Iteration: 2
Interaction Story – CompaReviews V2.0
Date: 13.10.2009
Design Challenge : To shift power to the consumer at the point of cognitive overload by leveraging collective intelligence, consumed through natural navigation and intuitive visualization. Protagonist : Pooja Ranganathan is a 31 year old technology professional. She’s employed as a team lead with NOVA KPO services. She is social, supports causes, loves watching movies, is technology friendly, likes to travel and is married with no kids. She is a thorough shopper: She likes doing her homework before hand and drives a bargain. She is willing to pay a premium provided she is certain of the value for money. She usually checks with friends when considering a purchase, sometimes taking them along for a second opinion. She always consults with her husband before finalizing a large purchase. She usually has place in mind for any purchase. Each year, she takes an annual holiday along with her husband to a new location within India and is an amateur photographer, looking to get better. She blogs about her travels and is active on Facebook and Twitter. Trigger : Pooja has just received a spot award at work to the tune of Rs. 50,000. They were looking to replace their current ageing CRT television with a HD television. Being Diwali, it is an auspicious time to make a purchase. And there are discounts everywhere. She wants to narrow choices down to a few she can discuss with her husband. She is looking to buy something sleek, well built and value for money, but is overwhelmed by the acronyms LCD, LED, Plasma, HD, full HD et all. She decides to investigate:
Beat = Interaction
DRAFT
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Iteration: 2
Interaction Story – CompaReviews V2.0
Date: 13.10.2009
Beat 1 : Pooja unlocks her iPhone and sends the sms short code [TV] to [Airtel]. The reply sms contains a link with a pre-formed query. She opens the link on the iPhone browser. She sees a Google wave robot waiting for her Beat 2 : Pooja interacts with the CompaReview bot [Hi Pooja, you’re looking for a TV. Is that correct ?] {yes} [Any brand preferences ?] {no} [Any lifestyle preferences ? style, function, performance – more than one is o.k.] {function, style} [Are you interested in making technology choices ? ] {yes} [Any technology preferences ? - CRT, Plasma LCD, LED, HD - It’s all right not to choose, if you don’t have a preference. Click on any term to see the Wikipedia definition. I will choose only related technology, but show your preference first ] {HD} [In what time frame do you intend to purchase ? - this helps me locate offers -immediate, 1m, 3m, 6m, 1yr] {immediate} [How many units to do intend to purchase ?– this helps me look for bulk discounts] {1} [Thank you, please wait a moment, while I prescribe a few televisions] … [Hi Pooja, I would recommend choosing between vendor_model_1, vendor_model_2, vendor_model_3] [Please click on the links for more information – we have added them to a comparison cart. Thank you] Beat 3 : Clicking on any link opens up the comparison cart (slide 3 of original sketch )showing the 3 prescribed items. All 3 are check for comparison. Pooja touches the “Compare” button Beat 4 : She sees the CompaReviews console, with the 3 recommendations arranged in a film-strip. The questions she answered are visible under the “Feature Groups” panels. All of them are within “Shared Feature Groups”. She sees the average sentiment for the 3 models in one glance. [Model1] is leading. [Model 3 is the worst ]. The CompaReview bot considered this when making a prescription. Beat 5 : Pooja decides to take a closer look at each of the models..[to be detailed] Satisfied with the community feedback and her choices, she saves the comparison cart for future reference. She is asked for her email address and a password. And if she’d like to download the fully functional CompaReviews app on her phone – for a 30 day trial period. See selects “Yes”.
Beat = Interaction
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Iteration: 2
Interaction Story – CompaReviews V2.0
Date: 13.10.2009
Beat 6 : The CompaReview iPhone app is downloaded and installed in one click, like in the Mac. Pooja open the app to find the comparison cart immediately visible. Satisfied, she closed the app. [..delay..] Beat 7 : Pooja sits with her husband to show her current shortlist. Looking to show this on a larger screen, she open up the comparison cart on her phone and beams the content to her Mac via Bluetooth. Her husband digs a little deeper and find a 4th model interesting. This is added to the comparison cart. Satisfied with the selection, Pooja closes the CompaReview iPhone app. [..delay..] Beat 8 : Pooja enters [electronics store: e-zone] with the CompaReview app open. She speaks to the sales person and asks to see the models shown in the comparison cart. The sales person mentions that they have only 2 of the 4 models. He recommends 2 others instead. The one her husband likes is not here. She will not decide until she see that as well, but maybe she can decide which see likes the most. Beat 9: He guides her to the video wall and points out the televisions models. They’re placed high on the shelf and with all the televisions running simultaneously. Now she’s confused. There are many televisions to choose from and no real way to compare them. Seeing TV’s in the high-end doesn’t tell much. How does one decide now ? She will be spending up to Rs.100,000 on it and needs time to decide. Maybe CompaReviews can help. Beat 10: She asks is there is café where she can look up the internet. Maybe she can open up the CompaReview website. She remembers the application had the website mentioned in the About section. The salesman offers to guide her to the Café , with a Mac desktop a cup of coffee or juice and copies of AV magazine. Beat 11 : She launches the iPhone app and sees the About section. The url points to www.compareviews.com. She clicks to see what happens. Safari on the iPhone opens her comparison cart ! Excellent. She can access her cart on a public computer. But she doesn’t remember the password. Maybe CompaReviews thought about this.. ?
