Master’s Degree in Cognitive Science

The modern store: usage of multimodal technologies for the improvement of the retail experience

Tutor Student

Professor Liliana Albertazzi Filippo Andolfatto

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Master’s Degree in Cognitive Science 1INTRODUCTION 5CHAPTER 1. User Experience Design: definition and principles 91.1 Definitions of User Experience Design 91.2 The Six principles of User Centered Design 111.3 Conclusions 14CHAPTER 2. Digital Signage Networks 152.1 What’s a Digital Signage in Deep 172.2 Why adopting Digital Signage 202.3 Fields of application of Digital Signage 212.5 State of the art of Digital Signage 222.4 Conclusion 33CHAPTER 3. Digital Signage Networks: New Trends 353.1 Digital Signage networks as element of a holistic retail experience: online and offline become similar and indistinguishable 363.2 Multimodality of the interaction/experience 383.3 Adaptability of the experience and the understanding of context 403.4 Integration of sensors and software logs in an analytics framework423.6 Social Media integration on the digital signage network 433.7 Conclusion 45CHAPTER 4. TouchDomain - The design process of a complex Digital Signage Network 474.1 The Design process 484.2 Principal Milestones 50CHAPTER 5. Usage of TouchDomain in a fashion store 655.1 TouchDomain in a Fashion Shop Scenario: the user journey 665.2 The Social Login as a key for the store 675.3 Gaming & Exploration 705.4 Chill-outing & Purchase 79CHAPTER 6. Conclusion 83

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Bibliography 87Webliography 91Acknowledgements 93

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INTRODUCTION

In the last decade, the rise of the internet, the development of social media

networks and the advent of smartphones have changed our way of buying and

dealing with brands. Nowadays, we can buy our favourite trousers just with a

few taps on the phone on our way to work, share our purchases on our social

media channels before and after shopping to estimate our “likeability” and so

on.

In this complex scenario made of several “online factors & variable”,

local and real stores keep on playing a relevant role in the battle among

brands for the conquer (and understanding) of customers. Apple®, with its

own stores around the world is an example of how physical stores are part of

the brand strategy and philosophy that other competitors cannot ignore.

There are several rising trends that are affecting the in-store retail experience:

• Brands (especially high-end brand) are trying to break down the walls

between online stores and physical ones in order to achieve a stronger and

seamless brand reputation;

•   Brands are trying to reach a better knowledge of the complex buyer

personas (customer’s categories) thanks to algorithms that analyze user

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preferences’ traced through social media channels, online stores, search

engines and finally real stores;

• Retail experience, as well as Online-Experience is moving in the direction

of adaptability based on those customer needs that could arise during the

buying process. According to Bettercout and Gwinner [1996] customizing

the delivery of service on the frontline is a key to customer satisfaction. For

example, a woman that has just bought a pair of jeans could be interested

in buying a t-shirt. In an e-commerce scenario (think of Amazon) these

kind of interactions with the customer occur regularly, whereas in an off-

line store this is still a developing trend that every brand is trying to follow

in several ways, using different technologies.

In this context, Practix, a software company based in Rovereto (TN)

specialized in the design and development of software for multitouch screen is

crafting TouchDomain (www.TouchDomain.it), a cloud-based CMS (Content

Management System) which can manage multimedia contents such as videos,

photos, presentations, pdf files, web pages etc. and can display them on big

interactive screens. Subsequently, thanks to a complex analytical framework,

the store manager and the store team would be able to find out selling trends

based on user interactions.

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I started to collaborate with Practix in January 2015 when I took part in the

design of the product working as UX Designer. In the last year have been

working hard on this product using several design techniques that helped us

to understand the customer and final user needs and to create a product that

people use.

The whole overview on the development processes listed explained before

gave me a clear idea of different problems involved in this kind of modern

and innovative product development and this thesis aims to summarizing

them.

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CHAPTER 1. User Experience Design: definition and principles

Experience is a human condition, a mixture of memory & cognitive processes.

Experience differs for every person. According to Kelway [2012], this

complexity has led us to a place where a design discipline can grow and justify

its existence due to the importance of the quality of experiences that people

(customers, users or patients) can feel whilst using or interacting with ”digital”

products [Kelway 2012].

1.1 Definitions of User Experience Design

The term User Experience Design (Shortly UX Design) was coined in the

mid-90s by Donald Norman, co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group,

professor at KAIST (Korea), IDEO fellow, and a design theorist, studying the

fundamentals of modern design. As he admitted, he created this expression

giving that human interface and usability were too narrow [Norman 1998]. The

author wanted to cover all aspects of the person’s experience with the system

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including industrial design, graphics, the interface, the physical interaction, and

the manual [Norman 1988]. User Experience Design was defined always by

Norman as a discipline based on the needs and interests of the user, with an

emphasis on making products usable and understandable [Norman 1988].

Customers and their own needs must dominate over the interface design and

they got to be interrogated at any step of the development process [Norman

1988].

Alan Cooper, gave his own interpretation of Experience Design in the field of

digital products. He defined it as the orchestration of a number of design

disciplines (Cooper et al. 2007) (see Figure 1).

Fig.1 Diagram shows user experience design (UX) of digital products as consisting of three overlapping concerns: form, behavior, and content.

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1.2 The Six principles of User Centered Design

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide

federation that works in order to prepare International Standards defined as

ISO 9241-210:2010: a set of rules. It provides requirements and

recommendations for human-centred design principles and activities throughout

the life cycle of computer-based interactive systems. It is intended to be used by

those managing design processes, and is concerned with ways in which both

hardware and software components of interactive systems can enhance human–

system interaction (ISO 9241-210 2010).

In the same document they explain the six principles that define a user

centered design process:

1. The design is based upon an explicit understanding of users, tasks and

environment:

In every step of the design and development processes the team should

understand these three variable in order to design a product properly.

