SUMMARY
- A third party award-winning training platform for tech giant LG Electronics
- 55.4% YOY increase of active users in the first year after relaunch
- 26% increase in training modules taken by users in the first year after relaunch
- Internal LG recognition at South Korea HQ for the great results achieved
AWARDS WON
Drum Content Awards - Best internal use of content
Hermes Creative - Website Overall - Business to Business
AVA Digital Award - Web Element - Intranet
Responsibilities included: UX, UI, IA, game design, digital project management, QA
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BACKGROUND
LG are one of the world's leading technology brands specialising in consumer electronics, in the UK, they rely on third-party resellers to drive consumer sales for the company across their three main business units (Home Entertainment, Home Appliances and Mobile Communications ) and do not possess their own e-commerce or widescale bricks and mortar stores.
This created a challenge; as they do not employ consumer facing sales representatives, they are unable to reach and educate retailer staff directly without physically visiting stores. They needed a solution that can be accessed anywhere, anytime that educates and incentives retailer staff to sell their products.
THE BRIEF
LG were experiencing low engagement rates on their retailer training platform and needed a redesign to tackle this issue and, ultimately, educate third-party staff regarding their products.
They have a large product portfolio and work with both broad and specialist retailers across different technology categories. Consumer technology is an extremely competitive industry and most, if not all, large manufactures own retailer training platforms. Users of their platform can be located anywhere in the UK and range from sole traders to large, corporate businesses.
LG Lounge needed to stand out against the household competitor brand training platforms. This meant that content needed to be tailored to the user’s interests, ensuring communication could be segmented to their needs in order to maximise relevancy. They also needed to be able to grab a user’s attention during their busy working schedule, so navigation had to be clean, clear and easy to use.
BUSINESS GOALS
- Drive sign ups
- Increase awareness of LG products through education
- Increase YOY engagement
- Reduce senior staff admin
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DISCOVERY
QUALITATIVE USER RESEARCH
A questionnaire was sent to LG Lounge 1.0 users to find out any pain points they had experienced with the platform. We also added in questions to understand their wants and needs so that we could plan enhancements for LG Lounge 2.0.
Users were contacted across regions, retailers and levels of interactivity. This helped form personas for each of the user types that would be using the 2.0 version of the product and gave direct insight to points to address.
ANALYSING USER RESEARCH
The main two motivations for coming to the LG Lounge were;
1. Increase product knowledge
2. Win prizes.
1. Increase product knowledge
2. Win prizes.
Most people used their mobile phone when using the site, so the product had to be mobile first in design and experience, something V1.0 was not. The insight of pain points helped form the correct questions for the next phase of the product.
ADDITIONAL DISCOVERY
Alongside questionnaires, several other types of research took place in the discovery phase to understand the scope and features that were needed, they included:
Comparative research - Time was spent looking at direct competitors and non-compete educational training platforms. The aim of this was to understand what others were doing in terms of the registration process and user journeys for interactive engagement features such as educational series ended in quizzes.
From this I formed ideas to implement in design and took that to testing user journeys.
User journeys - To understand the best routes different personas should take, user journeys were created for the main tasks to make sure each user type completed the action with efficiency. These included registrations, entering a competition (below), taking a quiz starting from the homepage and contacting a trainer.
The product needed to be an easy-to-use system personalised to an individual by retailer, store and LG trainer. These methods helped to plan features and page content and was then taken into consideration when delivering the site IA.
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FEATURE CONSIDERATIONS
FEATURES BASED ON USER TYPES
Features to based on the different user types;
A - retailer staff/ third-party user
B - LG trainer (additional access to team stats & award points)
C - LG admin user (analytical information).
A - retailer staff/ third-party user
B - LG trainer (additional access to team stats & award points)
C - LG admin user (analytical information).
The key features that differentiated these user types were based on the research that took place in the discovery phase when we determined what was beneficial to each persona from a user and business perspective.
Additions to key features were made by repeating the discovery process and gaining feedback from users throughout, while considering business needs.
A GAMIFIED SOLUTION
Gamified learning was a decided upon early in the research phase to enhance the user's learning experience. This concept can be seen throughout the product, with points awarded for each training module completed.
DETAILED REPORTING FOR ADMIN
A key focus for LG was to have an advanced analytics section for admin users to monitor the engagement and effectiveness of training modules. Working closely with the Product Training Managers, a lot of time was spent discovering what features and data was needed for them to enable them to gain these insights and feed into future content development.
