I was working on this project during my employment with the Salonsense Media. In line with the strategic goals of the Pitchpad Pro sales app that was already on the market for a few months, the company management decided that the next development was to upgrade their digital signage services to address the commonly perceived challenges for sales staff.

The goal was to integrate hardware and software through:

1. 1. Connecting the Salonsense MiniPC to the store’s TV
   2.  Integrating their MIniPC services, subscriptions details, products, and other information via the app

• My job was to design the user experience and user interface for the client and their customers
• The feature was designed and developed from scratch with an in-house product team
• Apart from me and another designers, our team consisted of researchers, engineers and product managers.

• Since we already solved the UX challenges of IoT connectivity, the main focus for the app feature was exploring the best way to support staff’ on sales related needs

More about Salonsense Media services here and Desert Sun Tanning here.

Pitchpad Pro app can be downloaded here.

I asked a few managers and employees from different locations “How do you feel about having a sales tool tailored specifically for your business needs?”

The answers revolved around three things –

• Goals
• Knowledge
• User experience

The survey suggests that people need a tool not only help them close sales, but to help train and educate their internal team and customers. The app addresses the user’s need of knowledge and user ease of use by the following features –

• Memberships overview
• Packages
• Location specific specials
• FAQ’s
• Products

After the heuristic analysis and survey I knew I wanted to bring goals to the forefront of the app and incorporate it throughout the user’s experience so the client and their customers both reach their goals.

We analyzed the data gathered through our user surveys together in a 3h long session

Affinity mapping helped to determine various users for this tool:

• Desert Sun Tanning employees
• All level tanners

Based on the interviews and affinity mapping we defined 3 personas.

•  Tanning experts
  • Over 15+ years of tanning experience
  • Knows industry and audience very well
  • Preoccupied with training new employees
  • Competitive marketing edge

• New to Tanning
  • Identifies with busy lifestyle
  • Struggles with seasonal depression
  • Tans during the summer, but isn’t sure about a salon
  • Thinks tanning will give him a skin condition

We defined two types of features based on our personas to support their business needs and challenges they faced daily:

1) Features facilitating behavior

• Personalized location specials and services
• Advanced products finder

2) Features reinforcing behavior

• Membership specials
• Social media engagement

We defined two types of features based on our personas to support their business needs and challenges they faced daily:

1) Features facilitating behavior

• Personalized location specials and services
• Advanced products finder

2) Features reinforcing behavior

• Membership specials
• Social media engagement

1. Tailored products filtering systems
2. Product details page
3. Location (GPS enabled) equipment availability

• Findings from the research phase can sometimes be difficult to share across the team no matter the team size (in this case it was a small team); this results in confusion and “wasted” time.

• It is crucial to find an effective ways to deliver and present results to everyone involved in the project.

• During the design phase it is important to include stakeholders & hardware engineers as early as possible to validate the feasibility of design.