Prof David Benyon Edinburgh Napier University Designing Blended Spaces: Putting Customers at the centre of your Retail Design. Prof David Benyon Edinburgh Napier University

Introduction With all the new mobile technologies, wearables and location-based interaction digital and physical spaces are increasingly intermingled. So we introduce the idea of a Blended Space Interaction designers and UX people need to design the whole user experience (UX) of the services that people are engaged with. UX includes the UX of physical spaces, the UX of the digital space and the UX of moving through the digital/physical mix.

Mixed Realities Physical space Digital space Bits Atoms From Milgram and Kishino (1994) A taxonomy of mixed reality displays, IEICE

Thinking about spaces Physical space - with real world physics and sense of place and presence. Also many physical objects provide interaction touchpoints – eg labels, signage, physical objects Digital space - with multimedia content and interactivity, brand identity Social space - the Internet of People. Conceptual space - how customers figure out what they can do and what is going on! Blended Spaces - mixing the digital and the physical

Blending Theory Developed from a book by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner called The Way We Think Blending Theory has been applied to advertising, creative design, linguistics and many other areas See Mark Turner’s Web site Blending recognizes that we make meaning by bringing together ideas from two domains that share some characteristics with a more generic domain. The result is a blend eg houseboat vs. boathouse

Generic Space Recognise that two things share some characteristics Input Space 1 Input Space 2 Correspondences Blended Space Project into Project into New space has its own emergent characteristics

Blending in advertising: The Malboro Cowboy

Blended Spaces in Retail So, how does this work in retail? Look at physical spaces in store and how to blend with digital spaces Look at physical items – your inventory – and how they are described, physically and digitally Look at the relationships between digital and physical things Look at the pace of change and types of things that change Consider what new things this enables people to do – sales staff as well as customers

The blended spaces framework New social space New conceptual space New sense of place

Components of Blended spaces Ontology – describes the things in the spaces. Eg how to describe the inventory in a retail environment. Is the physical inventory the same as the digital one? How are things grouped together? Topology – describes how the things are related to one another. Eg layout of a store vs layout of a web site or app Volatility – describes how and when things change Agency – describes the people in the space, any artificial agents and what they are able to do

Examples Apple stores use same ontology and topology for in-store layout and web site layout – but it is a relatively small inventory – Mac, iPad, iPhone, Watch, TV, Music Ikea inventory and locations are all on-line – go directly to the warehouse location Many retail organizations offer a very confused picture – apps differ from web sites differ from in- store But it is more than bringing things together. Blended spaces offer the chance for new experiences.

Ideas for Blended Retail Spaces Consider the store layout in terms of ontology and topology – eg in Harvey Nichols, cosmetics, perfume, nail bar, handbags, up to menswear, etc. Consider how to augment the physical space with digital – track your customer physically in store, direct them to different areas, provide virtual mirrors, deliver related digital content to the physical space eg catwalk video on their of the dress the customer is looking at. Use the digital space to add agency to the physical space – rewards, special offers, related items and recommendations. Augmented and Virtual Reality Look for new user experiences delivered through digital that cannot be had in physical space.

Overlay digital on the physical

Ideas for Blended Retail Spaces 2 Use the digital space to highlight volatile (i.e. changing over time) content – eg demonstrations, workshops, talks. Create new physical social spaces (chairs, coffee, etc.) and new digital social spaces (Facebook friends nearby, friends bought this, Instagram), UGC. Create new sense of place, and different places in store; in-store physical, in-store digital, use location, direction, simple emotion recognition (FACS), carried or worn digital, carried or worn physical. Design for customer journeys - movement through the physical and digital spaces, and transitions between spaces.

AR with Hololens

Large screens can enhance the UX

UX as berry picking This new mix of digital and physical presents real design problems for your UX team. You cannot design a perfect user journey and expect people to follow it! As users move through the mix of physical and digital touchpoints new opportunities open up – just like picking blackberries! Part of the UX is nudging customers back on track, helping them to explore, offering them new experiences Looking a the whole digital/physical mix as a blended space will help improve the whole UX.

Conclusion New retail experiences have to offer personalized, sensorial, engaging experiences that can only be experienced in store. In-store has to blend the physical and digital aspects to create a new place for customers The blended spaces framework focuses on the things you have, how they are related, how they change and what people can do – ontology, topology, volatility and agency – for both physical and digital spaces The designer needs to think about the correspondences between the digital and physical spaces to create a new blended space Customer journeys through the mix of spaces are also needed to create the new sense of place