01 background
overview
This mobile web concept was designed for Australian digital furniture company Koala to show my Product thinking and Product design knowledge utilising existing Koala brand guidelines and assets.
the problem
Koala has received a brand new product line called 'Modular Sofas' available in a range of 4 different complexities:
All sofas come in 2 different colours
• Storm Grey
• Bright Cream
‍
3 Seater
• No complexity
‍
4 Seater
• No complexity
‍
3 Seater & Chaise
• The chaise can be purchased as left or right orientation
‍
4.5 Seater and corner
• The customer can swap the corner piece to either side as it is flexible, this needs to be communicated to the customer upon selection
‍
Ottoman that can be purchased as an Add-on with any of these
the challenge
The challenge for me was to design a mobile web experience of the 'hero area' making it easy for customers to select, customise and purchase a sofa.

Some further requirements challenged me to:
• Communicate the specific complexity that comes with that sofa
• Allow customers to select the optional Ottoman Add-on
• Allow them to select the colour they like
duration
It took me approximately 3 days to complete this design challenge to the best of my abilities taking into consideration time, resources and final outcome.
process
01 Research
• Competitor Analysis
• User Interviews
• User Persona
• Experience Map
02 Strategy & Ideation
• User Flow
• Wireframes
03 Design
• Mid-fidelity designs
• Hi-fidelity Designs
• Next Steps
01 Research
• Competitor Analysis
• User Interviews
• User Persona
• Experience Map
02 Strategy & Ideation
• User Flow
• Wireframes
03 Design
• Mid-fidelity designs
• Hi-fidelity Designs
• Next Steps
02 researcH
competitor analysis
saturday 5th, 9:30-11:00am (1.5 hours)
I rapid researched 3 direct competitors - Plush Sofas, Fantastic Furniture and Temple & Webster - as well as the current Koala product page, so I could get a better understanding of what the furniture market is like, what they offer and how they layout the different elements featured in their hero area.
findings and observations
Commonalities I found they all have:
• Product image carousel that users can swipe to view more photos
• Colour or fabric choices
• Product complexity or chaise options
• Price and payment options (Zip, Afterpay, Openpay, Humm)
• Product information (dimensions, warranty details, stock levels, delivery estimate, customer reviews)
• Save to favourite function
• Add to cart CTA button

