IKEA: SHD
Design lead, UX design, UI design, User research
Smart home demonstrator
The smart home demonstrator is a tool with the purpose to bring the in-store experience to the web. Here the customers can get inspiration and learn about the benefits of a connected home, also learn about the products and the system. The tool lets customers "touch-and-try" the products in the browser in our online showrooms.
I got into this project January 2021, in the middle of the pandemic. By the end of the summer they wanted a tool where were supposed to be able to interact with IKEAs smart products, learn about the smart products, but most importantly, get inspired to the possibilities of a smart home. The goal of the tool is the lower the purchasing barrier for IKEAs smart products. We were essentially creating a marketing tool, since IKEA has trouble selling this product range.
Starting from a blank paper, a small team got together, fully remotely. The tool itself was a need that IKEA had identified, which meant we had to start conceptual work right away. We facilitated workshops with the main stakeholders and based our work on their insights. Through frequent user testing we narrowed down the concept to something that could be executed within the short amount of time we had.
1 September, we launched our MVP, from 1 country and then gradually releasing on more and more countries across the whole world, reaching over 50 markets. All while working fully remotely due to the pandemic.
My role here is to lead the design work, facilitate workshops, conduct user tests and build UI components. Since our tool was unique at IKEA, many UI elements could not be used from the SKAPA design system. I worked closely with Business owner, Marketing & Communications, Product owner and developers. Our team was working close to the IKEA Home smart team and the IKEA Planner experiences.
The product has been iterated with 4 big updates.
The first version was based on a brief done by stakeholders and assets were limited due to short time frame, it was an MVP. As soon we released and was live on the IKEA websites, we could start testing and get both quantitative and qualitative feedback.
In version 2 we updated the room images with better quality rooms. During this time we started doing research on what factors stops the IKEA customer from making a purchase. We shared insights with other organisations and started identifying our target customers and their needs.
Version 3 had some UI updates, due to the new app being released. We took the opportunity to test some new patterns that we could bring into the concept we started to build.
Version 4 is the result of the collected research and insights we gathered. It’s designed for the target customer: The everyday living champion. They are the majority of the IKEA customer base and unfortunately they do not see a value of smart products. By combining research done by the Home smart team and ourselves, we identified their barriers and motivators. We needed to focus more on informing the customers about the values of smart products and how they can make their everyday life easier. While we were still limited to the rooms we have, we changed it away from controlling single products, to give information of what the products could benefits the customers.
I left the project in March 2023, after more than 2 years of iterations and still more work to be done. The smart home-area is fun, but challenging area. There is no direct need of smart products, which results in being difficult to sell. But smart products have the ability to aid and make small everyday moments easier. We got a long way, but IKEA still needs to become better in communicating the benefits of smart products. While the Smart home demonstrator did address many of the barriers, the tool was not exposed to enough customers to make an impact. It needed to be a collective effort for many teams, organisations and markets, not just this team alone.