For example, the requirements and user needs that distinguish an inte r f a c e

for listening to music in mobility such as a mp3 player, could not coincide

with the CAD-Software ones. (See Table. 1);

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Table 1: example of different users, needs and environments for different interfaces

2. Users are involved throughout design and development:

People that got influence over a product (stakeholders, users, project team

etc.) should be involved in all the project steps. Co-Design methods, are

considered particularly valuable for eliciting ethical, legal, and social issues that

would otherwise go unconsidered (Petersen et al. 2015);

3. The design is driven and refined by user-centred evaluation:

Usability testing is a collection of techniques used to measure characteristics of a

user’s interaction with a product, usually with the goal of assessing the usability

of that product [Cooper et al. 2007]. Every issue, concern, and error entirely

resolved at this level […] can be 10 to 100 times more expensive to fix if found

later in the process [Fagan 1976];

mp3 Player CAD Software

Users Teenagers, Trekking lovers, people on the move

Architects, Designers, Engineers…

Needs Listening to music in mobility

Design, sharing drawing with customers, exploring new solutions

Environments Outdoor Office

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4. The process is iterative:

The standard defines this principle without any ambiguity: a good product

cannot be designed properly without iterations. Every product needs several

rounds of design and user evaluation tests to improve both its User

Experience and code quality.

5. The Design addresses the whole user experience

Figure 2 shows how the entire user experience is based on several factors as

usability, desirability, brand experience etc. perceived by the customer during

the interaction with the product.

fig.2 Picture that represents the “whole User Experience”

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USEFULNESSUX USEFULNESS

USABILITY

DESIRABILITY

BRANDEXPERIENCE

is easy to use

its aesthetics is amazing

I got a good brand perception

6. The Design team includes multidisciplinary skills and perspectives:

In the vast majority of teams collaboration represents a company activity that

happen between people with similar skill sets. This behaviour do not help

them nor in the error neither in the solution research.

Creating heterogeneous teams with higher collaboration levels is mandatory

to avoid previously described problems.

1.3 Conclusions

In this chapter we discussed what does User Experience Design means and

how it works. In the next one we will deepen the concept of Digital Signage

networks, exploring why they are important and showing also some market

statistics. At last we will list and analyze the state of the art of Digital Signage

Technologies.

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CHAPTER 2. Digital Signage Networks

TouchDomain is a platform that can be associated to the concept of Digital

Signage or Digital Signage Networks, an important new channel for

communicating with consumers in retail shopping environments [Burke 2009].

Signs are becoming ubiquitous, in part because LCD displays have decreased

in cost more than tenfold over the past decade. LCD based digital signages are

appearing worldwide and digital menu boards are replacing static backlit menus

in fast-food restaurants. These dynamic wall and overhead displays can change

throughout the day, promoting different items for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

[…] In retail outlets, point-of-sale digital signs have proven effective in driving

sales, and malls and shopping centers now regularly use them for interactive

directory services [Want et al. 2012].

Several studies have proved that the benefits of the adoption of a digital

signage network include an increased product knowledge and brand awareness

among the consumers and the ability to influence customer behavior, with a

consequent potential increase in sales..

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From Arbitron Digital Place-Based Video Study 2010 [Williams 2010], a

research which goal is to set universe estimates for digital place-based video by

benchmarking the size and profile of total viewers across the United States we

extracted the data contained in table 2 here below:

table 2. Data from Arbitron Digital Place-Based Video Study 2010

The first aim of this chapter is to analyze what a Digital Signage Network is

and to describe its technological elements. Then, we will go through some

statistics in order to understand the business importance of its adoption.

Finally, we will list and index the state of the art in the field of Digital Signage

Reach

The availability of digital place-based video has reached a critical mass. 70% of U.S. residents aged 12 or older have seen a digital video display in a public venue in the past month; 52% recall seeing one in the past week.

Comparison to Other MediaDigital video in public venues reaches more Americans each month (70%) than video over the Internet (43%) or Facebook (41%).

Top Venues for Overall Viewers

The top Live places to reach consumers with digital video are grocery stores (28% of the U.S. population aged 12 or older), shopping malls (27%), large retail or department stores (20%), medical ofLices (20%) and movie theaters (19%).

Advertising EngagementViewers are engaged with the content; nearly half (47%) of those who have seen a digital place-based video in the past month speciLically recall seeing an ad.

Effect on Purchase Patterns

Digital video ads have an effect on purchase patterns. Nearly one in Live (19%) of those who have seen a digital video ad say they have made an unplanned purchase after seeing an item featured on the screen.

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in terms of technology and Human Computer Interaction to give a clear and

exhaustive overview of the topic.

2.1 What’s a Digital Signage in Deep

The Digital Signage is based on various methods of using computers and TV

Screens (as well as other kind of technologies) that are as efficient as possible

in business and interaction terms. For the companies it represents a brand

new way of communicating, informing, engaging and interacting with a wide

range of people with different needs. The content is rapidly updated, tested

and changed thanks to the adoption of cloud and other distributed

technologies.

However, in these modern digital signage systems content files and data

streams are not enough. Information and instructions are needed to control

how, where and when the content files and streams are displayed in screens. This

control information is stored in scheduling and playlist files [Lundstrøm 2008]

or in the most advanced networks it is gathered live from the environment as

the customers interacts with the system and their needs are predicted.

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We can divide the modern digital signage system into three main

technological parts that are equally important:

- The management side: used to manage the contents, the scheduling files

and other routines performed by the digital signage owner (intended as

team). This part of the system is usually called CMS (Content

Management System) and it’s a web application invisible to final users.

- The cloud: cloud computing has recently emerged as a new paradigm for

hosting and delivering services over the Internet [Zhang et al, 2010]. We will

consider the cloud as the link between the management side and the client

side of the digital signage system, through which contents and controls are

transmitted to screens or other devices.

- The client side: is the terminal part of the network composed by screens,

sensors and any other device meant to transfer information to the user. At

this point, the connection between the management and client side

through the cloud seems to be unidirectional. Conversely, we will notice in

the next chapters how important analytics are in terms of “brand-customer

understanding”. Users’ Usage data gathered via sensors and software’s logs

are communicated from the client side to the management side. They are

stored and automatically inspected, cleaned, transformed and modeled by

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the management server with the goal of discovering useful information,

suggesting conclusions, and supporting decision-making . 1

Actually we can consider a Digital Signage Network as a bidirectional system.

