IKEA INTERNSHIP

My role

UX Designer

Duration

3 months

Project

This project was completed during a three-month internship as a UX Design Intern at IKEA with the Customer and Support team. My task was to explore ways to enhance the customer experience by suggesting the right services at the right time within the order management system. The project was open-ended, offering creative freedom and the potential to develop a new feature.

How might we suggest at the right time, the right services for our customer in the order management product?

To kick off the project, I met with the Order management team to define success, focusing on thinking creatively and drawing inspiration from how others tackled similar challenges. My research began by identifying the services available before, during, and after delivery. I conducted market trend research to understand customer expectations and held interviews with eight customers.

A timeline of my first-month activities during the internship:

Interviews

The aim with the interviews:

Define customer expectations for order management information
Understand different customer types and their order management patterns
Assess the need for personalization in order management
Investigate customers interest in product recommendations
Identify opportunities for incorporating sustainable options

Key insights

Personalisation

Furniture Renewal

They prioritize preserving the products they already own
Emphasis on practicality and cost- efficiency

Simplifying decision-making
Prioritizing personal taste over trends
Desire for related product suggestion
Contextual relevance

Trust

Overwhelming trough repetition
Privacy concern
Desire: Control

HMW create a personalized shopping experience that prioritizes users' individual tastes and preferences during order management?

HMW renew and refresh furniture on the order management side with a strong emphasis on practicality and cost-efficiency?

HMW create a transparent and trustworthy process for logging and utilizing user data that makes users feel secure and informed?

A timeline of my second-month activities during the internship:

In-depth exploration of trust

One key insight from my research was trust. This theme also aligned with two other interns to explore further. Recognizing this commonality, the three of us collaborated, planning and facilitating a workshop with three activities aimed at enhancing our understanding of trust.

The workshop's objetvie was to enhance the comprehension of trust as perceived by users in order to adapt our services to align with their expectations.

2 hours together with 4 participants
3 activities

Workshop

Brand trustworthiness

Aim: Identify why participants do or don’t trust brands

Activity: Participants arranging brands in order, from the least trustworthy to most trustworthy in their opinion

Sharing data experience

Aim: Understand participants' opinions on data sharing

Activity: Participants reflected on and discussed positive or negative experiences with sharing their data

Key insights

Product/ Service quality and brand reputation emerged as significant factors
Participants wouldn’t trust a brand solely based on reputation without prior interaction
While participants may trust a brand and its services at first, they become skeptical if the brand fails to meet their expectations

Aim: Evaluate the emotions participants felt when navigating order management pages.

Activity: Participants mapped their emotions by placing stickers to represent their feelings on specific user journey pages.

User journey + emotion mapping

Evaluation of the Pages' Results

Tracking order page:

They find the information clear in the page

They find the tone a bit plain
The participant seeks only tracking information, specifically details on the carrier

Reschuedle order page:

Missing details on the rescheduling timeframes

The available date and time options clear

Cancel order page:

Uncertainty about needing to specify a cancellation reason

The 'Add item' function confusing

Financial information concerns: Users seek clear information about refunds and processing times

User Journey

Using the results from the emotion mapping activity in the workshop, I created a user journey to gain a better overview and identify design opportunities.

The primary pain points within the pages:

Tracking your order and Cancel

or/ and
Focus on the future user journey: Refresh and renawal, Personalization, Trust

Future User Journey

To leverage insights from the interviews, I created a future user journey with a scenario. This led to new design opportunities.

Scenario: You've owned your sofa for five years, and you've just placed a new order with IKEA. As you log into your IKEA account, you're interested in getting more information about your recent purchases. You navigate to the order management page and notice a new feature that offers options for renewing and refreshing your sofa. You navigate to your old sofa purchase to explore further.

Design opportunities:

Renew and refresh furniture

Chosen design opportunity: Focus on the future user journey: Refresh and renewal, Personalization, Trust

First iteration Prototype

Added the concept: "Refreshing and renewing your existing IKEA furniture at home".

Customer Day

I participated in a Customer Day, where various users/customers were invited to test new features. I had the opportunity to test my new concept for the order management page.

The aim with the user testing:

Evaluate users' understanding of the flow and concept
Explore their thoughts on personalizing the shopping experience
Determine if they would consider using this service

The user's mission was to renew and refresh their sofa without guidance from me. Afterwards where there questions to the the different pages.

Result feedback

PAGE 1

Some users found banners too similar to social medias advertising, leading them to overlook the content.

The connection to customers' past purchases and its application to some displayed products wasn't clear

Iteration:

Integrated icon for renewable products
Changed button and the place positioning to enhance its visibility
Pressing the button displays products that qualify for upgrades - included a gray banner and icon

PAGE 2

Users expressed trust in IKEA, especially when considering data sharing for the service

All of them found accepting data use for past purchases unnecessary, as they said IKEA already have the information

Positive comments on the explanation what the service is about and the layout

Iteration:

Removed the need for users to approve sharing previous purchases with IKEA
Retaining the page to offer information about the service - to be transparent
This is a page that appears once during the first visit

PAGE 3

Users provided positive feedback about the experience of selecting items for potential renewal

Iteration:

Included the icon for added impact
The number of days since the customer purchased it
Added an option to easily navigate back to view all purchases

PAGE 4

Users desired more details on individual products, such as alternative colors, prices and types of fabrics

Users emphasized the significance of inspiration with pictures and found the two pictures sufficient

Iteration:

Adjusted the logic so that a product dictates the various displayed options
Added a shopping cart for individual products
Provide a package price with a discount

final design

Final solution

My learnings

Worked independently on a project and designed a design process.
Conducted user research and analyzed existing data to understand user needs and behaviors.
Developed journey maps to visualize the user experience.
Presented each project phase to the team and collected feedback.
Familiarized myself with the organization’s design system to ensure consistency and efficiency.
Participated in a design sprint, collaborating with senior UX designers and programmers to define a solution.

< Interactive Climbing Enhancement

Bouldering Enhancement >

IKEA INTERNSHIP

Project

How might we suggest at the right time, the right services for our customer in the order management product?

Interviews

Key insights

Personalisation

Furniture Renewal

They prioritize preserving the products they already own

Emphasis on practicality and cost- efficiency

Simplifying decision-making

Prioritizing personal taste over trends

Desire for related product suggestion

Contextual relevance

Trust

Overwhelming trough repetition

Privacy concern

Desire: Control

HMW create a personalized shopping experience that prioritizes users' individual tastes and preferences during order management?

HMW renew and refresh furniture on the order management side with a strong emphasis on practicality and cost-efficiency?

HMW create a transparent and trustworthy process for logging and utilizing user data that makes users feel secure and informed?

In-depth exploration of trust

User Journey

Future User Journey

Chosen design opportunity: Focus on the future user journey: Refresh and renewal, Personalization, Trust

First iteration Prototype

Customer Day

I participated in a Customer Day, where various users/customers were invited to test new features. I had the opportunity to test my new concept for the order management page. ​​​​​​

The aim with the user testing:

​

Result feedback

Final solution

My learnings

I participated in a Customer Day, where various users/customers were invited to test new features. I had the opportunity to test my new concept for the order management page.