Customer Wayfinding Experience for College Retail
Bobcat Store Redesign Proposal at Texas State University

challenge

How do interior design students create experiences rooted in the point of view of end-users and stakeholders?
​Interior Design's foundation is in the human experience of the built environment.  It is critical that students understand the point of view of end-users and stakeholders that will live, work and play in those spaces.  Human-centered design and user experience research, offer unique opportunites to change students' awareness of who they design for and offers a process for unpacking complex problems.​

by the numbers

41

​Undergraduate Sophomores enrolled in People Environment and Behavior Spring 2022 semester course.

87%

Students who acheived a "Proficient"
​(B grade) or higher

solution

Experiential real-world project-based learning in the design studio provides opportunities for young designers to apply new skills and capabilities to a complex challenge.  In this 7-week customer wayfinding experience project, students engaged with end-users, staff and managers who engage with the Bobcat Store at Texas State University.

impact

Students gained new skills in assesing and applying wayfinding best practces and UXR including surveys, contextual interviews, behavior, journey and empathy mapping, prototyping and user testing.  Students report that the project increased confidence in applying evidence-based design to their projects.

process

Students were introduced to the Double Diamond design process developed by the British Design Council as an overarching guide to the Bobcat store project.  This process aligns with the architectural workflow of site analysis, programming, schematic design and design documentation.

DISCOVER

site analysis

  • 15 student teams conducted site analysis
  • Documented retail fixtures through notated images
  • Identified shopping zones
  • Recorded architectural features

behavior mapping
  • Observed customers and staff onsite 
  • Identified who visits the store
  • ​How people moved through space
  • Interaction with displays & merchandise
  • Customer engagement with staff
  • Customer time in store
  • Were items purchased
  • Students conducted contextual interviews while participants were shopping

survey
  • Students crowd-sourced survey questions
  • Three class sections collected 176 responses over 3 cross-referenced surveys
  • Surveys were collected at the store at three different times:
    • 9am-10am
    • 12pm-1pm
    • 3pm-4pm​

DEFINE

personas

  • 6 Major End-User Personas were discovered
    • Incoming Freshman/Prospective Students
    • Parents/Family of Students
    • Freshman/Sophomore Undergraduates
    • Junior/Senior Undergradutes
    • Graduating Seniors/Graduate Students
    • Texas State Faculty & Staff​

journey and empathy maps

  • Teams co-created empathy & journey maps about end-users' experiences
  • Teams discovered new programmatic elements to include in the redesign

DESIGN

wayfinding prototype: 

  • Teams developed an architectural and graphic wayfinding proposal that considers:
    • Visual access
    • Building layout
    • Architectural delineation
    • Signage 

wayfinding prototype

  • Created a wayfinding signage package
  • Signage met ADA requirements:
    • Mounting heights
    • Color contrast

DELIVER

presentation & user feedback

  • Teams created boards and presented on site
  • Green dot voting identified prefered new features
  • Quotes collected from end-users and store staff