Figure 3 represents its main components.

fig.3 Bidirectional representation of a Digital Signage Network

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_analysis1

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2.2 Why adopting Digital Signage

“Digital Signage is becoming a reputable marketing resource as technology advances continue to

improve capabilities. Despite businesses in the past being hesitant to incorporate signage into

their marketing strategy, forward-thinking corporates are now seizing the opportunity to attract

attention, leverage up-sells and influence purchase decisions.” - [Anderson 2009]

In this section we will explain and understand why the Digital Signage is

becoming an important topic in terms of business for bigger and smaller

brands:

1. More than 25% of organizations deems "multichannel campaign

management" to be one of their highest priorities and Digital Signage

is part of this strategy: Multichannel Retail Report 2012 published by

Consultancy on September, 2012 is based on a survey of 1,000 consumers

in the UK and 1,000 consumers in the US. It underlines how the vast

majority of UK consumers see the ability to purchase from a retailer from

different channels as important (Multichannel Retail Report 2012). Digital

Signage networks are considered an integral part of this strategy.

2. 63% of people report that Digital Signage attracts their attention:

Implementing a digital signage system offers a lot of opportunities for

organizations to promote their latest products and services thanks to the

customer’s attention that a screen is able to attract;

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3. Higher recall rate: “[..] digital signage has a recall rate higher than any

other form of traditional media with 83% of people recalling at least one ad

seen on a digital billboard in the past 30 days.” [Williams 2010]

4. Digital Signage reaches the public: According to Williams [2010] 70% of

US residents aged 12 or older have seen a digital video display in a public

venue in the past month […]. Public venues currently displaying OOH

digital signage include health clubs, shopping malls, medical offices,

restaurants, bars, coffee houses, movie theaters, and large retailer/

department stores.

5. Digital signage increase overall sales volume by 31.8%: Digital Signage

creates an immersive and integrated in-store experience, maximizing

cross-sells, upsells and impulse purchases by quickly adapting and

deploying content in real time.

2.3 Fields of application of Digital Signage

We could identify the the three main fields of application of Digital Signage

Networks as:

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• Informative: used to communicate timetables, waiting time, weather

information, maps and directions;

• Educative and formative: used as interactive and supporting tool

during lessons of any topic and level. Applied also on continuing

education courses.

• Persuasive: Applied to marketing campaigns with ad-hoc promotional

messages, Digital Signage Networks are able to direct customers toward

specific areas, to increase the duration of their visit and finally to

improve sales rate.

2.5 State of the art of Digital Signage

As we mentioned in 2.2, Digital Signage could be applied on various

technologies: in this section we will introduce some examples of

representative technologies applied to Digital Signage field that we could

consider as the state-of-the-art intended as the highest level of general

development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field achieved at a particular

time - Wikipedia

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1- NG CONNECT (1):

What it is:

Interactive Kiosk with a persuasive goal.

How it works:

On the top of the screen it displays the name of the shopping center and the

weather info. The central part is sub-divided into two main areas. As we

could observe in the picture beside, in the first area (ADS AREA) customers

will usually see advertisement. In the second one discounts would be

continuously updated during the day. The

Customer is able to save discounts by leaning-

on a smartphone on a specific NFC-area of the

kiosk. According to E. Haselsteiner et al

[2010] Near Field Communication (NFC)

technology is a wireless communication

interface with a working distance limited to

about 10 cm that enable the communication of

data between two different devices [Haselsteiner

et al 2010].

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Shopping Center name

10:00

ADS AREA

Discounts

NFC AREA

Fig. 4 Wireframe that represents the NG-CONNECT persuasive interface

2- NG CONNECT (2):

What it is:

Interactive Kiosk with an informative goal.

How it works:

On the top of the screen the name of the store is displayed.

The central part is sub-divided into two main areas. As in NG CONNECT 1,

in the first area customers will usually see advertisement one dedicated to

advertisement. whereas in the second one NFC sensors enable customers to

display information about products swiped on the NFC area

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STORE NAME 10:00

ADS AREA

NFC AREA

INFO 1INFO 2INFO3 INFO 4__________________PRICE: 2,00€

BOTTLE INFO

STORE NAME 10:00

ADS AREA

NFC AREA

INFO 1INFO 2INFO3 INFO 4__________________PRICE: 2,00€

BOTTLE INFO

DETAIL

Fig. 5 Wireframe that represents the NG-CONNECT informative interface

3- PATRIZIA PEPE’s INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE:

What it is:

Interactive Kiosk with both informative and persuasive goals.

How it works:

Thanks to the adoption of RFID (Radio-frequency identification) readers and

tags applied to clothes and shoes the user is able to gather more information

about clothing items that she would like to buy. Radio-frequency

identification technology uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify

and track tags attached to objects, which contain electronically stored

information such as sizes, available colours and more.

In stand-by mode the screen displays images and videos about fashion shows

and clothing collections (fig. 6). At the same time the screen presents a call-

to-action button that invites users to interact with the device.

As the interaction starts, (fig 6-7), the interface layout changes: three main

areas are shown:

- Top: fashion show videos, which are related to the chosen article, are

displayed;

- Central: the article is displayed with different perspectives;

- Bottom: other articles of the same clothing collection are shown;

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FULL SCREEN ADVERTISEMENT

FASHION SHOW VIDEO

CALL TO ACTION

INACTIVE ACTIVE

FASHION SHOW VIDEO

Fig. 6 Wireframe that represents the PATRIZIA PEPE kiosk

Fig. 7 Wireframe that represents contents displayed on an active PATRIZIA PEPE kiosk

4- LG’s Digital Signage solution for automotive:

What it is:

Interactive Kiosk with an informative/persuasive goal

How it works:

The kiosk enable customers to: select the model of car they are interested in,

discover more info about it and make an interactive 3D virtual tour inside

and outside of the car (fig. 8).

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BRANDLOGO

BRANDLOGO

Fig. 8 Wireframe that represents contents displayed on an active LG’s Digital Signage Network

5- FabbricaDigitale EXPO 2015:

What it is:

Interactive Totem with an informative goal. It was installed in Milan during

the EXPO Exhibition in 2015.

How it works:

The kiosk is composed of two different screens with two different scopes:

The upper screen is used firstly to display ads and informative messages.

The position helps to reach a wider public with important information.

The screen on the bottom displays a map with two different view’s options:

- “Services around you”: next POI (Point of interest) are highlighted;

- “Explore EXPO”: it’s a path-finder that helps visitors to get to a

POI or a Pavillion inside the exhibition;

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advertisement

way-finder

Fig. 9 Wireframe that represents the setup of screens at EXPO 2015

6- Topshop’s magic mirror:

What it is:

A mirror that uses 3d mapping techniques to display “digital clothes” as an

overlay on the customer’s real-time video.

