American Eagle Outfitters Co-Lab

Experimenting with Style

What I did

  • Research
  • Ideation
  • Design Conceptualization
  • Storyboard/ Speed dating
  • Interactive touch screens

AEO CO-LAB

Traditional clothing retail is in the midst of a transformation. We were tasked to create an entirely new way for clothes to enter people’s lives, co-creating value between AEO and their customers.

We already know AE is a leader in selling jeans, why not make them a leader in selling accessories?

Fall 2018 Service Design

In collaboration with Janice Chen, Chris Reyes, Qian Hui Sun, Michael Liu, Nicole Wan

SEO
Brief

How might we make a casual shopper’s shopping experience more efficient and informative?

Imagine you are shopping with a friend, you bring them along to give you advice on the clothes you pick. Most times, you’ll go into the fitting room, and come out and ask for their opinion.

With AE Style Lab, located in the fitting room, you will scan your clothes before going into the fitting room- and your outfit will appear on the touchscreen. Your friend is then able to interact with it, choosing accessories that will match the outfit and make their recommendations for you while they wait.

SEO

Optimized Space

  • An Interactive digital touchscreen to get a wholistic of the entire outfit
  • Reusing exisiting fitting room shelves as an accessory wall where the pieces are located
  • An enriched shopping experience for social shoppers
SEO
Research Phase

Understanding the Gap in the Market

Guerilla Research

We visited both American Eagle and Aerie stores in Pittsburgh. We conducted qualitative interviews to get a sense of the associate’s experience working there as well as customer’s shopping experience.

Monica

“We only have 3 fitting rooms in the store, so when some customers are waiting in line they have to wait a long time.”

— Aerie Store Manager

Lauren

“If a customer asks for a particular size, it’s a hassle for me to look it up and try to find it in the store.”

— AEO Associate

Caylin

“I love shopping, but I hate going alone. I usually bring one or two friends with me to get some style advice.”

— Casual Shopper

Insights from Interviews

There is a lack in interaction between associate and customer while they wait in line for fitting rooms.

There exists no system in which helps associates locate particular items for a customer.

Shopping is more often a social experience.

Key Problems to Solve
SEO

Inventory confusion—

6 hour gap and delay between store and warehouses.
SEO

Hard to find items—

Associates cannot find what customers are looking for.
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Long wait times—

Customers wait a long time in front of fitting rooms during peak hours.
Opportunities

Brainstorming Potential Solutions

Keeping these models in mind, we began our design ideation phase. From our research and findings, we did a brainstorm session to get our ideas up and running.

We wanted to answer the question:

“How can we use customer downtime to enhance in-store shopping as a social experience?”

Step 1

Brainstorm

Step 2

Ideation

Step 3

Affinity Mapping

Speed dating results

After rounds of speed dating, we felt compelled to change directions.

  • We found that though most are excited about styling for the right size/colors/fit, the associates or ambassadors lacked credibility. They trust their friends instead.
  • People also may interpret associate’s help as intrusion, or being “sold to”.
  • Most appreciate the accessory wall especially when shopping for jeans, to be exposed to complimentary items.
  • Satisfactory suggestions for styles could build credibility.
SEO
Pitch Outcomes

Exposure to Accessories

We had designers, managers, and associates from AEO come hear what we had created. We got an overwhelming number of positive feedback and appreciation for our idea! To take this to the next step, the AE CO-LAB could become integrated with their mobile app or even be in other locations in the store.

Final Thoughts

My Main Takeaways

It was a lot of digging deep into what it actually means to co-create value for AEO and their customers. We went through many iterations and ideas, some that even started as a joke and flourished into our design!

Ultimately, I learned to:

  • Fail faster to discard bad ideas earlier and gain better ideas later!
  • Don’t be afraid to go to people and ask for their time, they give pretty good insights.
  • Styling is a vehicle for driving revenue. More accessories = more sales = more revenue.