St. Lawrence Market Digital Presence Reimagined
Let’s get to the point.
Summary
What’s My Role?
Researcher
Content Strategist
What’s the Timeline?
4 weeks
What’s the Problem?
How might we transform the St. Lawrence Market's digital presence to reflect the unique and community-centric nature of the physical market, ensuring users feel the same sense of belonging and ease online as they do in person?
What’s the Solution?
Our research highlighted the importance of addressing "ah-ha" moments, where she learns and explores items. To meet this need, we propose interactive map that users can curate their own adventures, inspired by Expedia's trip planning and Eaton Centre's map features.
Situation Analysis
What’s the Situation?
The goal of this case study is to delve into the digital footprint of the iconic St. Lawrence Market. We aim to connect the digital doorway to real life by developing a narrative of the user’s journey and strategizing a solution that enhances the online experience to reflect the vibrant essence of the physical market.
The current home page of the St.Lawrence MarketResearch
What, Why, and How?
What’s the Theme?
As we reimagine St. Lawrence Market’s digital presence, we need to keep in mind that we are contributing to a living heritage. We are creating an experience that binds together the power of community, cuisine, culture, a rich history, and tradition with the power of user-centred design and technology. St. Lawrence Market is more than just a market; it is a place to discover and explore.
The St. Lawrence Market is not just a somewhere to grab food, but a place to discover.
What’s in the Market?
To better understand the digital presence of the current competition, a comparative analysis of Kensington Market, Stackt, and Marché Atwater was conducted. The goal was to uncover opportunities for improvement and growth. We analyzed their websites and social media based on a set of criteria and questions, aiming to gain insights into their strategies and user engagement tactics.
Key Findings
Welcoming Impression
When entering the competitor sites, the brand image effectively mirrors the experience of entering the market itself.
Interactive and up to date info
The competitor provides up-to-date information on calendars and interactive maps, reflecting what users would expect from real-life experiences.
Design affects Usability: The St. Lawrence Market's content is too close together, making it overwhelming due to the Law of Proximity. In contrast, competitor sites have visually appealing designs that enhance their usability.
Based on the analyses, the user experience needs to align with each market's unique characteristics while ensuring accessibility, clarity, and functionality for visitors. It should be an intuitive digital space that feels like home, like a community where you belong. Collaboration with other vendors and guests is essential to achieving this.
Who are the Users?
A frequent customer of the St. Lawrence Market was invited for an interview, to create our persona Christine. Her responses were recorded and categorized into personality traits, pain points, goals, needs, and motivations.
Meet Christine
"I'm so drawn to the livelihood of farmer's markets. The fresh food, the rich stories, and the community it offers helps me feel connected to the city,"
What’s Christine’s Story?
To better envision the journey the users goes through, we build a narrative for our persona, Christine. From this five key Ah-Hah! moments were identified. These moments were crucial for our team to understand what points of the journey need to be highlighted.
What’s the Story?
Christine's hometown friends are visiting her for the first time from Kitchener for the weekend. She was on a quest to buy a birthday present and to plan the best tour to showcase St. Lawrence Market's diverse culture for her friends.
The market's vibrant atmosphere greeted her as she navigated through stalls. This is still new and exciting for Christine, as she is still fresh to the city. With a list in hand and a sparkle in her eye, Christine wandered in, envisioning the joy her friends would experience.
Five Ah-Hah! Moments
Finding exactly what she needed
Christina finds a shop where she can get the exact cheese that the she's looking for.Adding a New idea to your list
Christine sees a banner about a happy hour promotion for wine on a dime.Finding hidden gems
Christine finds a new perfect spot to sit and eat her lunch.Connecting and Learning
A vendor tells Christine the perfect recipe to make using their crispy pork belly, and a wine pairing to go with it.Trying that thing on your list
Christine stumbles upon an old friend and tries the Wine happy hour event with them.
What’s the Problem?
How might we transform the St. Lawrence Market's digital presence to reflect the unique and community-centric nature of the physical market, ensuring users feel the same sense of belonging and ease online as they do in person?
The current digital experience of the St. Lawrence Market fails to capture the vibrant and welcoming atmosphere of the physical market. Users find the online content overwhelming and difficult to navigate, lacking the intuitive and visually appealing design found on competitor sites. This discrepancy between the digital and real-life experiences hinders user engagement and satisfaction.
Defining and Ideation
What’s the Solution?
Based on our research, we identified the need to create a solution that targets each of those "ah-ha" moments. These moments represent instances where Christine picks up various items and acquires new knowledge, all contributing to her ultimate goal.
Our proposed solution involves creating an interactive map where users can curate and personalize their own adventure. Drawing inspiration from travel websites such as Expedia for trip planning functionalities and incorporating the interactive map features seen in malls like Eaton Centre, this solution aims to provide users with a seamless and engaging experience as they navigate through the St. Lawrence Market's digital space.
Eaton Centre's Interactive MapWhat does this flow look like?
A user flow was created to highlight Christine’s trip. Her interactions were emphasized with the interactive map on how she navigates through the market virtually. This could include steps such as selecting points of interest, discovering new vendors or products, saving favourites, and planning her route. By showcasing Christine's journey within the user flow, we can effectively demonstrate how the solution caters to her needs and enhances her overall experience at the St. Lawrence Market.