How it works:

On January 2010, 3D mapping appeared in our living room thanks to

Microsoft Kinect®, a line of motion sensing input devices by Microsoft for Xbox

360 and Xbox One video game consoles and Windows PCs. Based around a

webcam-style add-on peripheral, it enable users to control and interact with

their console/computer without the need for a game controller, through a

natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands (Microsoft , 2009).

In less than two years this technology had a great success and it has been

“adopted” and installed inside stores and commercial centers.

Top Shop’s Magic Mirror allows customers to virtually try on different

clothing articles and accessories: customers have the chance to preview

products without trying them physically on.

Kinect creates a 3D map of the shopper (fig 10), then it adds an overlay over

the video acquired with the camera. The results is a 3D-projection of a t-shirt

(as in Fig. 10) on the customer’s body (Fig.11).

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Microsoft Kinect sensor

Shopper

3D Overlay

Fig. 10 Example of image acquisition with Microsoft Kinect

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fig.11 Representation of the Virtual T-Shirt projected over a video of the body of the customer

2.4 Conclusion

In this chapter we introduced several examples of Digital Signage Networks,

in order to try to show in how many fields this technology can be applied,

with different purposes and “way of interact with”.

We will now concentrate on the new trends that Digital Signage technology is

experiencing

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CHAPTER 3. Digital Signage Networks: New Trends

There are at least four brand new trends that arise from the world of research

and business about the future of Digital Signage Networks inside stores:

• Digital Signage networks as element of a holistic retail experience where

online and offline stores become similar, complementary and

indistinguishable;

• Multimodality of the experience

• Adaptability of the experience;

• Integration of sensors in an analytics framework;

• Social Media

We will analyze them in this chapter in order to give a strong background of

the future of digital signage technologies.

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3.1 Digital Signage networks as element of a holistic retail experience: online and offline become similar and indistinguishable

The customer is interacting with (the) brand… they don’t care about the

channel. I’m the same customer in each interaction; the whole of the experience

should be greater than the sum of its parts [Mcmullin and Starmer 2010].

Our day-to-day activities are changing, they are becoming cross-channel

experiences that require us not only to move from medium to medium, from

device to device, but across domains [Resmini and Rosati 2011].

The digital purchasing process could start digital with an online ads banner

informing us that there’s a new product, ending up in the physical shop,

picking the product at the retail store and viceversa.

The distance between our digital and real life decreased enormously in the

last decade. In the United States, 53% of consumers reportedly buy products off-

line after they research them online, whereas another 43% start their research

online, either at their desktop computer or through a mobile device, but then

find themselves in need to call a customer service number or speak with a

human operator to complete the transaction, usually because they cannot find

the information they are looking online [Mcmullin and Starmer 2010]. This

constant shifting, this moving back and forth between what is digital and what is

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physical turns every communication into a cross-channel communication and

pushes customers toward a holistic and ubiquitous approach to products and

services [Resmini and Rosati 2011]. Again, Resmini and Rosati [2011] argue

that we should think about an emergent information-based system where old

and new media and physical and digital environments are designed, delivered,

and experienced as a whole [Resmini and Rosati 2011]. Two Italian

information architects, Davide Potente and Erika Salving [2009] found out

that “a close analysis of the Apple website and, in particular, the Apple Retail

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Fig. 12 Map of correspondences between Apple website taxonomy and products’ placement inside the Apple Retail Store

Store highlights the role of information architecture in building bridge

experiences (fig. 12). Information Architecture can cross various contexts of

experience with the objective of defining a unique human- information

interaction model by means of proper organization of information flows and

tasks (Potente, Salving 2009).

Again, the online experience and the store layout, combined with

technologies installed inside it, share a common information organization and

their differences should be relegated to obvious and necessary characteristics

of the interface. We should take this consideration into account when

designing a modern information system such as a digital signage network.

3.2 Multimodality of the interaction/experience

In the first decade of 21st century, digital signage networks were merely a TV

network able to broadcast only advertising content used in substitution of

printed advertisement. Users were “passive audiences” in a world where the

number of tv-screens installed in public spaces as squares, stores and

commercial centers able to attract their attention were increasing day by day.

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The need for a useful, interactive and immersive experience arose with the

advent of vertical and horizontal touchscreen, mobile devices, NUIs (Natural

User Interfaces) such as Microsoft Kinect® and 2D and 3D projector.

Some interactive displays allow users to navigate the content by pressing

buttons located nearby. The use of the touchscreen experienced a resurgence

in popularity in the past five years as a result of the success of mobile devices

that use this interactive interface, namely, the iPhone and Android

smartphones, as well as the increasingly popular tablet computers and e-book

readers. An interesting consequence of this popularity is that people who see

non-interactive digital signage are touching the screens and expecting a reaction.

Even for signs that have a traditional touch capability, users are likely to try

using multitouch gestures to zoom in and out on the display [Want et al. 2012].

NUIs and cam-based systems are interfaces that use camera or 3D mapping

technology to track users movements and using motion-tracing information

to control the interface. This creates immersive experiences such as Topshop’s

magic mirror (see chapter 2).

Mobile devices often become an integral part of the user experience with a

digital signage network. They could be used as controller, to store information

with a quick data-transmission via NFC or WI-FI networks between the kiosk

and the personal device. Furthermore there are innovative ways to use mobile

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devices as keys to have access to social profile credentials without typing any

password or other sensible data on a big screen placed in a public space.

3.3 Adaptability of the experience and the understanding of context

In computer science, the term adaptive system that are context-aware refers to

a process in which an interactive system adapts its behavior to individual users

based on information acquired about its user(s), the context of use and its

environment. Although adaptive systems have been long-discussed in academia

and have been an aspiration for computer scientists and researchers [Itzkovitch

2012].

Adaptability is a key factor in terms of user experience and it is based on the

concept of “Context” and “Context awareness” where:

- Context is defined as the situation within which something exists or

happens, and that can help explain it - Cambridge Dictionary

- […] context awareness is a term that describes the ability of the computer

to sense and act upon information about its environment, such as location,

time, temperature or user identity. This information can be used not only

to tag information as it is collected in the field, but also to enable selective

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responses such as triggering alarms or retrieving information relevant to

the task at hand [Ryan et al 1998]

Each user has a range of internal factors such as gender, age, saved

preferences, social interactions etc. that help a Digital Signage Network in

order to determine user’s needs and adapt himself to them.

