Greenwich Centre needed to improve their in-store experience and raise awareness of all the different services they offered. I teamed up with them to understand how customers used the space, identifying the pain points and undercover opportunities. 

Client: Greenwich Communication Centre is an ICT services centre and internet cafe that also offered training and opportunities for the community.

  • Challenge

    The owner wanted to revitalise their visual communication, but the research conducted revealed customers struggling to use services on-site and a lack of awareness about all offerings, with some people going elsewhere for services they had there. They had a limited budget and needed the changes asap.

  • Process

    I conducted on-site research with observation and interviews with the owner, customers and staff to learn how the space and services were perceived and used by the different participants.

  • Outcome

    A new look and tailored signage for the internal spaces to better communicate processes and offerings, and enhance the customers' experience in-store.

Research

To better understand how customers behaved and interacted with the service and space, I went to the store to conduct a participant observation study and contextual interview to also gain insights regarding expectations, perceptions and frustrations, to identify the gaps and opportunities. I also took the chance to interview employees and the owner to get their perspectives too.

The research uncovered further issues that clients and staff were facing and that the owner was unaware of.

Findings and pain points discovered with the research:

  • Customers, staff and owner mentioned the signage looked dated, hard to read and often lost in the space. Also, the environment did not feel very welcoming/engaging at first

  • One of the staff reported that customers were unsure about the reference number given to access the computer as they could not see the signage beside each machine (red number on the red wall), a fact confirmed onsite by a customer

  • Staff and owner reported that clients had problems reading the pricing board behind the counter

  • When asked about the services offered by the centre, clients were not aware of all offerings, mainly regarding the cafe and repair services

Customer journey

Approach

Based on the findings from the research, I used a multidisciplinary approach and knowledge in design thinking, design research, branding, graphic design, merchandising and design strategy to create simple, easy-to-implement and affordable solutions.

The idea was to use contrast and information hierarchy to improve the readability, and a visual language to translate offerings and create a better atmosphere in the centre. Inspirational mood board below.

Result

Impact

With limited time and budget, the client went ahead only with the printables they could produce in the shop. It was still possible to make significant improvements, address the issues identified and enhance the customer experience in the centre. 

The result was visually engaging and contrasting communication, with better readability and hierarchy of the content.

Months later, the owner got in touch with a positive follow up, mentioning a more intuitive use of the space and that the communication was well-received by clients.