i12 Katong Mall will reopen in Q4 2021 after closing for major asset enhancement works in early 2020. The mall operator, Keppel Land, seeks to transform the mall into a future-ready retail hub that will shape the increasingly phygital world while tapping into the rich Peranakan heritage of the district.

Secondary research of existing shopping mall apps show that they are not well-liked by users, being a transactional space to scan receipts and redeem generic vouchers. The mall operator wishes to launch secondary services within the app such as food delivery and retail experiences.

I spoke to six users of similar shopping mall apps and got them to demonstrate how they usually navigate the app to do several tasks. The observations were organised into an affinity map.

An empathy map was created to organise user behaviour observed from the interviews and contextual inquiry.

I also created two personas, Ian and Gillian, who personified an amalgamation of the types of users I spoke. Strategically, it would make more sense to target consumers like Gillian over Ian as they have a greater affinity for the app in the first place. However, the secondary offering for food ordering and pickup (handled by another team), BistroBytes, would appeal to consumers like Ian.

As there were several moving parts involved in the project, I created this System Map to make sense of the relations between Data, Systems and Stakeholders.

An experience map was created for two main flows: scanning receipts and redeeming points for vouchers. This process highlighted the common painpoints and the potential design opportunities.

Due to constraints, not every issue raised could be addressed. As such a painpoints matrix was created to help the team prioritize issues that were most important for both the business and customer.

As the primary purpose of the app is for users to scan receipts and redeem points, this information is displayed prominently on the landing screen with the Earn Points button highlighted on the bottom navigation bar for easy access.At the same time, promotional information still takes up sizeable real estate of the screen in order to keep the app profitable as advertising space for mall tenants.