Self-Critique: Retail Planogram Interface

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Mervyn Lane
10 years ago
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1 Self-Critique: Retail Planogram Interface Jonathan C. Hall My interface aims to help workers on the retail salesfloor implement "planograms," the prescribed layouts of fixtures, signage and product in a given section of merchandized space. The interface combines a touchscreen and mirrored projection to put planogram information in the worker s hands as well as in the space in which she works. From the vantage point of the perceptual/cognitive design methodology developed in this course, this interface makes some nice gains and innovations, but could have gone further in several areas with more time, refinement and research. Expert Knowledge This interface effectively exposes an expert's spatial knowledge as it relates to the task of setting a planogram," and it makes that knowledge available to all users, even novices. However, the interface does not expose the expert s (or multiple experts ) subtler and more detailed knowledge of the task, such as tricks, shortcuts and optimizations that might make the interface a more robust tool for the task. Do experts follow different patterns or rules when setting a planogram? What are the typical sticking points that arise? How do experts attack them? These details could perhaps be collected through more extensive observation of both experts and novices at work. Elements From the Domain This interface makes several strong connections to existing processes and materials in the domain, such as the pages of the printed planogram laid out on a wood-grain surface,

The interface combines a touchscreen and mirrored projection to put planogram information in the worker s hands as well as in the space in which she works.

2 and the inherent connection between the objects represented in the projection (pegboard, fixtures, products) and the real, physical things they represent. For objects that are not strictly representational, however, one wonders whether there might not be more natural, domain-centric visual material to draw on, such as for the icons used to indicate the categories of fixtures, signage, labels and product. Also, the interface sacrifices the natural scale and layout of objects to accommodate the aspect ratios of both a typical screen (3x4) and the standard section of display space for the projection (4x7) in one mirrored interface. It s not clear how distracting this squeeze play would be to a user. Visual Vocabulary and Effects Finally, this interface effectively draws on the science of vision and perception: (1) to offer visual cues to suggest the object-ness of on-screen objects that can be manipulated (e.g. page curls for planogram pages, drop shadows and specular highlights for buttons, etc.); (2) to establish the salience of the most important objects of the user s attention using color and contrast (e.g. the red targets); and (3) to create families of objects using similar visual characteristics (e.g. pages, targets, and information bubbles). However, it s not clear that there s enough visual differentiation of objects to make obvious, for example, the cognitive difference between a target on one screen and a list item on another. In this sense, the visual vocabulary of the whole application interface not just the screens presented so far must be further developed, integrated and refined. Moreover, the excessive visual contrasts that are designed to support projection in a lighted environment should be tested and refined in that environment.

categories of fixtures, signage, labels and product.

3 Retail Planogram Interface Jonathan C. Hall

4 The Job Over 4.5 million Americans work on the salesfloor of retail stores, where they: setup merchandized displays recognize and address inventory outages, disorder, and poor sales performance assist customers in finding and selecting products

5 The Retail Industry Payroll is the only controllable cost Inefficiency and lack of training on the salesfloor are costly Turnover for salespeople is high Better tools, training can reduce costs and turnover

6 The Task: Setting a Planogram

7 The Task: Setting a Planogram Detailed and timeconsuming A known pain point Experts do it better Challenge for us: help without getting in the way The Battleship

9 Possible Solution +

17 Questions? Comments?

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