Nova
An award winning AI voice assistant supporting The North Face customers beyond purchase
Conversational AI
VUI
UX Design
The rationale behind Nova
We realized there is scope in improving the experience not just while purchasing but also after. What The North Face needs is the ‘servicization’ of the products they’re offering. And we have the data to do it!
Aligning this with The North Face’s business goal in mind we asked:
How can The North Face online shopping experience be made more inclusive, intuitive, and cater to the user’s needs even after purchase.
So we look at how the user problems can be turned into opportunities:
Our initial ideations helped answer some of these questions
We chose a voice assistant for two key reasons:
1. We anticipate that human-AI interactions will increasingly shift toward voice-based interfaces in the near future.
2. Our user research revealed that users highly value conversations with an expert friend for advice, making voice a natural and effective way to provide guidance and support.
We realized that for the servicization we want to provide, an AI-powered solution can provide:
Specific and intuitive personal assistance
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Can use purchase data to offer support
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Can learn about preferences
As a group of international students preparing for our first Pittsburgh winter, we were lost. We realized that a lot of factors go into purchasing winter wear, and shopping online makes it difficult to know what to get.
Turns out, we're not alone
70%
of surveyed users reported finding it difficult to navigate winter shopping.
1 Million
international students arrived to the US in 2023, many from warmer climates.
We set our research objectives:
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Uncover problems users face with online shopping for winter wear and gear.
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Identify parts of the product journey that could serve as service points for The North Face.
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Identify business objectives of The North Face and current gaps.
We did a UX audit, 3 user interviews, and 30 survey responses, and an observational analysis at the local winter store. We found that we would cater to 2 user groups:
What are they Saying
“I’m unsure whether a product will cater to my needs”
“I don’t know how to care for or repair my products”
“I get anxious about packing for trips alone or with people”
“I tend to borrow gear from friends if I don’t need it often”
What’s interesting is that all users said they tend to speak with their ‘expert’ friend who’s been there done that before purchasing products.
This highlights an opportunity for The North Face to integrate a voice assistant that can provide expert guidance. A voice assistant can mimic an expert friend, providing quick, personalized guidance and product recommendations.
My Roles
User Research
Product Concept
Prototyping
Branding and UI
Motion Design
Details
Team: Aishwarya, Lia, Xiaoyu
Timeline: 6 weeks, Fall 2023@CMU
The Challenge
Purchasing winter gear online is challenging. Despite The North Face's reputation as a leading outdoor brand, their online experience can feel confusing and inaccessible. Although their business goal is to become more inclusive and accessible to a broader audience beyond expert athletes, the app focuses primarily on purchases, offering little support or engagement beyond.
The Solution
We present Nova, a smart AI powered voice assistant that helps users with purchase of winter-wear, and any post purchase needs including helping pack for trips, taking care of products, and even borrowing gear from within the community.
Introducing Nova
Once we finalized Nova’s capabilities, we used iterative journey mapping and then worked on Nova’s identity. We aligned North Face’s values and Nova’s features to identify her values
Our proposed visual system is as follows. We expanded the existing color palette and added fun accent colors that the North Face uses frequently through imagery and in their products.
LOGO
For the logo, we wanted Nova to capture the steadiness of a mountain. We landed on our finalized form after multiple rounds of iteration.
Guiding Principles
Shapes: Dynamic forms
Colors: Red, White
Styles: Modern, Geometric
Feel: Approachable, Inspiring
Finalized Logo
An abstraction of a mountain
Arrow to signify resilience
Motion Matrix
CHAT INTERFACE
"I don’t know how to care for my products”
After Care:
Receive assistance on taking care of products or repairing/refurbishing damaged gear.
Nova's Capabilities (What can she do ? )
"I don't know what to buy"
Personalised Purchase :
Pick the right kind of clothing specific to their personal preferences.
"Borrowing gear and co-ordinating with friends for trips is difficult”
Buddy System:
Borrow or lend The North Face gear from your friends and navigate shared packing lists.
"I don’t use gear often"
Easy Rentals:
Rent premium quality North Face gear for your trips in a hassle-free manner.
"Packing for a trip can be anxiety-inducing"
Smart Packing:
A guided experience to packing for upcoming trips, with smart suggestions.
Watch Nova in action
What I learnt:
Intention at each step
It’s easy to get carried away working on ideas that might serve as ‘cool’ use-cases but it’s important to keep a check on where we’re headed and align it to what we discovered during research.
Feature prioritization
The fast paced nature of the project taught me the importance of product feature prioritization. The impact/effort matrix is a great tool to help orient yourself and can show you what to prioritize.
Figma is your friend
This project gave me an opportunity to hone my figma skills. Through the course of my time prototyping, I learnt what to do and what not to.
If I had more time, I would:
Conducted user tests during and after flow design
Tested the designed conversation flow with users
Rethink the iPad screen UI and interactions