Trade – Understanding Interior Designers’ work

Company – 1stdibs (online marketplace for antiques and luxury goods)

Year – 2014

Team size – 2

Role – User Researcher & Research Lead

OVERVIEW

The company was exploring a possibility of targeting interior designers in addition to targeting individual buyers. Since the company did not have a user researcher and since I had research experience from my graduate program, I was asked to lead the research efforts, assisted by the principal designer, to find out about designer’s work process, motivations, relationships with dealers and clients, and business model

This was the first ever generative research project at the company and I was given 7 weeks to complete this project. I employed methods such as contextual and phone interviews, card sorting exercises, diary studies, affinity diagrams, work models and competitive analysis. We not only spoke to interior designers but also dealers to understand their side of the story while dealing with designers.

This culminated into a research findings presentation, a process flow and a competitive matrix; and was appreciated by the team and the CEO. I followed this by facilitating visioning exercises for the team.

PROCESS

PLAN RESEARCH

I started with a research proposal to propose as well as educate the stakeholders about the research processes and get their approval. I suggested-

Contextual interviews, week long diary studies, and card sorting with local designers

– for work process, work environment, priorities, motivations

 

Phone interviews, remote card sorting with designers in other cities

– for work process, priorities, motivations

 

Phone interviews with dealers and clients

– for their experience dealing with the designers.

 

Affinity diagram, work models and competitive analysis

– for consolidation, analysis and recommendations

 

Online designer communities

– for follow up questions

After approval, I made a gantt chart of the timeline (as seen on the right) for our stakeholders along with a list of the deliverables at various stages and a list of tools needed.

EXECUTE

I prepared a discussion guide for the interviews. We tried to get a wide range of designers from different geographical locations as well as different organisation sizes. Contextual inquiries gave me a good understanding of a designer’s physical environment (see photos on the right) and how they collaborated with other designers. Card sorting exercises really helped me understand their priorities with respect to early solution ideas. Diary study gave a lot of insight into how their projects progressed on a day to day basis.

FIND INSIGHTS

I consolidated all the data (~1450 data points) using an affinity diagram and made a journey map about a designer’s project flow (confidential). I then analyzed all the data to distill information and insights about-

Designer Profiles

– their view on antiques, what they love about their job

 

Business Model

– organization size, projects, billing models, client relationships

 

Workflow

– sourcing differences between new items and antiques, time consuming parts, breakdowns

 

Finding items

– sourcing preferences, authenticity, discount

 

Managing items

– tools, shipping

 

Relationships

– preferred channel of communication, building trust

 

Competitive Analysis of Trade Programs

– channel of communication, target, qualification process

Please note that the findings are confidential and cannot be shared here.

FACILITATE VISIONING WORKSHOP

I finished this project by conducting a visioning workshop with stakeholders which included exercises such as walking the wall, hot ideas, and execution plan.