Beat = Interaction
DRAFT
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Iteration: 2
Interaction Story – CompaReviews V2.0
Date: 13.10.2009
Beat 12 : She finds a “Mail CompareCart” option she hadn’t noticed before on entering the app. She decides to mail this to her gmail address. Beat 13 : She logs into gmail and find the a pre-formatted, short CompareCart email with a clickable logo. She clicks it to find CompaReviews opening on the public website. She sees her 4 selection in a carousel. Beat 14 : She searches for and adds the two new models to the list. The carousel adds 2 news slide , with the highest ranked models coming in before lower ranked ones. She sees the selection count, 6, below the slides. Now she needs to decide which ones is the best value for money amongst the 6 is the best buy Beat 15 : She starts by re-checking the Feature Groups selected. She doesn’t want to add or remove any features just yet. Maybe once she’s narrowed it down to 2 models. Beat 16 : Next she adjust the demographic filters – she identifies herself in the 25-35 group. Not too young, not too old. The carousel re-orders the items slightly to reflect her selection. Beat 17 : Next she adjusts the Location filter to Narrow it down to Bangalore. Different models often appear across the country at different times. In this case, the carousel does not show any change Beat 18 : See now see the SentiMeter with the highest and lowest sentiment scores of 6 and 2 respectively. Excellent ! She can now start with the best. She clicks on the data point for 6, the highest rating on the graph below the SentiMeter. The current slide is highlighted. CompaReview presents the best choice first. Maybe next time she can interact with the carousel directly. Beat 19 : She clicks on the highlighted slide to see what’s behind the rating. She’s pleasantly surprised to see the top 5 and the bottom 5 features for the model. She reads the best and worst reviews eagerly. Worst first. She finds some of the negative reviews are some badly handled customers and nothing to do with the model. Overall the model seems to deserve the reputation. But how does it compare with the others ? Beat 20 : Pooja [shift] + selects the top 3 models. The screen now shows a clean meaningful [visualization : matrix | bubble chart]. The x axis shows Common Features followed by Unique Features. The y axis shows the sentiment ordered as [Bad, Neutral, Good]. The models make up the data points and the number of reviews the size of the data point. Selecting any one lets her see the review extract leading to the sentiment as a tooltip. Now she can compare products apple-to-apple using the Shared Features. Having decided on the best products on shared features, she can decide on the unique features and how much she is willing to pay for the uniqueness. This is likely to be the features that make the model special Add-On : Google wave broadcast to help decide
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Iteration: 2
Interaction Story – CompaReviews V2.0
Date: 13.10.2009
[..30 min delay..] Beat 21 : Pooja has short listed 3 different models based on the reviews. The model her husband liked is on the list. Having understood the pro’s and con’s of the models, she now walks back to the salesman and asks for a demo of the first model. She checks the positive sentiments for herself. Having understood what to look for, she agrees. She asks specific questions on the negative sentiments. The salesman is now under pressure. He didn’t anticipate a well informed client. He rubbishes a few of the negative sentiments around service, until Pooja shows her the review. He reluctantly admits that there are some “rumors” of the technology partner switching, leading to service drop outs. That automatically pushes Pooja’s second choice to first. She makes a mental note to post this piece of information back to the site. Maybe this will help other shoppers.
(to be split into multiple beats if required)
Beat 22 : Pooja sees the demo for the second model. She is satisfied with the overall performance and reputation. Its not as nice as the first, but an acceptable compromise. The price is fair, with a small margin for negotiation. She will do this once she sees the last model. She thanks the salesman for the time. And feels pride that she drove a tricky discussion with confidence. Beat 23 : Before leaving, Pooja takes 5 minutes to post back a review for the two models she has seen. She clicks on the slide, selects “Post Review” – a simple form pre-tagged with all relevant fields – model, geography, demography etc is shown. She posts her feedback for the first and second model. Satisfied, she closes the CompaReview iPhone app and exits the store. [delay] Beat 24 : Pooja enters [electronic store: Croma] – cycle repeats itself for the last model. First selection is better. She mentions this. Gets discount based on this. Decides to go to first store. Beat 25 : Repeats discount offer from Croma to e-Zone. Gets better discount here. Beat 26 : Consults with husband. He agrees first is better deal. Beat 27 : Closed first model at discounted price. Adds review over time on usage. End. Resources:
1. Google Wave
Beat = Interaction
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Iteration: 2
Interaction Story – CompaReviews V2.0
Date: 13.10.2009
2. iPhone Apps : Around Me , Where To ?
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