As well as this, we considered the functionality of reporting, making it accessible for base users. We took away manual tasks, creating filtered reports and specifically coded functions that allowed the data to be exported at the users request. A custom Google analytics dashboard was also created to cater for the user types and specific information the client needed.
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WIREFRAMES
Working with stakeholders and users was vital in creating the wireframes, the stakeholders had invaluable knowledge and helped explain important logistics to streamline within the product.
INITIAL SKETCHES
Sketches were used to flesh out initial thinking for the product and help form and ask the right type of questions before the next stage.
LOW-FI WIREFRAMES
Low-fi wireframes were created with features suggested in the earlier stages of the project. Engaging with stakeholders, we tested the fames and journeys considered to make sure the user was able to complete tasks effectively.
Below is an example of completing a quiz from the homepage quiz panel to seeing the points gained as a reward on the user's profile.
HI-FI WIREFRAMES
Screens were created to show the client how the product would look when created. This was enhanced when real-life content was added to them, making sure all information from a product or quiz was easily digestible and engaging to users.
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THE OUTPUT
LISTENING TO THE USERS
The responsive, mobile-first site implements gamified learning specific to each user individually. Training is incentivised with a points-based system, which acts as an online currency for entry into regular and targeted retailer specific prize draw competitions.
FEATURES OF THE PRODUCT BASED ON USER TYPES
Below are solutions and features based on user frustrations and business goals.
USABILITY TESTING
Testing was completed with a selection of user at LG HQ to make sure the product worked for the audience, changes were made based on feedback, frustrations and recommendations. One main outcome of the testing was to add the word 'Menu' next to the hamburger icon so that all users would know where to find pages on mobile.
DESIGNING FOR THE DIFFERENT USER TYPES
The screens below show the difference in needs for the user types;
A - retailer staff/ third-party user
B - LG trainer (additional access to team stats & award points)
C - LG admin user (analytical reporting information).
A - retailer staff/ third-party user
B - LG trainer (additional access to team stats & award points)
C - LG admin user (analytical reporting information).
VISUAL DESIGN
We used the corporate LG brand guidelines to lead the colour palette and maintain brand integrity. This maintained the strong identity of the LG family and we applied it to digital assets, such as accent colours and reporting.
Each section was carefully considered for the user, making content easily digestible and engaging for returning users. The reporting section was created to replicate a dashboard with key figures highlighted and export buttons at the top of the page.
GAMIFIED LEARNING
Educational games were created to encourage users to learn whilst playing, this was done by adding questions within the games which unlocked in-game bonus such as an extra life or faster ball.
Over the years I worked on the product, bi-annual games were created to encourage friendly store/retailer competition and return visitors. Game themes were based on key new products, seasonal timings or LG partnerships and released at key timings throughout the year to help educate retailer staff around LG business objectives.
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LG LOUNGE RESULTS
- 55.4% YOY increase of active users in the first year after relaunch
- 43% increase in total views in the first year after relaunch
- 26.5% increase in user sign ups in the first year after relaunch
- 26% increase in training modules taken by users in the first year after relaunch
- Internal LG recognition at South Korea HQ for the great results achieved
- Conversations to roll out to other regions
CLIENT FEEDBACK
“At LG we strive to work collaboratively with our retail partners to ensure they’re equipped with the tools and latest product knowledge to support their sales. Yet we understand that busy retail schedules don’t always allow for face-to-face training, so supplementing our training team with an easy to access platform that delivers engaging and up to date product content is key.”
“This refresh delivers more engaging and accessible content than before and it was important that we introduced customisable features so we can be truly collaborative and enable the LG Lounge to be tailored to each individual retailer’s needs.”
Andy Mackay, UK Commercial Director of Consumer Electronics at LG.
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DIGITAL MARKETING ACTIVATION
LG wanted a way to drive traffic to LG Lounge and highlight its partnership with the FA, around the time of the FIFA World Cup - the LG Playoff Predictor was born.
PLAYOFF PREDICTOR RESULTS
Comparison throughout competition period YOY
Comparison throughout competition period YOY
- Over 60k tests taken (a YoY increase of 14.5k )
- Dwell time increased by nearly 30 seconds
- Page views increased by 2.67
- Multi-award winning campaign
- Dwell time increased by nearly 30 seconds
- Page views increased by 2.67
- Multi-award winning campaign
Credits:
Agency: Brand and Deliver
Agency: Brand and Deliver
Website and Game Designer: Julie Bodie
Developers: Rob Fenech, Joe Birkin
Game Developers: Remi Borgniet & Joe Birkin