UX research with grand visions
Challenge
How might we create behaviour changes in favour of new sustainable prducts? A student project at Hyper Island initiated by Lomi Pet Care.
My role
UX Researcher and Designer
Core skills
Researching, Interviewing, Synthesising, Ideation, making of user flows and wireframes, AI image-generation
Tools used
Figma, Chat GPT, Adobe Firefly and Indesign, Google forms, Zoom, Voice recorder, Optimal Workshop
Overview
The Swedish brand Lomi pet care is relatively established on the Chinese market, and is now starting an on line shop in Sweden. This study focuses on the Swedish market segment, and I since I was given the brief “HMW create behaviour changes...”, I turned to, among other disciplines, behavioral science.
“The problem is that even when these efforts (to help people make healthy choices) are successful, we don’t know why or how they worked. Understanding why successful behavior change occurs is the key to getting it to happen again”.
This became my starting point of this project, which could have different takes. In my study I chosen to focus on the broad, idealistic aspect of the brief.
The study lead to a number of insights, principles and constructive recommendations for the company.
The study lead to a number of insights, principles and constructive recommendations for the company.
Reflection
Since the team in this UX research only consists of 1 person and since the projects time frame has limited the number of qualitative interviews and available quantitative data, my results should preferably be used in conjunction with other students results to paint a more accurate picture.
Persona
Helena, a vibrant 39-year-old and dedicated dog owner, finds fulfillment in her dynamic career. Her dog and family is her anchor, and she values quality time them. Balancing a dynamic lifestyle, Helena appreciates stability and financial comfort. As a devoted dog owner, she prioritizes products that seamlessly integrate into her routine, emphasizing both quality and sustainability. Natural solutions for her dog's skin issues are a priority, and she's willing to invest in products that align with her values, putting the well-being of her furry companion first. Wants to contribute to a better world, without spending too much time and effort on it.
Wants
Looking to enjoy life without too many commitments
Having a good sense of personal likes and dislikes
Finding ways to make life better without too much effort
Keeping up with current events without diving too deep
Valuing efficiency and saving time
Encouraging friends to join in on enjoyable activities
Does
Attending events for personal enjoyment and entertainment
Enjoy social media with herself and her dog.
Wants
Looking to enjoy life without too many commitments
Having a good sense of personal likes and dislikes
Finding ways to make life better without too much effort
Keeping up with current events without diving too deep
Valuing efficiency and saving time
Encouraging friends to join in on enjoyable activities
Does
Attending events for personal enjoyment and entertainment
Enjoy social media with herself and her dog.
Hypotheses
A kick-off workshop was the start of this research-journey. I defined user needs, product features and business benefits, as well did target group and assumptions mapping. From the assumption mapping I chose to delve further into the most risky assumptions. I created 4 hypothetes, to prove or disprove through experiments:
· We believe that our user wants to be social in her choice of having a sustainable behaviour.
· We believe that our user finds it hard to maintain new better habits / a new behaviour even when she really want to.
· We believe that our user knows that current climate change is dangerous to the users family and pet.
· We believe that our user is sensitive to too much information on a website.
· We believe that our user finds it hard to maintain new better habits / a new behaviour even when she really want to.
· We believe that our user knows that current climate change is dangerous to the users family and pet.
· We believe that our user is sensitive to too much information on a website.
Screener survey
Through doing a screener survey, I made sure I recruited the right six interviewees for my qualitative research. The survey was distributed both through social media and guerilla user research in Stockholm march 2024.
Insights
The qualitative research in shape of interviews has led to the following insights:
- Users prefer to have the possibility to do hard task with others.
- Users need tools or help from others for sustaining a new behaviour.
- User finds that putting a new habit into an existing routine makes it easier to keep.
- Only 60 % of users could forsee a negative future for them and their dogs!
- 1 of 3 users made sustainable purchases for health benefits.
- 2 of 3 users made sustainable purchases for the environment.
- 50 percent of the users destests long texts and much infomation on the web, while the other half is not put off by it.
Additional insights
There was also some unpredicted insights, outside our experiment, that might still be of value for the company.
- Users prefer being social irl to online.
- Users doesn’t share that much personal, intimate material on social media anymore.
- Users are willing to do a bit extra to do sustainable purchase (IE: pay more, bike long to shop).
