Connected Living at Target
Smart Home Products / Prototyping Digital Displays
Problem / The value that smart home products provide is unclear. Insight / The most common barriers to purchase are price perception, practicality, and lack of info. Strategy / Grow purchase confidence by assigning smart home products to relatable problems, and using digital screens to provide product details and vendor content.
Role / User Experience / User Interface / Art Direction
Partners / Store Design / Innovation Dev / Guest Insights / Accessibility
Phase 1 / Sketches, questions, and a proof of concept.
Validate / Would purchase confidence grow if we displayed smart home products out of the box? Each product is unique. How will they be mounted? Secure mounting brackets aren’t always the most attractive. If we power the products, will store guests expect live product demos?
Ideas / Digital Screens / Motion Detection / Powered Product Demos / Messaging & Context
Phase 2 / Pressure test all aspects of the smart home direction by installing the experience in one Minneapolis Target store. Observe guest behavior from a distance. Conduct guest intercepts to gather reactions, expectations, and preferences. Weigh security concerns against merchandising desires.
Validate / Accessibility / Hardware / WiFi / Power access / Security / Durability / Assortment
Phase 3 / Install proximity sensors for each product. Sensors know when a guest is within 2 feet of the display - autoplaying a video attract loop. When the guest steps up to a product, the system autoplays the vendor video. Step away? System times out and resets.
Test / Proximity Sensors / 16x4 Samsung displays / Arduino / Media Player / Vendor videos
Phase 4 / Retool the content strategy on the large gondola screens to dramatize how mixing and matching smart products can make guest lives better.
Update: iPad interface / Paired 65” displays / Vendor Video
Phase 5 / Emphasize newness and address issues of durability, maintenance, and multiple store floor pad sizes. Revise the home screen to accommodate multiple vendors with equal importance.
Update: iPad interface / Vendor Videos / Product Detail / Ratings and Reviews
Phase 6 / The smart home industry is volatile. Brands and products come and go. Redesign the entire digital experience to accommodate remote content updates with minimal creative input.
Adapt: New Business Priorities / Menu System
