AIGOT
is a mall platform that leverages computer vision and augmented reality to combine the advantages of online and offline shopping, specifically designed for digital-native brands.
Research
UI/UX
AR
Computer Vision
Timeline
Sep 2022 - Dec 2022
Team
Effie Zhu, Shiya Wu,
Michael Tu, Colin Feng
Role
Researcher
UI/UX designer
Prototyper
Project manager
Tool
Figma
Notion
Runway ML
Unity
Background
About 1/3 of the shopping malls in US have been enclosed, and a lot of existing malls are facing declining sales and vacancy.
Challenge
How might we revitalize dying malls?
Our Solution
When creating our concept, we took into account the needs and goals of both customers and online business owners. We designed key features of our product to meet their respective requirements, with the aim of providing a valuable solution for both users and stakeholders alike. However, given the time constraints of the project, we chose to prioritize the customer side of our product for now. We plan to develop the business owner side as the next step in the future.
Customer Edition
Centralized Directory
Easy and comprehensive access to products, stores, and events information
Smart Navigation
Using users' input and advanced algorithms to provide the most efficient navigation
Personalized Assistant
Using real-time data to anticipate users' needs to provide recommendations
Key Feature 1
Centralized Directory
Key Feature 2
Smart Navigation
Key Feature 3
Personalized Assistant
Similar Items Recommendation
Key Feature 3
Personalized Assistant
Item Comparison
Key Feature 3
Personalized Assistant
Eye Tracking
Key Feature 3
Personalized Assistant
Real-time Cart
Business Edition
Platform Integration
Integrate the original online business website into AIGOT system
Customer Insights
A better understanding of customers with AI camera data tracking that follows Ethics Guidelines
Human-free store management
Technology-driven store operation with little need for employees
We assessed the tech feasibility of our idea by creating a prototype with Unity and Runway ML . We recorded a customer interacting with products from a store camera angle, annotated their gestures, and trained our AI system accordingly.
Research
Overview
The main objective for the class was to learn and practice user-centered research methods to address sustainability issues. Over the first seven weeks of the course, we focused on conducting both secondary and primary research to understand why U.S. malls are declining and identify our target users based on their demographics, behaviors, preferences, and needs.
Definition of Mall
Indoor/Outdoor complex with a variety of retail stores
Secondary Research
Literature Review
Competitive Analysis
Market Research
Analytics Review
Online Reviews
Key Findings
― Why are malls dying?
Out-dated model
A huge percentage of consumers are in the age group of 15 to 40 years.
Fun experience is the top reason for GenZ to visit malls.
Online shopping
Rise of online shopping has huge impact on retail sales.
Malls are no longer the only place to shop and socialize.
Covid-19
The foot traffic dropped by 42% from 2019 to 2020.
More people began working from home and avoided indoor venues.
Overbuilding
In the 70s and 80s, a new mall opened in America every 3 days on average.
About 1/3 of the shopping malls in US have been enclosed.
Primary Research
Contextual Inquiry
Stakeholder Interview
User Interview
Conversational Tools
Contextual Inquiry
Stakeholder Interviews
User Interviews
Conversational Tools
Synthesizing Insights
Key Findings
Dying malls lack unique anchor stores.
“Feels like it is slowly dying…seems propped up to not have a huge gaping anchor store quadrant vacancy.”
“…honestly boring stores in that mall. It's so huge but nothing to look at…”
The young generation are leading a shift in the retail industry.
“…don’t like searching for products and want tech that can streamline the process.”
“...84% of Millennials research products online before visiting a store and 87% use a mobile device while in the store.”
Our Vision
How might we bring fresh brands to dying malls and attract young generation?
User Types
Customer
To Buy Something
To buy products with minimal time and effort spent in the mall
Customer
To Change Scenery
Don't know what to do specifically but want to get out of the house
Online business owner
To Move Offline
To get exposure to more customers and build brand awareness
Ideation
Paper Prototypes and Usability Testing
Prior to developing our final design, we created low-fidelity paper prototypes and conducted usability testing to evaluate our proposed solutions. After analyzing the test results, we made refinements to enhance the user experience and designed our final prototypes.
Mid-fidelity Wireframes
Scenarios
After we finalized the UI and prototypes for our product, we created two scenario videos that showcased how AIGOT works in a more realistic context. These scenarios were developed based on our user types, and served to provide a more immersive experience for our viewers.
Customer
To Buy Something
To buy products with minimal time and effort spent in the mall.
Customer
To Change Scenery
Don't know what to do specifically but want to get out of the house.