Research

Over two store visits, we toured the Metrotown location with the founder, observed how customers and staff interact, and ran eight interviews: six with shoppers in the store and two in-depth with collectors. I conducted two of the eight. What we found:

• The store is small and gets congested whenever a popular item drops.
• Staff are constantly on the phone answering whether an item is in stock, and where.
• Customers end up with duplicates, and reselling them on Facebook or Instagram is tedious.
• Even so, most people enjoy not knowing what they’ll unbox.

Personas and Workshops

We built personas around the shoppers we met, like Lily, a trend follower, and Yuna, a Genshin Impact fan. Our first versions were thin, so we reworked them to match what we actually heard, then mapped each persona’s journey to find where Token lets them down: calling to check stock, lining up for drops, and worrying it will sell out.

We then ran two workshops: one with Token’s founder and marketing manager, and one with young adult customers who answered scenarios as our personas and as themselves. Token asked us to focus on long-term customers and digital ideas, since the stores have no room. That narrowed our question to “How can we help dedicated collectors express themselves through Token?”

Lily and Yuna, and Yuna’s journey from finding a collectible to showing it off.

Where It Landed

We presented two directions to the owner: avatars customers unlock through purchases and show off in a community showcase, and personalized wishlists with restock alerts. The owner didn’t move forward with either.

Key Learnings

• Observation beats assumption. The most useful insights came from watching people in the store, not from asking them what they wanted.
• Don’t jump to solutions. We started designing after our first meeting, and it narrowed our thinking until the workshops opened it back up.
• I’m not happy with where the concepts ended up. Next time I’d test a direction with customers early, before committing to it.

This is just a snapshot of the design process.
Reach out to jaylee2402@gmail.com for the full story.