UX & UI

Service Design

Research & Synthesis

User interviews

Insight Development

User Testing

Rapid Prototyping

Art Direction

Goal

To understand the needs, behaviours and dynamics of a self-chosen customer segment, and to design a 'Signature Experience' that will create positive traction for Optus' new and existing customers.

Outcomes

Of the various ideas targeting different insights and pain points, 'Safety Quest' was developed. A concept addressing the underlying insight theme of 'child safety', Safety Quest is an education platform for parents to curate their child's gamified learning adventure.

Our research pack was also used by Optus' experience team.

Initial Research

To better understand the customer segment as a team, we first developed an internal discussion guide. Individually, we mapped out six of our own memorable customer experiences and touch-points, three companies that delivered signature experiences, and six things that define the needs of a family from telco companies. This, combined with industry, consumer and government trend reports, helped identify themes to take forward with the research and interview discussion guide.

Identified Themes

• Coverage/network speed
• Customer service
• Personalisation
• Content
• Safety
• Devices
• Value and loyalty programs

Interviews

Wanting to capture how those themes came into play in the family-home dynamic, we structured a discussion guide with three proactive/reactive scenarios to ask four sets of parent-child interviews.

1. 'Its an average Saturday night at home. What is happening? What is everyone doing?'
2. 'Its that same Saturday night at home. The internet goes out, what happens?'
3. 'Your youngest child is old enough for a phone. What does that process look like?'

This gave us valuable insight into the family home and the relationship families have with technology and telco companies. 

Identified Themes

• Reasons for children having a phone
• Current service/s
• Device ecosystem
• Child-focused safety measures
• Shopping behaviours
• Frustrations with safety measures (parental controls)
• Tech literacy
• Household reward systems
• Account management
• Privacy concerns
• Customer service experience/s and
• Account perks/bundles

Insights - refined

After our first check-in with the client, they informed us that the research was too 'product' focused and asked us to revisit the research, removing the 'tech/telco' lens.

Stripping back the insights to the core needs, the following remained.

Time

Help parents to manage workloads/tasks to free up time for things that matter

Budget

Relieve financial pressure to free up resources for children's education and entertainment

Safety

Reassure parents that their children are safe both online & offline

Quality Time

Enable more shared
family experiences

Incentives

Assist in teaching children good values, behaviours,
& future life skills

Customer Journey Map

Based on supplied personas and interview data, we developed a 'current-state, day in the life' customer journey map capturing the family's highs, lows and opportunity areas.

We found that safety, although only listed twice on the map, was a consistent underlying issue.

Simplified 'customer journey map'

Ideation

In a team-design session using the 6up 1up framework, we generated 21 top-line concepts addressing five insight themes.

Of those 21 concepts, three were brought into prototype and testing.

Virtual Family Assistant

A device-agnostic virtual assistant that automatically collects information from connected devices and consolidates them in one family schedule with the ability to set reminders and assign/automate tasks

Safety Quest

A parent-curated education platform delivered as an interactive game that teaches children personal safety (online & offline) and incentivises them with personalised rewards

Life Skills Holiday Camp

A summer camp for kids to learn life skills and independence through fun-based interactive activities led by professionals in a safe, caring environment

Initial Design and Testing

We used a storyboard approach to map out each concept into a story, consisting of multiple slides and scenes, giving context to each idea.

Using a focus group to test the concepts, we asked attendees to talk through each story, capturing their expectations, thoughts and opinions of the solution as a parent.

Findings

• Parents love the idea of building experiences for their children but want to join in or curate their child's learning journey
• Parents don't like the idea of more technology in the home, especially if being used as a way to educate their children in place of a family conversation

Solution

Using focus group feedback, 'Safety Quest' was shaped to better suit both parent and child.

Parents can now use the platform to learn about new and trending topics related to their child's experiences, with the choice to be the primary delivery channel.
Children can also learn through a gamified experience.

Try the prototype

Try the prototype

© All rights reserved - Brendan Simmonds 2020