retail
TagFestive failings reveal cracks in multi-channel retail UX
There was a sense of desperation creeping in. I’d started ignoring those seemingly innocent and yet surprisingly consequential ‘Tick here if you’d prefer not to receive…’ boxes, simply because they were too small and awkward to navigate. By the …
Design Talk 34. Josh Shabtai of Lowe’s Innovation Labs on retail experience design
With Amazon’s $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods placing a spotlight on the future of retail experience design, MEX founder Marek Pawlowski talks to Josh Shabtai of Lowe’s Innovation Labs about how the home improvement giant is experimenting…
Design Talk 27. Alex Genov, Head of UX Research, Zappos
Alex Genov, head of UX Research at Zappos, talks to Marek Pawlowski, founder of MEX, about designing retail experiences, understanding users as people and emerging user research methods. The conversation covers Genov’s early interest in experimen…
User story: the flustered customer and contactless payment
This is a rural community. Queues form in the local store not because there are too many customers, but rather because what few customers there are stop for extended conversations about the weather. Outside, a pick-up truck sits with its engine …
User story: the shattered image
“Oh yeah, that went a long time ago,” the dad said when I asked him about the spider’s web of cracks spreading out from the corner of the iPad’s screen. He seemed resigned to the fate of the expensive tablet, as if its demise had been inevitable …
The scrappy reality of operators’ customer service
I’ll admit I was surprised and disappointed when she took out a tatty ring bound folder – the kind one might have used to hold one’s school notes in the 1980s – and ran her finger down the plastic covering of a printed spreadsheet. “£53 a month fo…
Experiencing the Apple Watch at retail
The Apple Watch occupied about 20 times more floorspace than the new MacBook when I visited the company’s Regent Street store in April 2015. The Watch’s display units stretch the full width of the store and are the first things a customer sees upo…
Moto 360 impressions & thoughts on smartwatches’ poor retail experience
The Moto 360 feels disappointing. The screen is more pixelated than I expected and the materials lack the weight and solidity to suggest quality. It’s not bad, and it’s probably the best feeling smartwatch on the market today, but that’s more a re…