Furthermore, there are external factors such as time, weather, place where the

system is installed that are useful in order to provide the right informative/

persuasive information users at the right time.

Here there are some adaptive factors:

For example, it’s likely that a user will buy a coffee early in the morning

independently if he’s a man or a woman.

INTERNAL FACTORS EXTERNAL FACTORSGender WeatherAge Time (morning, midday, early/late

afternoon etc.)

Social Interactions Period of the year (Christmas, Easter, Summer, Winter etc.)

Saved Preferencies Place where the system is installed (commercial center, square, store etc)

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The main business value of Context-aware applications is to make things

simpler by decreasing the cognitive load. Users are able of doing tasks quicker

and better because they can concentrate in the main task without taking

distractive decisions.

3.4 Integration of sensors and software logs in an analytics framework

As we underlined in chapter 2, digital signage networks are bidirectional in

the sense that they are able not only to transmit content but also to gather

data through sensors and software logs.

In a service like the one described in this thesis, sensors are:

- Camera-based video acquisition sensors: Low cost cameras installed in

proximity of terminal devices. They are usually used in analysis of

Temporal metrics of a person’s dwell time, display in-view time and

attention time are extracted. The system also determines demographic

metrics of the gender and age group (Ravnik et al 2012).

- Motion-Tracking sensors are usually used to determine the same metrics

but with more precision. Always Ravnik et al use this technologies in their

analysis and they found that that 35% of customers specifically looked-at the

display, having the average attention time of 0.7 s. Interestingly, the attention

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time was substantially higher for men (1.2  s) than for women (0.4  s). Age

group comparison reveals that children (1–14 years) are the most responsive

to the digital signage. Finally, the analysis shows that the average attention

time is significantly higher when displaying the dynamic content (0.9 s) when

compared with the static content (0.6 s). [Ravnik and Solina 2012].

- Software logs: usually used to determine the number of interactions,

duration of it, number of opened contents etc. They are usually used in

bundle with sensors to reach an higher level of accuracy;

Usually all data gathered from a digital signage installation are analyzed with

machine learning and data mining algorithms and techniques in order to

discover patterns in large data sets.

Moreover, usage data must be cross-checked with sales and transaction

volume data in order to determine the success or unsuccess of a digital

signage campaign.

3.6 Social Media integration on the digital signage network

Social medias provide a more personal and customizable way to get users

involved through digital signage display. Restaurants, hotels, and even office

spaces are incorporating live social media into their content rotation, showcasing

�43

customers’ tweets, Instagram photos, and more to drive engagement [Bovet

2015].

Social media integration increase the involvement: over time, digital signage

that lacks interaction tends to blend into the background after a while,

becoming just another advertisement to viewers. By incorporating live social

media feeds, brands can recapture viewers’ attention by letting them have a

say in their display’s content.

Social media generates always new fresh contents: Creating new and fresh

contents is one of the most expensive (both in money and time terms)

challenges for social media managers and marketers. Users’ posts will create

fresh, automated content will little to no work [Bovet 2015] on the brand side.

Social media is free word-of-mouth marketing for your brand: 84% of consumers

say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family,

colleagues, and friends about products – making these recommendations the

information source ranked highest for trustworthiness. [Nielsen 2013] and 74%

of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing

decision. [Ogilvy/Google/TNS 2014].

Digital signage offers a great platform for feedback: Brands are opening up a

new channel for buyers feedbacks.

�44

Here we described the usage of social media integration only under a “user-

content generation” light. In the next chapter we’ll see how Practix is using

social media on digital signage networks to create customized experiences.

3.7 Conclusion

In the last two chapters we analyzed exhaustively the rising trends that are

emerging from the digital signage scenario in order to have a complete

overview of the state of the art and future integrations. In the next chapter we

will go through the design process of TouchDomain and we’ll retrieve a lot of

examples taken from the last two chapters and how we integrated in the

software.

�45

�46

CHAPTER 4. TouchDomain - The design process of a complex Digital Signage Network

My collaboration with Practix started on January 2015, when TouchDomain

was still a software at the embryonal stage. It was already possible to integrate

NUI (Natural User Interfaces) such as Microsoft Kinect® and other important

features that other digital signage services do not provide yet, even after years

of development.

In section 4.1 we will go through the methods that we adopted as standard

routines in our design and in the development process at Practix.

Consequently, in section 4.2 we will illustrate some milestones that we

reached in the last months with a particular focusing on the human-computer

interaction point of view.

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4.1 The Design process

The design process is a sequence of procedures that every company refines

over years of researching. It’s an iterative standardized path created with the

aim of guiding the design team on the creation process, from the very raw

idea or first intuition to the final product refinement and release.

In our company we developed a routine that goes through seven different

steps:

1. Business request (optional): TouchDomain as other B2B (Business to

Business) software has been developed in order to satisfy a business

request expressed by a customer. Clients and commercial partners are

our “eye on the market” and they are able to understand how to create

user experiences that will fit into it. This step is not mandatory: not

every feature designed and developed for TouchDomain came from a

business request.

2. User-needs (mandatory): every feature in a software must connect a

business value to one or more user needs (intended as final users, i.e.

buyers) in order to become useful, successful and ensure acceptance

from the user base. Understanding and “translating” them in a feature is

one of the challenges of the design team’s work;

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3. Design (mandatory): Design is meant as the rationalization and the

ideation of a feature.

4. Prototyping (almost mandatory): a prototype is a draft version of a

product that allows you to explore your ideas and show the intention

behind a feature or the overall design concept to users before investing time

and money into development . A prototype can be anything from paper 2

drawings (low-fidelity) to a “real piece of software” that allows click-

through of a few pieces of content to a fully functioning application

(high-fidelity).  It is much cheaper to change a product early in the

development process than to modify it after developers already

developed the website, application or any other piece of software.

