Essilor – UX Research – Order Management Platform
Offering Opticians and Sales Representatives a Clear 20/20 Vision.
About
Essilor Eyeglasses -” The world’s leading ophthalmic optics company”, hired MJV and my team to provide a clearer overview of the complex world of prescription glasses sales.
My role as a senior innovation consultant was to combine my journalistic training and understanding of design to provide the development team with an in-depth account of the pains and challenges facing the stakeholders. Besides embedded research, I designed and illustrated Personas and Journeys, generated insights, coordinated workshops, and mediated several meetings with Essilor technicians and executives.
UX Challenges: Selling a high tech product through traditional retail culture
The business of selling prescription glasses combine high tech manufacturing with a still traditional retail experience. Every product must be custom-built for each customer and requires a complex network of small stores, large chains, local labs, and national assembly plants.
During the immersion phase I talked not only to opticians, but to lab assistants, doctors, customers, delivery boys and who else is involved in the fabrication and sale of bifocal lenses. I would also role play as customers or managers in distribution centers
Mapping the user journey
After the immersion phase, we were able to map the consumers and the optician’s journey. Hundreds of post-its were translated into easy to read data visualization. These pointed toward the exact pain points we detected.
Through this analysis that we reached the conclusion that data management was at the heart of most problems. Some stakeholders, for example, were averse to technology, while others were unwilling to share their own systems or didn’t have the tools to do it. The customizable nature of the prescription glasses business is based on customs data from each user and a lot of trust.
Ideation Workshops
Trust was also key in our partnership with our clients and in order to strengthen it, we went through great lengths to bring members of different departments of their corporate headquarters to participate in ideation workshops, where they could be updated on our findings and come up with solutions together with our team of designers.
Prototyping the APP
After going through the data gathered in this ideation phase, we came to the conclusion that an online order management platform would be the optimum solution to most issues.
I didn’t take a direct part in the development of the prototype UI since I was assigned to another immersion team, but I do take great pride in knowing my insights, personas, interviews, and research provided the development team with clear goals and a sharp vision of the road ahead.
Essilor was pleased with the app and was open to integrate it with their existing platforms.
WITH THIS INFORMATION, WE PROTOTYPED DIGITAL SOLUTIONS AND DELIVERED IN-DEPTH REPORTS ON THE CURRENT STATE OF THE BUSINESS.
DESK RESEARCH
1 JOURNEY
4 PROFILES
5 ILLUSTRATED PERSONAS
52 INSIGHT CARDS
39 CHALLENGES
- 26 INTERVIEWS; EMBEDDING; DESK RESEARCH
- 1 JOURNEY; 4 PROFILES; 5 ILLUSTRATED PERSONAS; 52 INSIGHT CARDS; 39 CHALLENGES
- 1 CO-CREATION WORKSHOP; 20+ PARTICIPANTS; 64 IDEAS; 25 CONSOLIDATED
- 1 DIGITAL PLATFORM; 36 SCREENS; 6 FUNCTIONS
CONCLUSION
I enjoyed getting to know each of the stakeholders in person; getting to understand their work environments, needs, and values. Differently than in my past life as a journalist, I felt like I was part of their work and loved to make myself available to improve their lives through creative design solutions.
Also, I’ve found a wonderful new optician for my father and became the family’s expert on multifocal lenses!
