Improving the Sainsbury’s experience
Posted by Tim on the 27 May in User Experience
User Experience
So next week sees the start of “I’m running Sainsbury’s” on Channel 4. Certainly a shameless marketing ploy on the part of the supermarket giant but we're definitely intrigued here at the Design Militia bunker.
The basic concept is to allow shop floor workers, the foot troopers of the Sainsbury’s army, the power to make changes to the way Sainsbury’s stores are run, letting them make changes to procedure in ways that they think will improve customer relations and productivity. It's certainly a great idea in terms of television - we're sure there will be some spectacular failures that will make compelling viewing as well as surprising success stories that will have the viewers cheering, (I’m sure Sainsbury’s wouldn’t be allowing the program to go out if at least some of it hadn’t been a success)!
Why are you bringing this up I hear literally none of you cry? Why it's user-experience of course!
While it's not quite putting the fate of Sainsbury’s directly into the hands of the consumers who shop there, the guys who work at the bottom of the Sainsbury’s corporate ladder are certainly the most connected to the shoppers. What's more, who better to provide insight into whether or not Sainsbury’s blanket corporate policies issued from the ivory tower actually work in real life? In the previews it was apparent that at least a few of the supermarket grunts were taking the time to talk and listen to real shoppers with real feedback on the running of their local stores... this kind of direct feedback straight from the horse’s mouth and implemented without the need to go through layers of corporate filter should see some startling results one way or the other.
Of course with contextual enquiry and other design research, its all about getting enough information to make informed decisions and filtering the great ideas from the stinkers - following trends in research results and careful implementation of new ideas so as not to overwhelm. It's not something everyone has a knack for, so we'll be watching carefully to see if these shop floor workers have what it takes.
Sainsburys embracing user-experience design? Maybe Waitrose will come up with a new visibility campaign... I mean, when did you last set foot in a Waitrose?
