Improving the ux of IKEA furniture instructions

How might we provide intuitive and easy-to-understand furniture assembly instructions using AR to IKEA customers?

Team

Individual

My responsibility (Role)

User research

UX/UI Design

Prototyping

Timeline

Mar2023 – Apr2023

Background

IKEA is a well-known brand for its ready-to-assemble furniture. However, as a medium customer of IKEA, I found the furniture manual difficult to follow. The major purpose of this project is to improve UX IKEA furniture instructions by adding AR and developing other features more precise.

Why did I do this project?

While I was building my hanger, I found step-by-step instruction manuals overwhelming, which is where my wonder started “ Why doesn’t IKEA offer a streamlined user experience? “ With this conclusion, I created a user-friendly version of IKEA’s instruction manual experience with AR.

What problems I wanted to solve?

As customers feel challenged even before starting off assembly and spend too much time figuring out how to build their furniture using ineffective manuals, the goal is to design an improved considerable User Flow and UX of assemble.

What was my solution?

I redesigned the onboarding visual of user flow and added a user-friendly AR assembly feature for users to build their furniture without having to go over paper manuals.

Design Process

Final Design Outcomes

Onboarding

Users can access IKEA membership easily and add details such as address along the way, which can also adjust in the profile and order page.

Home page to Shop page

Improved the user flow of the home page to the shop page naturally allows users to turn three availability options on and off. By displaying a new intuitive fixed CTA button for assembly, Users can access to QR code immediately.

AR Instructions

Users can go to AR instructions by QR code. When it comes to AR instructions, it starts showing users the required supplies and time. Considering accessibility, Users can adjust text size, sound on and off, and zoom in and out to the screen.

Research

01 Review

For user feedback on the assembly instructions, I began to check out reviews on IKEA and Reddit. Users commonly mentioned and complained that the manual provided along with every piece of furniture is quite confusing, which should be improved. However, there are two major pain points:

1-1 Users incorrectly read step-by-step instructions.

Even with well-designed assembly manuals, people who bought what they need and want for their homes still need assistance knowing how to build them. Eventually, they gave up on their DIY attempts and returned their purchased items.

1-2 The hassle of reporting missing parts of the package

Some users received items with incomplete tools — consumers often struggle to find support via phone number and email, which could lead to incredible frustration.

After the research, I discovered that IKEA users tend to refrain from using instruction manuals while building their furniture since it’s hard to follow and visualise. As s result, they would rather watch tutorials on youtube or elsewhere.

02 User Interviews

I’ve conducted five people in total who have experienced struggling with IKEA instruction. Here are some of problems I found out along the way.

Pain Point 1 - Lack of explanation

Users tend to have a hard time to figure out assembling as they have no written instruction provided. So They have to search for tutorials on youtube or look at other customer’s reviews.

Pain Point 2 - Go multiple depths to find instructions

Three people complained that they experienced missing assembly instructions and parts from the package. In order to obtain it, they have to go to the IKEA website to download assembly instructions, going through multiple steps. When it comes to missed parts, there is no report indicator to get support, they have no way of knowing how to get them.

Pain Point 3- Lack of visual elements

IKEA is well-known for its neat design. However, five users still mentioned that the visual elements of joining the IKEA membership page lack efficiency since the margin is too small between the input boxes.

03 Field Research

After conducting basic user research, I bought assembly furniture for further insights at IKEA.

Since I’m inexperienced in assembling furniture, I bought basic stuff to build. Then I set the alarm on my stopwatch before diving into it to determine how long the completion would take and what challenges i would encounter. As a result, I repeatedly looked up on Google and youtube while building the clothing rack, and it took me precisely 20 minutes to get it done, albeit with confusion.

04 Persona

Using those insights and specifics from the interviews and research, I created two personas to guide my design process with empathy and the users’ needs at the forefront.

Persona 1 – Nancy

Persona 2 – James

05 User Journey

I also created the customer journey map to understand better the user’s assembly process and the challenges they might encounter. The user journey map helps me to find opportunities for improvement based on user pain points.

IDEATE

01 User Flow

For user feedback on the assembly instruction, I began to check out reviews on IKEA and Reddit. Users commonly mentioned and complained that the manual provided along with every piece of furniture is quite confusing, which should improve. However, there are two major pain points:

02 Wireframes

DEFINE

“How might we gain more potential users by offering accessible join-in IKEA experience?”

“How might we encourage users to scan the QR code using AR assembly ?“

“How might we provide user-friendly AR instruction? “

REFLECTION

Visualizing 3D

• I struggled to formulate step-by-step AR instructions, as Capturing results and how they looked took a lot of work. To better understand AR and 3D, I’ve used a wide range of apps that provided AR feature.

Avoid making assumptions

• Before conducting user research, my idea was very subjective, and tended to view the problems from a designer’s standpoint. but after doing user research, I realised that my assumptions differed from what user sought. User research helped me a lot to find problems and solutions properly

There’s always room for improvement

• After completing my final design based on user research, I conducted usability test, a crucial step in the design process. It helps identify potential issues while using feedback from potential users. By doing this, I discovered the inconvenience that needs improvement and revision.