5. Testing (mandatory): In his book “About Face 3: Essentials of

Interaction Design” [2007], Alan Cooper defines usability tests as a

collection of techniques used to measure characteristics of a user’s

interaction with a product, usually with the goal of assessing the usability

of that product. Basically, usability testing (or user-testing) is focused on

measuring how well users can complete specific, standardized tasks, as

well as which problems they encounter while running the test.

http://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/prototyping.html2

�49

6. Iteration (mandatory): It is common to move back and forth between

steps and to iterate the whole process several times until you have a solid

design solution [Cooper et al. 2007].

7. Release (mandatory)

4.2 Principal Milestones

Alpha Release - February 2105

The first Alpha version of TouchDomain was released on February 2015. The

design process started just a few weeks before. The software was a simple

presentation tool (called slideshow project) which displayed .pdf (Portable

Document Format) files on vertical and horizontal oriented screens. The user

�50

Fig. 13 User-Skeleton tracked with Microsoft Kinect

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Fig. 14 Example of shop window equipped with TouchDomain NUI interface

is able to control the pages’ flows via touchscreen or NUI (Natural User

Interface) such as Microsoft Kinect® (Fig14).

This application suits perfectly for the use during both opening and closing

hours to engage shoppers inside and outside the shop.

Beta Release - March/April 2105

In the second release we worked hard on the design and the development of a

multiuser and multitouch interface that let users discover contents about the

store such as catalogues, pictures, videos and presentations in an organized

and captivating way. We called this project “Multi-content Presenter” since it

can display different contents to more users at the same time.

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Multiuser Interface

In a crowded shop (let’s say >20 guests at the same time) there is an high

probability rate that more than one person would be interested in interacting

with TouchDomain’s screens at the same time (Fig. 15) .

Usually computer applications do not effectively support co-located, multi-user

interaction because of their underlying one-user/one-computer design paradigm

[Stewart et al., 1999]. This is due to the adoption of small-size screens and

applications designed for a single-user usage.

Conversely, a modern multiuser interface such as TouchDomain, with its

design must support: natural interpersonal interaction, transitions between

activities, transitions between personal and group work, transitions between

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Fig. 15. example of multi-user interaction on Touchdomain

multitouch surfaces collaboration and external work, the use of physical objects

(Scott S. et al 2003).

INTERPERSONAL INTERACTION:

The multitouch surfaces system is supposed to have an ergonomic form factor

suitable for the collaborative activity being performed by the users. It must

support group and environment awareness in order to guarantee a fluid

interpersonal interaction inside a group of 2 to 4 users.

The awareness of an environment is created and sustained through the

perception-action cycle. When a person enter an environment (i.e.: a shop) in

order to do a particular task, they bring with them a general understanding of

the situation and a basic idea of what they are looking for. The information

that they then pick up from the environment can be interpreted in light of

existing knowledge to help the person determine the current state of the

environment—that is, what is happening—and also help them to predict what

will happen next (Gutwin and Greenberg 2000).

TRANSITIONS BETWEEN PERSONAL AND GROUP WORK

In TouchDomain both personal activities and group activities are involved in

the user interaction on the multitouch screen. For example, we investigated

the usage of two different messages inside personal areas for personal

activities and inside a centered Group Dialog Windows for group activities.

Location and orientation of these messages are crucial to attract the attention

of the user or the group when involved in the interaction.

Example of Personal to Group Interaction - Closing action of an application

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Closing an application is always a delicate task to design properly especially in

a group workspace. An “Exit button” (Fig.16) is to be found in each personal

area (Fig. 17) around the table, oriented toward the owner of the area: every

user can decide to press it independently.

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EXIT

tap tostart

EXIT

tap tostart

EXIT

tap tostart

EXIT

tap

tost

art

exit button

USER 1

USER

2

USER 3

USE

R

4

fig. 16: EXIT BUTTON inside personal area of the user

EXIT

tap tostart

EXIT

tap tostart

EXIT

tap tostart

EXIT

tap

tost

art

personal user’s area

USER 1

USER

2

USER 3

USE

R

4

fig. 17: personal user’s area: each user has a personal workspace area where controls are grouped.

Once EXIT is pressed/selected by one of the customers, a lighter layer will

obscure the interface and highlight the Group Dialog Window. The aim of

this “separation layer” is to create a clear cognitive and interactive contrast

and separation between personal and group decisions. The Group Dialog

Window is placed at the center of the screen and it continuously rotates by

360°. Both position and orientation are neutral if compared with user’s

positions around the table (Fig. 18).

This design pattern was developed in order to elicit an urgency of cooperation

between users around the table in order to push them to make a shared

decision.

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EXIT

tap tostart

EXIT

tap tostart

EXIT

tap tostart

EXIT

tap

tost

art

ARE YOU SURE?

USER 1

USER

2

USER 3

USE

R

4

Group Dialog Window

Light overlay

Fig. 18: Example of Group Dialog Window

SUPPORTING TRANSITIONS BETWEEN MULTITOUCH SURFACES

COLLABORATION AND EXTERNAL WORK

TouchDomain should be able to incorporate work generated externally to the

multitouch surfaces system into the current multitouch surfaces activity (Scott S.

et al 2003).

We designed it as a tool which can ferry the customer experience from real to

digital world and viceversa.

TouchDomain allows buyers to transfer previously generated files, such as

pictures taken in the shop with their smartphone on the multitouch surfaces

system thanks to the adoption of QR-Codes and other communication

services as RFID and NFC.

Transferring files either across a network or using storage devices is often

more complicated and cumbersome than necessary. Transferring data from one

display to another should be as simple as saying “I want this information

displayed there” while gesturing to the appropriate data and display. (Scott S. et

al 2003). This is the experience that we tried to reach with TouchDomain.

SUPPORT THE USE OF PHYSICAL OBJECTS

Multitouch surfaces must support those practices that mix together the use of

real objects with digital information systems and use the first ones as gates for

the seconds. Thanks to the installation of RFID tags inside shoes and clothes

users automatically get access to information related to the product placed on

the interactive screen (Fig. 19).

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TouchDomain 1.0 Release - Summer/Autumn 2105

In the last release of the software we tried to integrate the use of social media

on our Digital Signage System. In order to make this happen, we added a

feature that allows customers to post contents displayed on the screen on their

social networks channels.

During the design process we met several challenges in solving privacy-related

problems. We will describe them in the next pages.

