Position Map

First, we wanted to map out the influence trust and credibility had on the resources expectant parents made use of, if there was a relationship at all. We created a position map with two axes: the horizontal axis being Trust/Credibility and the vertical axis being Use Frequency.

The Trust and Credibility axis describes how much the expectant parent would trust a certain resource when it comes to making the right choice related to parenting advice and pregnancy preparation. To collect this data, we asked the interviewees to rank the resources in terms of trust. Then, from the interview notes, we counted how many times our interviewees would say they would use certain resources and plotted that against the Use Frequency axis. In the position map, it appears that there is no real correlation between how credible parents would deem a source versus how often they would use it.

Even though there are sources they may have high trust in (relatives, close friends) they do not utilize them as much as they utilize, say, store registries that have lower trust (due to having to take a risk in purchasing items and trusting what a store says a parent needs). We also noticed an internet-based cluster in the top left quadrant (Low Trust/Credibility & High Use Frequency). Now that we knew internet-based resources were most used by parents, we now had the following question:

Task Analysis

Next, we wanted to see (1) when expectant parents would turn to their family and friends, versus (2) when they would turn to the internet, versus (3) when they would decide a task could be accomplished on their own, all within the context of furniture shopping, as it relates to IKEA, our client. We arrived at the following framework, which is a short hierarchical task analysis of furniture shopping, including arrows pointing to the specific resources parents used to complete each of their furniture shopping tasks.

From our interviews, we already knew that expectant parents tended to turn to virtual strangers for advice, so we had a feeling that most of the tasks in the hierarchical task analysis would point to that end of the spectrum. When we mapped these tasks to the point of support that expectant parents tended to reach out to for those specific tasks, we found that expectant parents mainly ask parents, other relatives, and friends for help when they need more mechanical tasks done, such as babysitting their children while they go shopping, helping them look for old furniture, and helping them build new furniture. 
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‍When it comes to cognitive, expectant parents rely a bit on professionals such as store employees and doctors, but rely heavily on influencers and online forums for the majority of the information they need. In other words, the answer to our first question of “at what stage expectant parents decide they do not need to ask help from their closest social circles” is this information seeking stage.

Trait Ranking

To answer our next question, we picked out different traits and ranked the support sources in terms of their strength in those traits. This can be seen in the framework below:

Mapping this out using the data we found from our interviews, we saw that the more detached the resource:

With this new data, we now knew to focus on designing solutions that supplemented these information-seeking tasks and to use detached resources (the influencers and online forums) to help with it, since this task-resource combination is what allowed expectant parents the most confidence, emotional stability, accessibility, and discovery, all things that they prioritized based on our interviews.

We created insight statements and a needs hierarchy to identify our needs.

Insight Statements

Using the frameworks above, we were able to pull out multiple insights regarding expectant parents’ furniture shopping habits and what shapes them. When seeking information about what furniture they can reuse, what furniture they need to buy, and where they can buy that furniture, expectant parents tend to look to virtual strangers for advice because:

In our framework, we saw that the more detached the resource, the more confident parents feel in themselves. Digging deeper into our interview notes and research, we found that the reason for this is because detached resources are non-judgmental sources that have no direct capability to hurt their emotions.

Our framework showed us that detached resources have low physical proximity to expectant parents, which means that they do not have the direct ability to pressure parents into following their recommendations. Since attached resources, including parents, family members, and friends are physically around expectant parents more, this causes constant pressure on parents to follow their recommendations. Attached resources are also more emotionally close to parents, which means that parents are more likely to take their advice to make sure they aren’t hurting or offending them. This could lead them into making decisions they don’t necessarily want to make, making them feel less confident and independent.

Our frameworks showed us that the more detached the resource (a.k.a. the more internet-based the resource), the more available their advice is for parents to access at any time or place. This convenience is an important reason why parents tend to turn to virtual strangers over their close social circles for advice - because virtual strangers’ advice is quickly and easily accessible.

