had to consider,
- What does the customer do to fulfil their need and why?
- Where do they go?
- What kind of emotions might the customer feel during their journey? An emotional map to identify what parts of the journey are important or difficult and need special attention.
- What kind of touchpoints could the customer encounter on the journey?
- What is the real problem that needs to be solved? Is the existing journey even necessary?
Task 3
Design Interactions
We gave each group a set of cards (channels). The channel cards can be used to identify what the customer encounters on the journey. These are possible interaction points for the service. So each group used these technologies to create a positive interaction with the consumer, considering the products on the shopping list.
While they were brainstorming, they had to consider below questions;
- How would the services improve the customer experience?
- Which pain points does this service address?
- Which channel will the customer use to interact with the service?
- Can machine learning add value at one or more of the touchpoints?
- How will the customer discover what the service does?
Task 4
As the next step we presented them another set of products which is given by the super market; SuperValu. They had to think of new interactive solutions to prioritize these products, change the behavior and buying decisions of the consumer.
Ex:
- Discounted St.Patricks day decorations
- Hotel offers (External advertising)
- Odeon cinema ticket offers
- Easter egg chocolates
- Discounted meat (Expiring soon)
- Guinness beer (Seasonal offer)
Task 5
BUG ATTACKS!
Unexpectedly we threw some bug cards with a prop of a bug to each group.
“Oh no! Your system has bugs!”
They had to quickly identify the failures that might impact on their service. And then they had to redesign interactions to minimize those risks in the future version. Or they should come up with alternate solutions. They came up with strategies that could employ in order to cope with the bugs or prevent their appearance.
Task 6
We gave them different structured papers (Smart service storyline and confusion matrix) to assemble all the data, information, systems, technologies and concepts. In the papers they had to document the bellow facts.
- What does your service do?
- Who is your service for ad how does it address your particular customer persona?
- What kind of problems will your service solve?
- If you need machine learning, what is the main channel or touchpoint, you have chosen for enabling it?
- What value will machine learning bring? Why would your customer use your service?
- What would SuperValu gain from using machine learning in the chosen touchpoint?
And in the Confusion Matrix Canvas they had to document all the risks that they might face while using specific channels.
Task 7
Evaluation and discussion
After the completion of the tasks both groups sat together and presented their work. Each group contributed with their comments and feedback which led into a discussion. It enabled to unravel further possibilities of each group’s design ideas.
Workshop Outcome
After conducting a successful 1.5 hour workshop we believe all the participants gained a considered knowledge on the below facts.
- Identifying a consumer persona and how a brand can address a single person with specific psychographics and demographics.
- Identifying a Customer Journey.
- What are the channels, technologies and machine learning methods that can be used in real industry work.
- Co-design ideation.
- How to identify risks beforehand and how to design appropriately.
- How to respond unexpected bugs and to use good fallback strategies.
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