Customer Motivation

NDA Work

Due to the nature of this work and my NDA I am unable to give full details however below outlines my responsibilities and achievements on the project.

Key considerations

  • Gamification
  • Omnichannel Experience
  • Prioritisation
  • Adaptability

Key Achievements

Testing + Development

  • Successfully outlined a sustainable, long-term mechanism using insights from research, and then helped test the POC with the development team

  • Collaboratively outlined and designed a technical trial in order to inform a wider business decision

Reflection

I was very keen to test the mechanism concept with users as soon as possible because it was such a foundational piece for the success of the project. However this was not possible at the time.

If possible, I would have created a mid-fidelity wireframe (users struggle with lo-fi) and had users test the mechanism, rating how interesting and engaging they found it. It would have also been good to monitor their interactions to see if the mental model matched the logic created.

Collaboration

  • Worked extensively with the development team to work around and discuss technical constraints and the impact on prioritisation for build

  • Ran workshops and consulted with country stakeholders to discuss scope, understand priorities and country-specific challenges

  • Led ideation workshops and re-validated ideas when there was a strategic change of direction late on in the design process

Challenge

There were very strong opinions and difficult discussions around what should be prioritised as an MVP. My role as the Experience Designer was important in ensuring the customers' perspective wasn't forgotten and we didn't end up with something that was functional but not enjoyable.

My approach was that of storytelling and encouraging other stakeholders to consider their own real life examples.

Design

  • Rapidly iterated visual designs in Figma based off stakeholder feedback whilst ensuring core design principles and insights from research

  • Collaborated in creating a mid-high fidelity prototype in Figma in order to help senior stakeholder buy-in and understanding of concepts

  • Presented the design work to the wider business in order to showcase the team efforts

Reflection

I ran a Retro for the core design team some time after the project work and realised how important they are.

It had been an intense and unusual project. The Retro allowed the team to reflect on what went well, and what we could improve on next time. We also celebrated successes and gave each other a 'gold star' for our contributions.

This was good for the team's moral as we were disappointed about the pause, but it also led to tangible, positive process changes within the department.

Conclusion

What did I learn?

I had been at ALDI less than 6 months when this project kicked off and I learnt a lot from it. My Figma skills were developed and honed as we iterated almost daily on designs; my more experienced colleagues were there to help but much was self-taught as we were all so busy. 

The importance of communicating clearly, regularly and working collaboratively with stakeholders became very clear to me. There were many ‘lost in translation’ moments and these could have been avoided with a less siloed way of working.  

A final learning was that having a shared vision is so important. I think a lot of our issues around prioritisation were because we had 2 different ideas of what the end result should be. It was hard to balance the perspectives of development effort and time with the value we saw in our designs when considering the customer’s POV. 

What would I have done differently?

Although the project was paused in the end, a fundamental and critical part for me would have been testing with users. If the mechanism wasn’t engaging or thought of as fun on a basic level, many of the concepts and designs just wouldn’t have worked in the final product. 

In terms of improving my own way of working, I might have held more wider, collaborative workshops (which we did towards the end) so as to help with stakeholder relationships. This was above my responsibilities at the time, however it is certainly something I do now within more recent projects. 

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