Cédric Guise - Decathlon in-store app

Context

In 2017, the company I worked at signed a partnership with Decathlon to help them provide new services to their existing customers and attract new ones to the fishing department.

This partnership included the creation of an in-store app for potential customers. The objectives: help them find curated fishing spots nearby, as well as the corresponding fishing techniques and gear available in the stores they are in.
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Challenges

The Decathlon stores being frequented by a large category of customers, with ages from 8 to 70+ years old, the in-store app had to be easy to use for all.
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Starting fishing can be daunting because of the amount of technical jargon and complex gear. We had to find ways to keep the content understandable while keeping it expert-friendly.

The touch terminal would be located in the middle of a store - a distracting environment, surrounded with people, products and noises. The interface had to be streamlined and actions reduced to a minimum.

Team & Role

The team included a back-end developer, a front-end developer, a product designer and a product manager.

As the product designer, I oversaw the entire design of the in-store app, from initial ideas stage to development including: ideation with the stakeholders, wireframing, information architecture, user flows and UI.

Results

Stores equiped

+ 30

Users/day

Email conversion

7.2%

Design process

We kickstarted the project with a survey and interviews of different sales people from multiple stores in France.

We rapidly identified key problems users, mostly beginners, encountered:
- vendors are not always available to guide customers around ;
- fishing gear is complex and an informed choice requires expert knowledge ;
- people aren't familiar with fishing spots in their region ;
- fishing requires specific techniques depending on the species and locations.

We also detected opportunities for the stores to seize:
- the in-store app would be a precious sales assistant for vendors ;
- the stores would be able to push products hard to sell.
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From there, we drew a few "how might we" statements, both from the user and vendor perspective.

Wireframes

I iterated on wireframes and conducted usability tests to identify the best design for the in-store app.

Once the user touches the screen, he arrives on a simple map with pins and the store logo. He can locate fishing spots nearby and around his current position, read and watch tutorials, get recommandations on the right equipment.

Idle screen

Creating an idle screen was necessary so the app could go back to a "stand-by" mode after idle time.
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Going back to the idle screen couldn't be too fast to prevent interrupting users in their read. Not to slow either, since we wanted new users to feel like they were exploring on their own, not proceeding with the navigation of someone else before them.

After multiple tests, we settled on 1'30 minutes of idle time.

Spot modal

When the user selects one of the pins, the screen above opens.

The left column is dedicated to the fishing spot itself, with useful details and advices on how to go fishing there, as well as recommended techniques and gear users can find in the store.

The middle column is a call to action prompt users to enter their mail address so they can receive updates and tips from the vendors.

The right part stays focused on the spot the user is currently viewing.

Tutorials

As we had seen during the interviews, beginner anglers need guidance to choose their gear and use the right fishing techniques depending on the spot's location and species.

We added bite sized tutorials on various subjects to help newcomers.

Admin interface

The app admin can login to add, edit or delete fishing spots attached to his store.

We created a seamless way to manage spots to save time and optimize usability for admins.