Lastly, our frameworks showed us that the more detached the resource is, the more likely it is to offer parents new, unknown information. Since parents’ close social circles are who they’ve been around for most of their lives, these people are unlikely to give them advice or recommendations that are completely new to them. During our interviews, we found that parents value seeing all options available to them, and especially value options that are completely new to them, which is why they are so attracted to virtual strangers who recommend novel products.

Needs Hierarchy

Based on our findings, frameworks, and insights, we came up with the following needs:

We came up with two concepts: 
a VR showroom & personified posters.

Virtual Reality Showrooms

The expectant parent steps into an all-white showroom in IKEA, furnished with all the basic pieces an expectant may have in their home, such as a crib, breastfeeding chair, or diaper-changing station. The bland furniture foundation will give the parents a physical feel of what their space back at home could look like.

Then, they are able to put on a VR headset and modify what they see in the room by changing the furniture’s color and size, or by completely replacing the furniture with other pieces that are more relevant to the parents’ needs.

Finally, another option will let the parents build their own rooms from scratch, inputting the room size, what furniture pieces they already have at home, and choosing new pieces from a reduced list provided by the simulation. This immersive experience would allow parents to enter a new space and gain a sense of excitement, making their shopping experience more informative and making their preparation more fun.

This solution directly addresses the expectant parents’ needs of feeling supported and prepared for their new baby’s arrival. By directly modifying a room and considering the options they already have versus the pieces they are missing, the parents can feel more confident in their decision making.

Personified Showrooms

With this solution, IKEA will create personified showrooms more directly tailored towards expectant parents, which they currently lack since the youngest demographic for showrooms in IKEA is the toddler range. We consider these showrooms to be “personified” because they are curated by expectant parents themselves and endorsed by baby bloggers and other social media influencers that parents frequently turn to for inspiration.

In the Personified Showrooms, there will be posters of the parents or influencers that created the room, explaining why they formatted it so and how they optimized their space and utility with the furniture in their room. While IKEA already utilizes celebrity collaborations, this solution gives a more (direct feel).

This solution directly addresses the expectant parents’ needs of feeling prepared as they gather tips and get advice from people who are like them but removed enough to feel free of judgement. With this solution, expectant parents have the ability to explore rooms they may not have seen in the homes of their friends or family, allowing them to consider all potential options. With the Personified Showrooms, parents can take bits and pieces they think are appropriate in building their own homes.

We led concept testing sessions with parents.

After creating the prototypes for our first two solutions, we reached out to the parents we interviewed during the beginning of the project and asked them whether they found our solutions helpful or not. Some of the biggest pieces of feedback we received are outlined below.

We combined our two concepts to create an AR, algorithm-based app.

Introducing IKEA Vision.

A personalized, immersive way to help expectant parents integrate their new children into their current homes.

Algorithm-Based Personality Quiz

IKEA Vision provides the user with an algorithm-based preference quiz that asks for expectant parents’ demographic information, current furniture items, and aesthetic/influencer preferences, and uses this information to curate three unique furniture collections for expectant parents to explore, with each curated room being recommended by an influencer who matches their demographics and lifestyle.

AR Room Customization

Taking the furniture suggestions from the user's personality quiz results, an AR feature of the app transforms expectant parents’ current rooms to show what these new tailored furniture pieces will look like.

After scanning their room with the AR feature, the parent can choose a collection to view inside that room. This will allow them to experience the room without needing to be at a physical IKEA location.

While the parent is first provided the influencer's recommended product placement, they can then click on each individual product to move it to another location in the room, remove it from the collection completely, or tap on the product to see why the influencer is recommending it.

Seamless Shopping Cart Transfer

With the AR view of their newly furnished rooms, users can pick and choose specific product offerings and add those to a shopping cart. They are able to select a mix of products from different collections, instead of only being able to purchase from one collection. This gives them the autonomy to make their own decisions and the opportunity to curate their own collection based off of the influencer's template. This quick, streamlined, and simple process empowers parents and leaves little room for confusion in the furniture shopping experience.