“HOW TO LOGIN“ INTO A SOCIAL MEDIA ON A 144” INCH DISPLAY

INTO A PUBLIC SPACE

Competitors’ solutions usually use touch-keyboards to allow users to login

into their social media networks (i.e.: Facebook® ). We believe that displaying

the standard online form into a big-size screen causes:

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Fig.19 A customer uses a shoe as gate to get access to augmented digital information

• A broken interaction-flow: customers would like to log in into Facebook® to

post a picture or other contents. The login interaction should not take too

long: entering an email address and a password on a big screen with a wide

keyboard increases the probability of mistyping errors, which could

interrupt the customers’ flow

• Privacy-related problems: moreover, users would not accept to show their

own email and password to any other person inside the store (Fig. 20). This

kind of interfaces could hack their privacy.

The two points described above gave us a good incentive to design a better

way to login into Facebook® on a wide screen display installed in a public

space.

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MOBILE SOCIAL LOGIN

According to WE ARE SOCIAL (2014) , in Italy, the smartphone penetration 3

as a percentage of the total population is equal to 41%. Moreover 26% of the

http://www.slideshare.net/wearesocialsg/social-digital-mobile-around-the-world-3

january-2014?ref=http://iquii.com/2014/01/13/statistiche-e-trend-su-internet-social-media-e-mobile-per-il-2014-in-italia-e-nel-mondo/

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Fig.20: a user is typing his Facebook password on a wide interactive screen while another person is observing the operation

world population has at least a social account. Facebook is the most used with

1.276 millions of accounts.

Laying on these assumptions we developed a feature called Mobile Social

Login where:

• The customer’s personal device becomes the instrument to login into

Facebook®;

• Mail and password are typed on the personal device and not on the big-size

screen in order to protect the customer’s privacy;

• We developed this feature on Facebook® as a pilot study, in order to

evaluate its efficiency and user acceptance. In the future we will integrate

other social media platforms, such as Twitter® and Pinterest®.

How Mobile Social Login works

We will develop a scenario in order to describe the feature. Scenarios are a

method of design problem solving by concretization: making use of a specific

story to both construct and illustrate design solutions [Cooper et al. 2007].

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Introducion

Arianna is 31 years old woman and she loves fashion. She’s not “internet

addicted” but she has a smartphone and a personal account on Facebook®. She

will stay a week in Milan for a convention.

Scenario

She is walking on a central street when she is attracted by the Digital Signage

installed outside the new XYZ ’S shop (XYZ is a fantasy name for a brand in

the fashion industry). She decides to visit the shop and she goes inside it.

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Fig. 21: Detail of the call-to-action that invites Arianna to scan the QR-Code to logging in into her personal Facebook account

Arianna notices that the big-size screen on the wall is displaying the clothing

of the latest XYZ’s collection. She approaches the screen and she notices a QR-

Code that invites her to “Login with Facebook and share our amazing

contents®” (Fig. 21).

She takes her smartphone from the bag and she scans the QR-Code.

Once scanned, the code loads a webpage on her smartphone where

TouchDomain asks her the permission to get access to Facebook. Arianna

accepts without hesitation and in less than 15 seconds her Facebook accounts

is “connected” with TouchDomain (Fig.22) .

Now she can post all the contents displayed on the screen on her own

Facebook’s timeline and get real time feedbacks about her posts. Furthermore,

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Fig. 22: Arianna just performed the Mobile Social Login on her smartphone

in this way she implicitly helps XYZ in reaching the social audience of

Arianna (Fig.23).

In this section we described how a simple interaction, such as logging in into

a personal social network can be performed in a privacy-safe way thanks to

the use of common technological elements such as a QR-Code and a

smartphone. In the next chapter we will describe the application of

TouchDomain® in the fashion industry scenario in order to explore different

uses of such a framework.

�64

Fig. 23: Arianna’s Post on her Facebook’s timeline helps XYZ to reach a wider audience on this social media channel

CHAPTER 5. Usage of TouchDomain in a fashion store

In this chapter we will describe the adoption of a Digital Signage Network in a

fashion shop scenario. We’ll understand that the experience inside the shop is

an integration of real and virtual moments: sometimes technology is

prominent, sometimes it works in the background in order to create

knowledge, awareness, entertainment and socialization in and between

customers.

We will use the scenario design technique previously introduced in chapter 4,

in order to explain our design choices in a simple and intuitive manner.

�65

5.1 TouchDomain in a Fashion Shop Scenario: the user journey

In the modern fashion store the adoption of TouchDomain represents a useful

support for the store operators. On the one hand, videos and pictures shown

on the screen give customers the chance to discover and hopefully be

attracted by other clothing items; on the other hand these high-quality

contents represents an innovative and engaging experience

By entering inside the store the customer will start a five-step path (Fig.24

above) that should convince him to purchase. We will describe this process by

�66

Fig. 24 Customer’s five-steps path in the shop

using the scenario technique with the support of sketches and pictures in

order to explain this experience as clearly as possible

5.2 The Social Login as a key for the store

Mark is a tourist from the US. He is going to spend ten days in Rome. He is

enjoying the historical center of the Italian capital when his attention is

attracted by the store of a famous Italian fashion brand. He decides to have a

look inside (Fig. 25).

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Fig. 25 Diezel store from the outside

The sliding doors open in order to let him go inside. A store assistant

welcomes Mark and invites him to scan the QR-Code displayed on a little

screen at the entrance desk. By capturing the QR-Code, he gets a little

discount for the next purchase (Fig. 26).

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Fig. 26 Mark is scanning the QR-Code in exchange of a little discount

Mark accepts the offer. He takes his smartphone and captures the code with

the camera. The QR-Code loads the Facebook® Mobile Social Login page. (see

chapter 4 section 4.2).

Just a few seconds after the login he receives the discount bonus for the next

purchase (Fig. 27). The digital coupon will be retrieved during the payment

process by and enables him to get the discount.

Mark has just completed the Mobile Social Login. Now it’s time to visit the

shop and find interesting products.

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Fig. 27 Example of digital coupon

5.3 Gaming & Exploration

A sign near the entrance desk (Fig. 28) informs Mark about the opportunity

of creating a “personal whish-list” by scanning QR-CodeS placed on different

clothing items and around the shop. The information will be categorized

within the Multi-content presenter inside TouchDomain and they will be

retrievable for future interactions and consultation.