Unique feature/service observations:
• Plush have a 3 step process that guides the user to configure their sofa complexity (through real product images), fabric/colour and feet options
• Fantastic Furniture has incorporated AR technology to allow customers to place the sofa 'in' their own home and another feature that rotates 360 degrees around the product
• Fantastic furniture offer to send out fabric samples but only because they offer many choices
• Temple & Webster offer customers left or right chaise options through real product images
user interviews
saturday 5th, 11:00am-2pm (3 hours)
I was able to interview 4 people (2 couples at a time) who are in the process or have just bought a sofa for their home. I developed list of questions and conducted the interviews to help me understand their experiences, thoughts and preferences when buying the furniture.
who did i interview?
Alex (32) & Jessica (30)
John (56) & Mary (60)
interview questions guide
I gave my participants background info on why I was conducting the interview. I explained that I wanted to learn about their recent experience when viewing or purchasing a sofa. Some questions I asked:
‍
1. Tell me about your recent experience purchasing/searching for a sofa.
2. Where did you/where are you looking at purchase it from?
3. How long did it take you to find and deliver your sofa (if purchased)?
5. Did you/have you considered buying it online?
6. How did you/how are you comparing sofas?
7. How did you/are you getting inspiration?
8. What influenced/is influencing your decision?
9. How did you make your decision (if purchased)?
10. What are key factors that will influence your decision (not purchased yet)?
user interview insights
John & Mary
• Purchased in store from Nick Scali
• Spent a month looking around
• Once purchased it took 1 week to deliver
• Don't like buying online as they prefer viewing, touching and sitting on the sofa
• Went around homemaker centres comparing sofas
• Bought a sofa for their holiday house and found it hard to visualise it at in the setting
• Unable to see all configurations in-store
• Not worried about dimensions, more worried about how many people can be seated, colour and material
• Wanted delivery on the weekend as they run a business during the week
Alex & Jessica
• Open to purchasing online or in-store
• Looking in-store but 20 weeks waiting time for sofas they are looking at
• Looking at dimensions first followed by configurations as they have a small lounge room
• Difficult to compare materials and colours online
• Money conscious as they have been affected by COVID-19
• Jessica is getting styling inspiration from Pinterest and Alex spends time reading online reviews
• Always referring to photos of their lounge room to visualise how the sofa will look
John & Mary
Alex & Jessica
• Purchased in store from Nick Scali
• Spent a month looking around
• Once purchased it took 1 week to deliver
• Don't like buying online as they prefer viewing, touching and sitting on the sofa
• Went around homemaker centres comparing sofas
• Bought a sofa for their holiday house and found it hard to visualise it at in the setting
• Unable to see all configurations in-store
• Not worried about dimensions, more worried about how many people can be seated, colour and material
• Wanted delivery on the weekend as they run a business during the week
• Open to purchasing online or in-store
• Looking in-store but 20 weeks waiting time for sofas they are looking at
• Looking at dimensions first followed by configurations as they have a small lounge room
• Difficult to compare materials and colours online
• Money conscious as they have been affected by COVID-19
• Jessica is getting styling inspiration from Pinterest and Alex spends time reading online reviews
• Always referring to photos of their lounge room to visualise how the sofa will look
identifying user needs
Based off the insights, I identified that user needed to:
1. View the sofa at different angles
2. View materials and colour choices
3. Visualise the furniture in their home setting
4. Compare all complexities, add-ons and product dimensions
5. Access to pricing, payment, delivery options
6. Have access to product reviews from other customers
primary user persona
saturday 5th, 2-2:30pm (30 mins)
Jane Ko'ala
Age: 29
Occupation: Wholesale Manager
Relationship: Married
Location: Arncliffe
About
• Moving into new apartment
• Always browsing online social media, Pinterest
• Loves to shop online and in-store
Pain Points
• Not sure about the colour swatch online vs real-life
• Unable to visit stores because of Covid-19
• Small living space to find a new sofa
Needs
• On-trend sofa that will suit newly built apartment
• Confidently choose colour and sofa complexity
• Ability to visualise the sofa in the living space
• To make sure the sofa utilises space and fits nicely
• Good quality and reasonable price
Goals
• Wants to visualise what the sofa will look like in the living space
• Wants to easily customise the sofa complexity, colour and add-on
• Wants to quickly view detailed and accurate product information (price, reviews, delivery and warranty)
• Wants to quickly purchase/add the product to her cart
customer experience map
saturday 5th, 2:30-8:30pm (approx. 6 hours)
Using the user needs and user persona, I created an experience map to identify opportunity areas and features in the hero area that would satisfy their goals when purchasing a sofa.
Customer
Journey
Phase 1
Awareness
Phase 2
Research
Phase 3
Engagement
Phase 4
Purchase
Phase 5
Review
Activity
Customer engaged with Koala brand through social media and email marketing
Customer explores Koala sofa range that will suit their needs
Customer visits Modular Sofas product page
Customer makes a decision to purchase Modular Sofas
Customer returns to the Koala website to leave review and feedback
Action
Enter Koala website
Find Modular Sofas product page
Navigates through product description, images, complexities, product dimensions, colour options, reviews, add to favourites
Looks for the best price, checks delivery time, warranty details, payment options, add to cart
Opportunity
Leaves review on product
Pain Point
N/A
N/A
• Sofa too expensive
• Long waiting times
• Not sure of buying online
• Unsure about quality of product
N/A
• AR functionality to place sofa in customers home and capture photos
• AR option to add ottoman
• AR to overlay product dimensions
• High quality product images/video of sofa -360 degree view of sofa
• 3 stage process (Complexity, Colour, Add-on)
• Clear and detailed product dimensions
• Offer finance options clearly
• Display offers/specials clearly
• Clear and detailed information on stock levels, delivery times and warranty details
• Engaging 'Add to cart' button
N/A
N/A
N/A
N/A
Hero area feature
N/A
N/A
03 Strategy & IDEATION
user flow
sunday 6th, 9:00am-3:30pm (approx. 5 hours)
I created a user flow to determine how Jane (my user persona) would navigate through the Koala website and Modular Sofas product page for 2 scenarios. This ensured that I was including all the features (from the experience map) that user would use to achieve their goal.
Jane wants to purchase a new Koala sofa for her inner city apartment.
Scenrio a
She is unsure what complexity or colour option she wants and would like to visualise it in her lounge room before buying it. She would also like an ottoman to rest her feet on and needs to make sure this will all fit in her lounge room

