Decision Velocity 3

An industry-first 3D shopping experience to capture highly accurate Purchase Intent.

DV3 Online 3D Shopping
DV3 Online 3D Shopping

Overview

More than a decade before the Metaverse and virtual worlds, I lead the initiative to develop the first ever online 3D shopping experience in the marketing research industry. While online surveys pushed the boundaries of what basic images and online forms could do, Decision Velocity 3 (DV3) was able to put the consumer directly in the store and experience a simulated shopping experience like no other.

  • Date

    December 2005

  • Company

    Decision Insight

Problem Statement

Retail companies are laggards in the technology space, and developing cost effective ways to conceptualize and accurately forecast Purchase Intent has been elusive for many brands. Simple 2D photorealistic shopping experiences do not move the needle and provide the necessary simulation to forecast real-world shopper behavior. Additionally, retail brands have struggled to find an ideal solution to evalutate the best product signage placement without costly trial and error within real stores.

Timeline

Identify cutting-edge technology, and deliver a more realistic shopping experience.

01

Research

Being comfortable with new territories, I explored numerous technologies in an effort to identify how to create more realism within our product offerings.

02

Trial & Error

I pushed the boundaries within Adobe Flash to try and simulate a Z vector, but quickly realized modern computers could not handle this simulation at scale.

03

Proof of Concept

Discovering a niche technology for independant online gaming companies, I was able to digital assets normally used in 3D Shooters and driving games to create an online 3D convenience store.

04

Scaling Issues

Computer hardware, internet speeds, and browser capabilities prevented using the gaming technology directly to scale to over 2000 products variations for each individual survey.

05

Bridging Technologies

Combining our current 2D shopping backend technology to dynamically create 3D products only when necessary, allowed for the system to run at scale for online surveys.

06

Pitching Clients

As a way to win a new contract for Coors Brewing Company, I developed 3D products and dynamically generated signage for an upcoming survey to be released.

07

Product Release

By combining the digital assets from the Frito-Lay Proof of Concept and new Coors 6-pack products, I successfully launched DV3 into multiple markets through our partner programs.

08

Usability Testing

As part of the initial release, phone-based Think Aloud sessions were setup for survey partipants walk our team thru 3D shopping surveys while the system recorded Users for in-world real-time playback.

DV3 Convenience Store Session
DV3 convenience store session
DV3 Convenience Store Session
DV3 rotating Coors products
DV3 Convenience Store Session
DV3 rotating Frito-Lay products
DV3 Convenience Store Session
DV3 checkout at the counter

Results

By pushing the limits of widespread technologies (Adobe Flash) to discover their breaking point, I was able to "fail fast" and move on to more robust technologies (WildTangent). Out of the box thinking and “learning as you go” allowed the theoretical concept of an online 3D shopping environment to come to life.

Focusing on niche online gaming technologies, where 3D Racing and First Person Shooters were developed by Indie companies, I developed an immersive shopping experience, enabling multiple product offerings for the company. By allowing the survey taker to move freely and purchase products from a more realistic store, this allowed our company to collect data and gain better insights on product placement, brand signage, and increased correlation of Purchase Intent.

  • Metric

    Industry First

  • Metric

    6% increase in Purchase Intent confidence

Learnings

When performing Think Aloud remote Usability Testing, non-verbal cues and frustration can be captured and are just as valuable as what a User says. When road blocks prevent you from finding an innovative solution, search for a path outside of your confort zone.

Contributions

  • Product Ideation & Discovery
  • UX Strategy & Research
  • Proof of Concept Development
  • Vendor Selection & Management
  • Prototype Development
  • Remote Usability Testing
  • Survey Design & Administration
  • Focus Groups Facilitation
  • Full Technical Delivery of Product
  • Analytics & Measurement