While exploring the shop, Mark notices the new Spring/Summer Collection. A

digital catalogue is displayed on the interactive screen. Mark decided to

explore it. An univocal QR-Code is associated to each clothing item (fig. 29).

On the bottom of the screen Mark reads a label that says: “Scan the QR-Code

to add it (clothing item) to your wish-list”. Mark performs the operation. (Fig.

30).

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Fig. 28 Signage that informs the user about the possibility of creating a wish-list

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Fig. 29 Catalogue displayed on an interactive screen. A QR-Code is associated to each item

Fig. 30 A message informs Mark about the accomplishment of the operation

Mark finds a bag on a stand just a few step away from the screen.

He thinks by himself: “I could gift it to Clara” (Clara is Mark’s girlfriend).

Again he noticed a QR-Code on applied on the stand and he scans it. This

time the web browser of his smartphones shows a menu with two buttons (Fig.

31).

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Fig. 31 A two buttons menu opened on the smartphone web browser

He takes a picture of the product and after it, he adds it to his wish-list again

(Fig.32).

.

Now Mark moves upstairs to the leather collection’s section of the shop. He

notices an amazing leather jacket (Fig.33).

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Fig. 32 Marks added a picture took by himself to his wish-list

He takes the clothing item near a multitouch screen. There is a table just in

front of it: a personal shopper invite Marks to lean the jacket on it (Fig.34).

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Fig. 33 Marks finds a leather jacket from the Spring/Summer Collection 2016

Fig. 34 Marks lay the jacket on the table

Thanks to the RFID reader on the table and to a RFID tag attached to the

jacket, the contents related to the clothing items are opened on the interactive

screen. Moreover, the personal shopper could navigate on the interface and

shows to Mark other items of the collection (Fig. 35)

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Fig. 35 Other items related to the collection are displayed on the multitouch screen

Mark decides that it’s time to try the jacket. He goes to the fitting room. After

wearing the jacket, he goes towards the Magic Mirror. Here Mark scans the

QR-Code in order to initialize the interaction (Fig. 36).

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Fig. 36 The magic mirror equipped with a Microsoft Kinect device

Once scanned, TouchDomain is able to “recognize” Mark. The interface

informs mark that it will record him in 3-2-1 seconds (Fig. 37).

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Fig. 37 Magic Mirror informs Mark about the recording of a video that will start in a while

A 10-seconds video is recorded. Then, Mark decides to try three other jackets.

A video of Mark is recorded for each item. Indeed Mark is able to watch all

the videos and decide which one could be posted on Facebook®.

After clicking on the Facebook® icon, TouchDomain matches the post for

Mark with several default tags such as #fashion #Diezel #shareit.

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Fig. 37 Mark decides which video is ok to be published on Facebook®

5.4 Chill-outing & Purchase

Mark decides to take a drink in the lounge zone of the shop. Here, a bartender

offers him a cocktail. Mark accepts it and he takes a seat nearby one of the

interactive tables available.

Mark meets another visitor of the store, Giulia and after a small talk he

decides to show her his wish-list.

He perfoms the Mobile Social Login on the table by scanning the QR-Code

and all the contents (pictures, videos and catalogue’s items) saved during his

visits appear on the screen (Fig. 38).

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Fig. 38 Wish-list is retrieved and displayed on the screen

He opens the video about the leather jacket trial and he stares surprised at the

25 like that his video received in less than half an hour (Fig.39).

The success of the video persuades Marks to purchase the leather jacket. He

says goodbye to Giulia and he approaches the cash desk.

The check-out assistant asks for the coupon that Mark received at the shop

entrance. The cashier asks Mark to scan the QR-Code available on the desk.

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Fig. 39 The interface displays the 25 likes received from Mark’s Faceook® friends

Once the operation proceeded, the coupon is automatically retrieved by Once

that the operation is done the coupon is automatically retrieved by

TouchDomain and it discounts the final price (Fig. 40)

Mark is satisfied by his shopping. It’s time to leave the shop with the bag in

his hands. When exiting the shop Mark notices his video on the big screen at

the entrance (The one he posted on Facebook®) (Fig. 41). He’s really happy

and impressed about his experience at the Diesel ’s shop .

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Fig. 40 A 20% discount is automatically applied from the Cash register

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Fig. 41 The video that Mark recorded during his leather jacket’s trial is displayed on the big size screen

CHAPTER 6. Conclusion

The usage of Digital Signage Networks is one of the hottest topics in the shop

experience. Statistics and growing industry investments support the

innovation of benefits related to their adoptions. Moreover, the cost reduction

of screens, interactive surfaces and NUI has encouraged the diffusion of this

interactive media

As we discussed in chapter 1, User Experience Design is mandatory for the

development of new softwares, hardwares and experiences in this current,

innovative and disruptive scenario. Furthermore, the adoption of Digital

Signage Networks is not optional in an integrated communication strategy of

modern brands (chapter 2 and 3).

TouchDomain, the software designed and developed by Practix, is trying to

“surf this wave of innovation”: on the one hand, by anticipating new trends like

the integration with social media channels such as Facebook®, on the other

hand, by improving the experiences previously designed by other firms.

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TouchDomain aims at becoming a technology where contents are not

influenced by the software: the results should be a system able to adapt to any

kind of market, product and brand.

We tested TouchDomain by introducing it into fashion and automotive

industry contexts (fig. 42), but we are pretty comfortable in assuming that the

adoption in other fields would not imply any other obstacle.

We registered more than 1500 logins in the first month after the first

installation in a pretty small shop (about 140mq) located in the center of

Milan. Moreover, the “Average Interaction Time” was equal to 3:35 secs.

On the one hand, it should be considered that we are getting great results

from a market where many big players have a dominant role. On the other

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Fig. 42 Touchdomain applied to an Automotive Scenario

hand, these results prove us that we can take advantage of the speed of a little

startup such as Practix.

In 2016 we will continue the design and iteration process started in 2015 in

order to release new brand features and to improve the old one.

�85

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Acknowledgements

First of all, this thesis is dedicated to my parents, for their unconditional

support, patience and love.

Secondly, this thesis could not exist without the collaboration with the whole

Practix Team (in particular Daniel and Agostino).

A special appreciation goes to my tutor, Professor Liliana Albertazzi, for the

time and passion spent reading and editing these pages.

Last but not least: a big thank you to Ilaria, Elena and Silvia for their patience

in revising my English.

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