Utilizing user-centered design, my team and I determined the best way to display and organize key trend insights on a dashboard to intuitively and seamlessly fit into a users existing workflow, enabling retail buyers to more effectively do their job.
Team of 5: Flavia, Jeff, Mike, Thiyvia and Myself
Team Location: Seattle
My role varied: Project Manager, Client Relations, Researcher, Designer.
Utilized: Sketch, InVision, InVision Studio, Miro, Google, Zoom, Otter.ai
Final Deliverables: Responsive, Med-fidelity dashboard.
Result: Delivered product is currently in development.
Neural Trend is an AI platform for the fashion apparel industry that uses artificial intelligence, large-scale data mining and predictive analytics to help retailers discover and assess trends, project sell-through, and ultimately determine whether or not to place an order with the apparel manufacturer.
Client location: Chicago, IL
Client Meeting:
Neural Trend
Objective: Learn their product and establish trust.
Outcomes: Connection, respect and a clear understanding of the existing product and project scope.
In the early stages of the project we focused our attention on getting to know the people at Neural Trend and the existing dashboard they worked hard to develop.
It was paramount for the success of our project we understood their motivations for building this product and how decisions shaped the existing product
We were quickly brought up to speed on the key findings from any initial research Neural Trend had done and how those findings influenced the existing product. There is little reason to spend initial resources on an aspect of the design that users have already stated delights them and Neural Trend believes meets business objectives.
SME Interviews
Existing product walk through and buyer flow workshop
Competitive
Analysis
Objective: Understand the apparel industry’s analytics platforms and gauge their usability.
Outcomes: Live walk throughs of key competitor products not previously attained by the client and a detailed report findings.
By analyzing 6 direct competitors and 2 indirect competitors we quickly learned the true value of the Neural Trend product.
With much of the valuable insights from each competitor hidden behind costly paywalls, we focused our initial efforts on internet searches and screen captures. While valuable, this analysis was not good enough for our Team and we pursued additional avenues.
By the end of the project, our Team had secured live walk throughs of Five main competitor dashboards. Videos of these walk-throughs were recorded, when allowed, and these videos were delivered to the client.
In the end, we learned our client provided the most up to date trend analysis and was sure to be a market leader through their product score functionality.
User Interviews
Getting to know our User needs.
We conducted 6 remote user interviews. Users included buyers, planners and retail vendors.
Limitations: Due to COVID-19 restrictions, all interviews were done remotely so no contextual research was done within User’s workspace.
In different circumstances, I would have requested to visit buyers in person to see their desk, office environment and other tools they utilize to do their job.
Key Insights - Interviews
Sales data is paramount.
Every user we interviewed wanted sales data to be easy to find and cited this as the first place buyers will look to gauge their current performance against goals and previous benchmarks. Sales data within Neural trend should also be exportable in multiple formats.
Show me the trends!
Buyers find value in the trend analysis Neural Trend provides. Accurate information is often hard to come by and buyers will utilize this product. Trend graphs must be easy to read and show relevant and customizable insights.
Online and In Store views.
Many buyers plan for and buy for both online and in store. Product trends may differ and hot sellers may not be the same. Buyers want the ability to analyze these retail channels separately but want the same analysis options for both online and in store sales.
Then show trending products.
Users want direct access to products Neural Trend suggested are trending up and appropriate for their customer demographics. These product suggestions should be easy to find and actionable from the main dashboard.
Lookbook is for Finding.
Buyers don’t have time to browse. Often times they know what they want and they need the quickest way to find it possible. All User needed filters must be readily available. Top down filters work best for them: Season:Color:Price:Everything else
Ability to hide the score?!? Really.
One User requested the ability to hide the product score. Being an experienced buyer who prides herself on her intuition, she preferred to double her check her initial thoughts with the score and not be influenced by it initially. This was feedback that Neural Trend had received before.
“First dashboard view should be at the highest-level, then the ability to drill-down to the most granular level.”
Problem Statement
Planners and buyers in apparel need information organized (in the Neural Trend product) in a way that aligns with their current decision-making processes to optimize their time while being guided to make smarter buying and planning decisions.
Ideation:
Divergent Concepts
Once we established an understanding of Neural Trends core offering and received valuable initial insights from our target users, our team rapidly developed three mid-fidelity divergent concepts to test with users.
Testing Divergent Concepts
Users interacting with prototypes
We conducted 6 remote user concept testing sessions. Users included buyers, planners and retail vendors.
Limitations: Due to COVID-19 restrictions, all interviews were done remotely so no contextual research was done within User’s workspace.
In different circumstances, I would have requested to visit buyers in person to see their desk, office environment and other tools they utilize to do their job.
Key Insights - Divergent Concepts
Sales first. Love it!
User expressed appreciating that sale data was visible on the first page. Expressed interest in being able to share and download data in multiple formats. Like sortable by Online and In store options.
Product score readily available.
For those user who wish to utilize it, the Neural Trend product score should be visible on any page with product. The want this score prior to clicking into product details.
Customizable Dashboard
Based on variations of preferences expressed by our users, customizability of dashboard would be highly valuable. This also allows the Neutral Trend product to be used by multiple different user groups and expands potential client base.
Assortment section layout
Current assortment’ next to ‘recent orders’ is very helpful to see, as that mimics the buyer’s decision-making process.
Simple approach is appreciated
Users need a clear and consistent way to visualize positive and negative trends without data being overwhelming. Users also desire flexibility in tracking brands, as well as custom views of brand sentiment over time.
Quick overview of Trends
An overview of trends (colors, details, categories) on dashboard is helpful, as long as it’s kept simple and amount of information isn’t overwhelming with too much granular data.
“Really easy to pinpoint right away that 25% of sales is dresses, and those are the really quick things that as a buyer you want to be able to reference without having to drill-down.”
Based on the feedback from users and from Neural Trend staff, we proceeded to converge our 3 designs into
one concept for usability testing.
Converged Design
Usability Test:
Converged design
We conducted a semi-structured, moderated, and scripted usability test. All usability test sessions consisted of a set of 5 tasks to complete.
The five tasks showcased Neural Trend’s revolutionary trend insights and these tasks were designed around what features buyers cited as most helpful to them to perform their job.
- with additional follow-up questions during and after the task was completed.
Future Recommendations
as we interviewed more and more users we learned a standardized dashboard would not be ideal as different people have different workflows. this customization also allows new user segments to utilize the neural trend product.
We concentrated on a card based dashboard that would allow individual users the ability to add the needed functionality for their given tasks.
this also allows Neutralt trend to expand thie offerin gin the future to include other users.
markleting will not need sals data as
Develop default views based on user type.
Users also requested the ability to re arrange cards within a section.
Neural Trend’s dashboard experience
leaves users feeling confident they made the right buying decisions in an efficient and intuitive way so they can better serve
their customers.
“Your work has really exceeded our expectations, exemplified by your commitment, creativity, attention to detail, resourcefulness and willingness and flexibility to engage with potential customers and our team.”
– Tina Dejunge, Neural Trend, Co-Founder and COO