Tesco’s Homeplus Virtual Subway Store in South Korea is a great example of how to create a service based on existing user practices, rituals, and needs.

Behind the accessible yet super advertising-agency language of this marketing video is an example of great ethnography! (ignore their subjective claims that South Koreans are the 2nd hardest working people in the world- forgive Chiel - they are a marketing agency!)

Tesco’s advertising company, Chiel, observed existing user interactions and feelings around grocery stores. They took into account that South Korea is one of the most digitally wired and smartphone saturated phones in the world. They also noted user’s everyday transportation experience.

Based on their observations and understanding of real world context, they came up with the virtual subway store that only requires the use of a smartphone. 

What I love about this innovative service is that it doesn’t introduce too many contingencies or new practices.

1. There aren’t any infrastructural contingencies around digital literacy or hardware issues - smartphone penetration is super high and mobile signal is consistent and widespread under- and above-ground.  

2. Homeplus is also being introduced into an existing ritual - the morning and post-work subway commute.

• Part of this is ritual physical- the action of going to the subway and waiting for the subway is familiar.
• Part of this ritual is digital - the continuous browsing on one’s mobile while waiting and riding the train.
• Another part of this ritual is mental - the accounting of daily tasks that need to get done like buying more toilet paper or eggs. Urban and working South Koreans already in these physical, digital, and mental activities.

3. There are already high levels of trust in online shopping in South Korea - so introducing this virtual service is something that complements beliefs about the internet.

A new contingency that comes to my mind is the delivery of the items - like people need to get used to the practice of arranging delivery. Like working out what time the products are delivered and how to time the delivery so that you get your items when you come home from your commute. But delivery issues can be solved relatively easily on the back end by working out database and coordination issues and building in flexibility for the user. Delivery is not a big cultural or mental contingency in this context.

The most difficult services/products to introduce are ones that require cultural or mental pivots along with new practices. If Tesco were to introduce the virtual service in a country with high bandwidth penetration but low trust in online shopping, then they are running up against a perception issue - that the internet is good for many activities, but not shopping.

Another outstanding aspect to note is that this service may not have been created if the designers didn’t take into account existing transportation patterns. If Chiel only did their observations inside the grocery store or inside a home, they wouldn’t have realized the potential for creating a service inside the subway - an everyday space. But now this everyday space has a new and exciting activity - shopping! This interaction in this space becomes more rich and complex. The subway space isn’t just a transportation, people watching, or casual gaming space, it is a consumption space now - thus introducing consumption desires into this activity.

The success of Homeplus fulfills the qualities that are critical for a seamless user experience - SUD: Simple, Usable, and Desirable

I want to comment a bit on desireability. Dan Lockton’s research on how architecture influences user behavior introduced me an urban planning concept of “desire paths,” that users create natural paths in their physical surroundings based on what works for them. Lockton points to Myhill (2004) who suggests that ““[a]n optimal way to design pathways in accordance with natural human behaviour, is to not design them at all.”

Myhill argues that companies who design products should allow for desire paths to emerge out of the user, not the designer. The company should them keep an eye on the desire paths and make adjustments or features based on these emergent paths. Myhill says that companies who do this will successfully fulfill the ‘Normanian Natural Selection,” a theory from Don Norman that people always interact naturally with objects and spaces in their everyday life.

Applying “desire paths” to Homeplus virtual grocery stores, could the appeal and success of it be partly based on that the system allows for users to create symbolic  “desire paths”? It would be so fascinating to do some ethnography to see how over the next few years, Homeplus calibrates their service to allow for users to create desire paths - because this keeps this service flexible for the user!  What kind of desire paths will emerge out of this service?

I ask these questions about desire paths with my fieldwork in China in mind - because I’m thinking about how youth and migrants are using social media to create symbolic desire paths to get to the information they need. But more on that in another post!

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I would bet Chiel included South Koreans on the design team. I know this may sound like the obvious - but MANY companies that hire design firms to create products/services for them DO NOT include local ethnographers/designers on the project. So while the design ideas they create may be amazing (or totally unimpressive), they may not be grounded in existing social practices. Or what happens is that companies will hire a local ethnographer or expert, but they don’t allow the local ethnographer to be in a position of power that is equal to other team members, so the local expert’s suggestions often get sidelined.

Thank you to Charlotte Yong San Gullach Büttrich for sharing this with me on Google+!

(video via Recklessnutter)