A new unpacking experience

Abstract

Healthbox operates within the subscription ecommerce industry. Every two months, Healthbox delivers boxes to users homes filled with new, interesting, full size, healthy products. The Healthbox informs and inspires users about new products and brands, and ensures an always up-to-date healthy lifestyle. Each Healthbox is created by a health-related ambassador and has a minimum value of 90 Euro. A Healthbox can be ordered once or users can purchase a subscription which lasts for at least one year. Healthbox pursues an ideal situation which implies selling as many boxes as possible. To make sure more boxes are sold, users should first be made aware of the existence of the brand and the product Healthbox offers. It is assumed that more purchases are made in case more users know about the existence of the brand. So in order to meet the desired situation, the brand awareness of Healthbox should be increased. In the past few years, Healthbox has noticed the positive effects of user-generated content shared on social media in relation to its sales. User-generated content shared on social media increases brand awareness and can positively influences users purchase behaviour. Today’s user might often be relying on the recommendation and opinion of a friend or acquaintance found within their social media network. This process of getting users to buy through user-generated content describes a behaviour change. These findings were the starting point for this graduation project. In order to contribute to Healthbox desired situation, this graduation project provides a fitting solution for increasing the brand awareness. The fitting solution is designed around company, context and users needs, concerns and abilities by means of a user-centered approach. The final design implies a product-service system which stimulates and supports users to share content about Healthbox during the unpacking process. First, an extensive external, internal and users analysis (including desk research, an online survey, observations, context mapping and interviews) led to different ‘enablers for sharing’. Insights from the analysis showed that users are stimulated to share in case they receive a memorable experience or material gain in terms of rewards. Findings from the user analysis combined with literature research gained knowledge about many different ways to deliver memorable experiences. Positive surprises in terms of added value, desired additional information and experiences that fit user needs work up to memorable experiences. Furthermore, users indicated that the final design should inspire, motivate and support, the call-to-action should be placed at the fingertips and the design should be easy accessible regarding usability. This analysis phase highlighted different opportunities and threats concerning sharing online content. The analysis and more in depth focus on sharing content introduces the ideation phase in which solutions concerning the problem situation are generated. By performing individual and co-creation sessions, fitting solutions to different considerations were found. Insights from these creative session resulted in three different design directions which were validated by the users and evaluated based on predetermined criteria. Eventually, the ideation phase led to the creation of a new unpacking experience with: ‘the Experience kit’. The experience kit opens up a wealth of new intuitive interactions between user and Healthbox. A new unpacking experience generates intrigue and triggers engagement. Using the experience kit stimulates and supports users to create and share content about Healthbox during the unpacking process. The product fits users needs, concerns and abilities by offering added value and a possibility to receive material gain. Desired additional information is provided by means of a seamless connection with a health-related ambassador. This unique experience changes the current unpacking experience and gives it texture and reality through desired elements of discovery and surprise. Adding this unique experience will allow Healthbox to offer their users a memorable experience, leading to increased user appreciation and brand loyalty, while simultaneously trigger the user to recommend the brand to others. Even better, the experience kit will be passed around friends and family because of its fun and interactive nature, spreading the brand message even further. Using real product prototypes, a simulation of the Experience kit was tested among many (potential) users. Insights showed high user acceptance and potential, however some challenges regarding feasibility remain. The end of this report describes how the company should face these challenges in order to work up to realization of the design. This graduation report has hopefully inspired Healthbox regarding increasing its brand awareness approached from an user-centered perspective.