MAGIC TOY SHOP

BRIEF

The Magic Toy Shop is a brick-and-mortar shop that has been open for over 30 years and caters to children and adults. Their inventory includes current and vintage toys, games and magic tricks. The task was to create an online presence that met the needs of an online customer with the feel and care of their store.

INDUSTRY

Retail

WHAT I DID

User Research, Competitive and Comparative Analysis, Card Sorting, Wireframes, Interactive Prototype, Site Map

TIMEFRAME

2 Weeks

DISCOVERY

I started by trying to get a feel for the project. I immediately thought of the Mario's Magic Shop scene in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. The delight, the sense of play, and discovering a perfect gift had to be a major part of my thought process.

The client described their personality as such:

Traditional but not stuffy

Friendly but not childlike

Authoritative but not dictatorial

Humorous but not zany

Charming but not sweet

To start my research, I began analyzing shops with similar businesses models. I did the following activities:

• Competitive analysis between online toy stores with physical presences

• Comparative analysis between other online retail shops with physical presences

• Card sorting the inventory to inform the information architecture and navigation

From the comparative analysis, I gathered the important features that are common to other online stores and the features that help individual experiences stand out. While I did bias my research to stores that also have physical presences, I felt this was helpful in understanding how these businesses maintained a distinct identity between the two offerings.

Ideation

From the research, it was clear that customers expect a familiar and secure experience. The area where I could make the experience delightful is with the supporting content.

From the non-toy stores, they had in-store events and had curated recommendations from the staff. A visitor to the website is still a potential customer in the store.

Of the three personas in my client brief, 'John' was the primary persona I chose to primarily design for. Creating a relationship with the online customer was the focus on my design choices.

In my early sketches and prototypes, I had left out Reviews. Many shoppers like the reviews on retail sites but for me it was another element to maintain and more space on the page. I thought perhaps combining an unboxing video with a review from the staff at Magic Toy Shop could have an Authoritative but not dictatorial touch consistent with the store’s personality. I remembered with my own children, they would watch unboxing videos on YouTube for toys they wanted. According to a recent ABC News report, 18 of the top 100 YouTube channels are unboxing videos. I felt validated with this choice.

Solution

Given the plethora of e-commerce solutions available to build an online store, I focused on the features that would help the Magic Toy Shop to accomplish its goals for the project. A simple flow with navigation and search in prominent areas. Helpful multimedia content on the product page and a blog where customers can hear directly from the staff. The goal is to make the online store another outlet for the Magic Toy Shop to delight their customers.