- Users would be interested in sustainable products for their pets, if they had the choice.
- All users mention food as their biggest purchase, and that they were interested in eco friendly pet food.
Ideation
In my interviews, among all insights, three stood out as worth exploring first: “users prefer to have the possibility to do hard task with others”, “users need tools or help from others for sustaining a new behaviour” and “users find that putting a new habit into an existing routine makes it easier to keep”.
Generative ideation: How Might We and Crazy 8s
The set of crazy 8’s shown below was done a week into the ideation process. In this I could dive deeper into ONE of all suggested features. At least one new idea that will be useful, and quite a few insights on feasibility came out of it.
Value Proposition Canvas
From my research derived a few insights that could benefit to be mapped out on a VPC.
Firstly, since the customer wanted to “create change in favour of new sustainable products”, it was necessary to
research the target group’s experience of beavioural changes. The interviewees told me about how they had used others or tools like trackers or routines to be able tp maintain the change.
Secondly, my research showed that only two out of three in target group knew enought about climate change
to realize that their and their pets life will be affected by it in 10–50 years time. Since the target group wants to be at least somewhat informed, exploring that topic in a VPC. To the right is a summary of the job-pain-gain I continued to explore.
Firstly, since the customer wanted to “create change in favour of new sustainable products”, it was necessary to
research the target group’s experience of beavioural changes. The interviewees told me about how they had used others or tools like trackers or routines to be able tp maintain the change.
Secondly, my research showed that only two out of three in target group knew enought about climate change
to realize that their and their pets life will be affected by it in 10–50 years time. Since the target group wants to be at least somewhat informed, exploring that topic in a VPC. To the right is a summary of the job-pain-gain I continued to explore.
.jpg)
Evaluative ideation: Wow-now-how and The weighted matrix
For a weighted matrix, I picked the following criteria: Brand recognition (Lomi is just recently introduced to the Swedish market), change in favour of new sustainable products (this is the brief), sustainability, pet health (these two were both held as reasons to buy sustainable products by the interviewees) and the social aspect (the persona valued time with family and friends very high).
.jpg)
Onboarding and login
Below are user flows for the onboardning and login, in an app. If online, the same feature is available,
with the difference that if wanting to connect to Strava or Apple health, the user will be asked to use the mobile device for that.
with the difference that if wanting to connect to Strava or Apple health, the user will be asked to use the mobile device for that.
A selected feature
One of the ideas that scored the highest in the card sorting, the wow-now-how and the weighted matrix was to get
“Tips on sustainable everyday life with pets”. Below is a user flow for a function in which you will get personalized tips based on your individual data. The data will be gathered through questionnaire together with external services like Apple health and Strava or manual mapping.
“Tips on sustainable everyday life with pets”. Below is a user flow for a function in which you will get personalized tips based on your individual data. The data will be gathered through questionnaire together with external services like Apple health and Strava or manual mapping.
Reflections
In my ideation and iteration process, the user flow has been a key player. While I tend to make large, best-case-scenario plans at first, especially true with this brief, the user flow made ideas concrete. Through writing the flow, new questions arose and I was pushed one level deeper in the design process.
To me personally, to alternate between dreaming and doing has always been a great way to work.
To me personally, to alternate between dreaming and doing has always been a great way to work.
Next steps
My recommendations for the company is to start the iteration process with wireframes and user testing of lofi prototypes.
In addition to that, I would suggest that Lomi petcare does more target customer mapping. This on users that are doing sustainable purchases in the benefit of health and that are less knowledgable in the predicted effects of climate change. They should, similar to the existing persona, be able to afford premium, but moderately priced, products. They should be social, seeing their pet as a member of family and be valuing efficiency.
I would also suggest that Lomi would do further research on health related motives for sustainable purchases, and if the users would like to be encouraged / supported in meeting irl.
In addition to that, I would suggest that Lomi petcare does more target customer mapping. This on users that are doing sustainable purchases in the benefit of health and that are less knowledgable in the predicted effects of climate change. They should, similar to the existing persona, be able to afford premium, but moderately priced, products. They should be social, seeing their pet as a member of family and be valuing efficiency.
I would also suggest that Lomi would do further research on health related motives for sustainable purchases, and if the users would like to be encouraged / supported in meeting irl.
