Hewlett-Packard partnered with SCADpro to develop a more engaging platform for people to turn their memories into lasting and tangible mementos to keep or to offer to their loved ones.
With a dominant position in the printing market, HP is now paving the way for a future in which the shift from digital to physical and back will be swift and seamless, boosting the creativity of the users by putting all possible resources at their fingertips, in the screen of an app.
The team of students assembled by SCADpro developed the concept of a scalable service in which HP and their partners would come together to support that experience, and simultaneously developed the architecture and the navigation of an app that would make it easy and fun for users to work on their memories.
Secondary Research
In order to inform our design efforts towards HP’s position in the global marketplace, our team conducted secondary research by collating data concerning the company’s current brand image, public reception to it's printing services, as well as the status of competing printer manufacturers. The results yielded a more cohesive guide for how our deliverables can comfortably integrate within HP’s existing objectives and product line.
Brand
From an internal standpoint, we identified HP’s focus on creating usable technology for a universal audience, addressing product and service solutions for all personal and business computing needs. In particular, we recognized the company’s forward-thinking initiatives that ensure its continued position as a global leader in its field.
Concerning the ever-present issue of environmental sustainability, we made sure that our design choices would conform with HP’s goals for 100% zero-deforestation paper and packaging, reduced energy consumption for printers, and closed-loop plastic recycling. As we moved forward with development, we kept these concerns in mind.
In a world of developing manufacturing technologies, our team empathized with HP’s future vision for 3D printing technology and transformations of the supply chain. Notably, we acknowledged how these burgeoning developments could be coalesced to mass-produce materials heretofore impossible to synthesize through traditional injection-molding means. This also opens up the avenue for new customer experiences, from delivering more tangible interactions with photographed memories, to creating cross-platform integration with digital assistants.
Initial Research Session
After gathering secondary data, we came together to develop a complex map of the prominent stakeholders within the ecosystem, as well as a thorough list of overarching research questions as a starting point.
Primary Research
To answer our leading research questions, the team divided into three separate groups to conduct different avenues of exploration: user interviews, user surveys, and industry interviews. All this allowed us to maximize our scope, ensuring that we would accumulate data representing a cohesive image of the printing and creative processes.
Research Conclusions
At the end of the main research process, our team was able to manifest a cavalcade of insights about the state of our playing field, exposing revelations about user preferences and areas of opportunity in the home printing industry we had not previously considered. This data proved instrumental as the team moved onto extracting usable information from the results, and determining a more exact image of what kind of service we would provide.
Areas of Opportunity
Based on the identified pain points and through our ideation sessions, we identified areas of opportunities for both users and partners: those who help users develop and finalize their projects. For each group, we produced four overlying themes:
○ Empowerment, through ease of use
○ References, by facilitating the communication amongst users, and between users and partner
○ Guidance, by opening communication channels
○ Education, establishing realistic expectations and increasing connectivity among users and partners, we focused on education, by providing users with simple ways to learn more, inspire them as well as document projects and memories.
The research we conducted and the insights we received helped us identify the features users want, and what features to avoid. Such results were also brought to the user journeys.
Wireframes
Our ideation began using the ‘Crazy 8s methodology. After handing out blank sheets of paper to every person in the group, we divided each page into 8 sections. We decided to allocate 2 minutes for each section, allowing us to draw, write or simply doodle any idea that we have within those few minutes. We sketched out each of ideas, and handed our pages to the person beside us, combining all of our ideas through blind variation and selective retention.
In order to create and iterate wireframes, the app team began by collecting features that were ideated during the aforementioned Crazy 8’s session. After analyzing the features, the team started card sorting, using different colored post-it notes to write down the most important features, such as the onboarding or navigational interfaces. The post-it notes were organized to map out the initial phases of the informational architecture. Once the foundation was set, the team started drawing out various styles of the interface using an iPhone X template. It started with rapid prototyping, having everyone quickly sketch out the loading
User Testing
After many iterations, we added and removed features, focusing on what we knew the users want. Transforming our low-fidelity wireframes to mid-fidelity, we tested the wireframes with users and iterated the designs once more before shifting to more high-fidelity versions. While going through the phases of designing wireframes, we made sure that the functions of the app were allowing the actions described in the new user journeys of the personas. We also verified that all HP partners played an influential and collaborative role with the users and their projects.
Business Model
We started with a traditional business model in which HP sells devices to customers, and designed a multi-sided platform business model with two distinct yet contingent actors; HP app users and HP partners. HP provides a platform on which users and partners connect, interact and exchange services of a different nature. The HP Smart mobile app is the interface of the platform and, as such, gives the users access to the services of the partners and provides additional revenue streams to the partners, while bringing HP to a central position in the service ecosystem.
The HP Smart app includes all of the features it had and augments its performances by:
○ The users look for support services to explore and search inspiration, connect and share examples, look for partners to find supplies and services that help the finalization of the projects and gain rewards to boost motivation and drive to reach their goals
○ The partners capture new business, increase their revenue streams and learn from what the public want
○ HP gains a central position in the system, closer to the users, the partners, and can get additional revenue streams, by opening the app to advertisement and by taking a cut from the transactions operated on the platform