​​THE AEO PROJECT 

American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) distributed a request for proposal to Duquesne University Media students for the purpose of creating new interfaces to reform AEO’s online shopping mobile app. The intent of this report is to explain the pain points for potential American Eagle customers when shopping online and in-store, which were discovered from our survey research. Based on the feedback, our team designed three unique features to:

-Help customers gain a better understanding of a products’ look, fit, and feel by using an augmented reality (AR) feature

-Connect customers with their friends and family to ask for feedback when on solo shopping excursions by creating a video-chat feature

-Easily and quickly introduce help-seeking customers to sales associates by creating a pop-up feature to make for an efficient in-store shopping experience

Implementing these three features reach toward our overall goal of making the AEO app efficient in addressing customer concerns, ensuring the app is user-friendly and similar to the overall design of the existing AE app, and to help store associates when they assist customers at home or in-store.

With the demand of online shopping, clothing stores have been faced with the problem of having potential customers know the true fit and feel of the items they are shopping for online. We have been tasked with finding a solution to the problem of improving the omni-channel shopping experience by using voice recognition or virtual/augmented reality. Additionally, we have been tasked with alleviating pain points, enhancing the customer/associate interaction, and improving customers showrooming and reverse showrooming experience. Our team researched AR and voice recognition technology and its implications on omni-channel shopping experiences and sent out a Qualtrics survey. Through data collection, we learned if AEO’s targeted demographics are willing to use AR and voice recognition as a means to solve the key problems of: showrooming, reverse showrooming, alleviation of pain points, and enhancements to customer omni-channel shopping experience.

To bridge the gap between shopping online and in-person by allowing users to get an idea of what they will look like in products, without having to physically try them on. 

1.) Look: How a product appears on the customer’s body (i.e. colors, shiny, dull, patterns)

2.) Fit: How loose or how tight a product appears on the customer’s body

3.) Feel: The texture of the product (i.e. soft, rough).

-To reveal who AEO’s target customers are and how the design of our app will cater to their online shopping needs

-To reveal the pain points these potential customers experience when shopping via mobile app  

-To discover what influences the ultimate buying decision

-To determine if an augmented reality feature will make for an easier shopping experience for potential customers

-To understand if customers would be interested in a feature to gather feedback from friends and family about products they’re interested in

-To understand how often customers ask for help in-store

Survey: Our team agreed that a survey would be the most efficient way to reach an adequate amount of people and receive effective feedback regarding the pain points of online shopping. Additionally, the data collected from the survey was converted into graphs, an easier way to interpret the results, as it gives a visual representation of the data.

Our survey was distributed to males and females primarily between 18-24 years of age. The survey asked multiple choice and open ended questions to reveal pain points when online shopping and gathered feedback on our ideas during our pre-planning phase. For example, we originally wanted to incorporate/add to the voice recognition within the existing AE app, but decided not to based on the negative feedback from our survey. Additionally, we discovered that fit and look were the largest drawbacks to online shopping and based our overall design concepts on this distinguished response.

The overwhelming concern respondents expressed in the survey was that they do not get an accurate idea of how a product truly fits, looks, and feels when shopping online.

Full Survey Report HERE

Interpreting these results, we fixated on the recurring feedback that shopping online is difficult when it comes to deciding if a product will fit or not. Our team decided to create our main feature of trying clothes on virtually through Augmented Reality to combat this pain point for online shoppers, as well as for in-store shoppers. Additionally, AEO tasked us with how we could create a way for shoppers to connect with friends and family for feedback while on solo shopping trips. From the positive feedback in the survey, we created a video-chat feature. Additionally, we created a pop-up feature to ask for help when customers enter the store. From survey feedback, we wanted to encourage more users to connect with sales associates to better the in-store experience.

Features created from Survey Feedback: 

Feature 1- Augmented Reality, Eagle Eye: What is unique about this feature is that you don’t have to physically try on outfits. This will be useful when you're at home to get an idea of what products will look like on you. Additionally, this feature can be used in store if you want to see different colors and sizes on you, but don't need to try them on. 

Feature 2- Video Chat Feedback Feature, Chirp Chat: This feature allows users to video call their friends and family to gather feedback on items they’re interested in purchasing. 

Feature 3- Assistance Pop-Up feature: This feature will “pop-up” on a user’s phone screen as they enter the physical AEO store. This feature allows users to ask for help when they are ready from a store associate. If we were to further build out the app, a message of needing help will also “pop-up” on the store associates computers at the checkout counter so they know which customer to assist.

When performing usability tests on the features we implemented into the existing American Eagle application, we asked users to complete a short list of tasks in order to test its usability and find their user flow: Task : Find Eagle Eye and launch it (Built in AR Function that allows user to see what they can look like in clothes without trying them on) Task 2: After selecting an outfit they like and switching clothes on the model (for app purposes), have the user save the outfit they’ve selected by either favoriting the outfit or putting it in their bag. Task 3: While using Eagle Eye, make a call to a friend with the in-app video chat function to find out if they like the selected outfit on the user.

After showing people the prototype on a cell phone we noticed that many times users had trouble pressing the buttons to get to the next screen, so we were able to increase their size in order to allow the user to click with more ease and hit their target. Additionally, we were able to create an option to have your favorites go straight into your cart through Eagle Eye.

Overall, users were most excited about the option to try clothes on virtually in order to save time in-store when wondering how they would look in a certain product. Users were also excited about the ability to try on clothes from home and get a look at the “fit” & “feel” of the product. Additionally, they would feel more inspired to buy it because of having this feature. Another feature that users were excited about was the idea of having an in-store pop-up message appear because it could help to streamline the in-store shopping process by optimizing time for the customer base and dedicating a customer sales representative to them if they would like.