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

2. 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.

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. Blending in advertising: The Malboro Cowboy

9. 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

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

11. 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

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. Overlay digital on the physical

15. 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.

16. AR with Hololens

17. Large screens can enhance the UX

18. 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.

19. 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