A Product Designer and ally
to my users.
What is Infinity Mall?
Infinity Mall is a virtual reality e-commerce platform exclusive to Meta's Oculus. Its purpose is to combine what people can't get from physical and online shopping individually while creating personalized brand and user experiences.
What is the problem?
There are 2 forms of shopping currently: physical and online. Physical shopping gives the consumer high confidence in what they're buying and provides a social experience. Online shopping gives the consumer the highest amount of efficiency, but lacks some of the confidence provided when shopping in person, as well as any social immersion. There is not currently a shopping option that includes high levels of all 3.
Design Process
RESEARCH
Meta's UX Research team had already completed an abundance of research within virtual reality, including user demographic statistics and what users wanted out of VR. Our Infinity Mall team dug into this research and found out some interesting things.
As of 2021, there were 57.4 million VR users in the United States and 171 million VR users worldwide. 57% of VR device owners are male, while 43% are female. 69% of those who intend on buying a VR device are male, while only 31% of those intending to purchase are female. However, female interest in virtual reality devices and experiences is significantly increasing year over year.
We first wanted to get a better understanding of the user base and where it was headed. This would help us better direct shopping experiences as we create Infinity Mall, as well as what type of stores should be included in the platform.
Further research showed us how e-commerce is growing on VR and what users are wanting out of virtual reality experiences. When speaking to overall revenue, worldwide spending on AR/VR technology is expected to reach $72.8 billion by 2024, which is up from the $12 billion spent on it in 2020. It is predicted that commercial AR/VR purchases will add up to $10.9 billion, while consumer spending will amount to $17.6 billion in the next 2 years. E-commerce is expected to heavily influence revenue growth within VR.
VR statistics for 2022 show that adoption of VR in e-commerce can boost online shopping conversion from 2% to 17%. VR experiences can significantly influence the purchasing decision of consumers.
HMWs & USER JOURNEYS
After reviewing research from our UXR teams we came together to create how-might-we statements, use cases, and user journeys. Our HMW statements were organized into 6 categories: Awareness, Purchases, Social, Search, Experience, and Accessibility. If there were multiple cards with similar statements, I coordinated by color - those with 1-2 similar cards were colored purple and those with 3-6 similar cards were colored red. This allowed for easier prioritization in the subsequent design process.
After prioritization of our HMW statements, our next step was to create user journeys. We did 2 different journeys: one for Discovery & Social (finding out about Infinity Mall and inviting friends to go shopping) and another for Social & Convenience (shopping with your friends and buying/comparing items).
Once user journeys were completed and we were able to get a better understanding of how users move through Infinity Mall, we created several different use cases and voted to decide on which to focus on throughout the rest of the design process.
USE CASES
Motivation & Drivers:
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The convenience of not having to go to a physical store.
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The satisfaction of feeling confident in their purchase.
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The validation from friends to help reassure a purchase.
Pain Points:
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Limited shopping content in VR.
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Not much variation in current VR shopping.
Barriers:
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No current way to compare items from multiple stores at one time.
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No way to shop with multiple friends at once when they're not physically together.
Motivation & Drivers:
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The feeling of accomplishment from reaching a goal.
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The validation of accumulating awards for accomplishing tasks.
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Finding people with similar interests.
Pain Points:
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Limited content and reward within VR.
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Lack of reasons to interact in VR regularly.
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Limited opportunities to meet others.
Barriers:
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No existing VR space for gaming events.
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No real opportunity in the VR space to take objects or incentives to another console.
Motivation & Drivers:
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The confidence they get from seeing items in their space before purchasing.
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The reassurance they get from making sure something fits in an area.
Pain Points:
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Limited store options to see items in AR/VR currently.
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Limited discoverability of unique items.
Barriers:
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No existing way to map out their entire room or home.
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Unable to switch items out or compare to see what they like better.
The Design
The goal for this design iteration was to create a minimum viable product (MVP) to get it in front of business leaders to hear opinions and adjustments needed before designing every use case. The use case we focused on was the apparel shopper and their experience in Infinity Mall: from mall landing to store entry to product details. However, the apparel shopper's experience expands far beyond this - particularly under the social and confidence umbrellas. Initial designs from other members of the design team were made showcasing a celebrity event with Ivy Park and Adidas. Shoppers were able to go to the event, interact with Beyoncé, and purchase items as she was talking about them. We also began designing an area where the user was able to try on and compare items from different stores to have a high level of confidence in their purchase decision.
How do these designs accomplish giving the user high levels of confidence, efficiency, and socialization?
The designs shown above give users efficiency to the fullest extent: they have a clear landing page giving them several choices (not too many, though!) based on what they want to do that day and an expansion page with every option needed utilizing optimal paths each time. There are multiple personalization options to create a more immersive experience for them, as well as several ways to incorporate a more social experience if that's what they want - options to invite friends to shop with them or an option to share their experience to social media to get opinions from their following. The product page is really what gives the user the highest level of confidence; it allows them to enlarge the product and look at it from a 360-degree view just like they would in a store. Not shown is a page where the user is able to compare items from different stores before making a decision, giving them an even higher level on confidence in what they purchase.
XFN Collaboration:
These designs are far from the finished product. However, getting to this point and throughout the process, we worked extensively with our graphic design and content design teams. They helped to source and create imaging for all pages, as well as gave input for button wording and placement based on users. We also had a constant dialogue with our engineering team to discuss feasibility within the code and to discuss what was possible from the 3D side with our Unity developers.
Significant thought and next steps were discussed for designing The Gamer use case as well. My thought was to utilize Infinity Mall as a hub for game and console releases giving gamers incentives to shop through Infinity Mall rather than elsewhere. The gaming community would be able to interact with others, choose the console they wanted to purchase the game for, and get an exclusive skin or expansion pack for that game just for shopping through Infinity Mall. Additionally, with the difficulty of finding and purchasing consoles at release these days, I thought it could be a great incentive to have those releases through Infinity Mall with the guarantee of being able to purchase through there without the concern of someone buying all of them and reselling later at a higher price.
If I had additional time, I would...
Create user tests with validating metrics.
Even though this project was in its beginning stages, it’s very important to make sure that I am able to showcase that I have thought about how I am able to measure my impact.
Explore more in-depth UI trade-offs.
Under the time constraints, I was not able to fully investigate all the possible trade-offs for my users. I want to showcase that I make purposeful decisions that impact my solution.
Explore design with more use cases.
This iteration only focused on one type of user for a MVP. It's important to me to showcase designs that can appeal to and satisfy multiple users.