Scenario b
After reading the product description, reviews, delivery and warranty information, she is ready to purchase the sofa using Afterpay
Jane wants to purchase a new Koala sofa for her inner city apartment.
Scenrio a
She is unsure what complexity or colour option she wants and would like to visualise it in her lounge room before buying it. She would also like an ottoman to rest her feet on and needs to make sure this will all fit in her lounge room

Scenario b
After reading the product description, reviews, delivery and warranty information, she is ready to purchase the sofa using Afterpay
wireframes
sunday 6th, 9:00-11pm (2 hours)
Using the list of all the features I had gathered from the experience map and user flow, I sketched a few wireframes on paper to explore where features and content were going to be placed in the hero area. I focused on the product image carousel, where the product name and description would sit and how the user would configure their sofa.
04 design
mid-fidelity designs
sunday 6th, 11pm-1am + monday 7th, 9am-12pm (5 hours)
I started to design mid-fidelity screens using a mixture of basic shapes, placeholder text, Koala fonts and colours. I quickly transitioned from low to mid-fidelity designs focusing on the layout, order and hierarchy of all the content and features in the hero area.
It was challenging to understand what order the product name, product images, AR/360 degree buttons, product selection and descriptions should follow in the hero area. It was evident that I needed to test my designs and get feedback before continuing with my hi-fidelity designs.
findings and observations
Some of the observations and feedback points I noted when testing the mid-fidelity designs included:
• users immediately went to scroll the image carousel
• the hero product image is 'too cramped'
• users weren't sure what the product name was
• AR mode & 360 button need to be close to the product image
• users skipped over the product description
• users missed the 'product dimensions' tab as it gets lost with the delivery, trial and warranty info
hi-fidelity designs
monday 7th, 2pm-12:30am (approx. 7 hours)
After conducting the mid-fidelity tests, I took on the feedback and made design iterations incorporating Koala brand font styles, colours, images and even designed custom icons for the AR/360 degree buttons based off the 'chat button icon' in the website navbar.
Hero area specifications
navigating through the image carousel
Users can swipe through the hero image, tap the arrows or on an image in the thumbnails to view images.
AR mode and 360 degree view
Users can use the AR mode to visualise how the sofa will look in their living space. They can use the 360 degree view to look at the smaller details such as the fabric and sofa colour.
Viewing product dimensions
One of the insights was for users to quickly access product dimensions especially if space was an issue. Placing 'Dimensions' earlier in the hero area would please users during their research stage.
Configuring sofa 3 step process
By adding numbers to the selection process indicates to the user that they are required to choose an option to proceed. Instead of a drop down menu, I have laid out all style options and complexities for the user to make a choice visually. This will avoid them going back and forth between options especially if they are deciding between multiple sofas.
prototype
tuesday 8th, 12:30-1:30am (1 hour)
design system
tuesday 8th, 5:30-6:30pm (1 hour)
I created a design system using the Koala brand colour palette and fonts to maintain consistency throughout the design of the hero area.
05 Takeaways & next steps
tuesday 8th, 6:30-7pm (30 mins)
This design task definitely challenged my Product Design skills and knowledge in the short timeline that I had. I enjoyed the conducting the User Interviews and creating the experience map which revealed opportunities to focus on in the hero area redesign. The next steps would be to user test the hi-fidelity prototype and start designing more iterations.

Without a doubt, AR technology should be a focus area for digital furniture stores like Koala, as it creates a positive user experience allowing users to visualise the furniture in their own home.
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