📍 This project was done as a part of World Design Protopolis Bengaluru under World Design Organization's mission to address issues related to mobility, urban transformation and more through design.
Exploring Ward 110: A Digital Map of its History and People
An interactive map to assist shoppers in navigating through Commercial Street while also learning about the unique stories behind the businesses.
Project by
Team of 2, Navya S and Dakshita K
Timeline
5 weeks
Tools used
Figma, FigJam, Adobe Illustrator
Role
Research, design, prototype
Summary
Commercial street is place rich is culture and history. However, due to online mode of shopping, a lot of the businesses have lost their crowd and have started crumbling. It’s imperative to find a way to strengthen these businesses by establishing a medium between the consumer and the vendors so that the legacy of Commercial street can be preserved.
Process
Research
Brainstorming
Secondary research
Primary research
Define
User personas
Design scope
Ideation
Brainstorming ideas
Storyboarding
Journey map
Illustrating the map
Prototype
Wireframe
Initial prototype
High-fidelity prototype
User testing
Secondary Research
Before our first visit to the commercial street, we read a few articles and papers to get a sense of the market and understand its role as one of many ecosystems in the city of Bengaluru. These readings helped us to navigate in the market and also helped us exploring many hidden gems in the market. These readings were
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Bazaar Buzz
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Srishti Magazine on Commercial streetBengaluru: World Design Protopolis Project
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Property Pistol-All to know about commercial street
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Sarojini Online Market App
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Better Evauation-Interactive mapping
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Line 45-Static Maps vs Interactive Maps: When to Use Them
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IDEO method cards
Insights from Secondary Research
Initial exploration
We did not have a aim in mind while visiting the market for the first time. In the scorching afternoon, we wandered in the lanes of Ward 110 to explore the market. There were many things that caught our interest some of them were the shop names, traditional electroplating methods, old CD’s being sold, and innovative ways of selling to attract customers.
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Questions that arose from our exploration
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What can be done to secure the future of niche businesses in the market?
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How can shoppers be made aware of the shops that are located in the interior lanes of the market?
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How can shoppers navigate in the market and reach their destination easily?
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How can the sales of businesses be amplified?
Primary research
We decided to visit Commercial street again and conduct semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative, open-ended data. Below are the responses from the primary research
Insights
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Most of the vendors do not understand or fear technology, Hence they are unable to take their business online.
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Covid effected their businesses hard and they are still recovering from the losses.
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They do not have a future plan nor have a solid financial backup
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Due to customers preferring online shopping, their sales have reduced
Brainstorming possible next steps
Based on the insights from our primary, we briefly brainstormed possible interventions.
A wearable that shoppers can wear which can connect/navigate them to retail stores
An app where vendors can sell their products using the approach of humanizing the app by introducing bargaining and documenting the stories of shopkeepers
An education platform (online/offline) where the vendors could be upskilled for using technology for their business.
Redefining the brief
After a discussion with our facilitator, we realized that providing a platform to the vendors would not be helpful as online shopping works on Low Volume, High Margin system and street shops operate on High volume and Low Margin system. Due to this, it would be difficult for them to make profits.
To provide customers a repository of different types of shops in the area and help them navigate. This way we are using technology to make businesses more accessible to customers.
Conducting primary research after redefining
We decided to work on a small area so we selected a block which was formed by four streets- Commercial street, Narayan Pillai street, Ibrahim Sahib street and Commercial street. We interacted with different types of businesses, ranging from gemstone sellers to goldsmiths as we wanted to have variety in the businesses for our repository.
Defining geographical area
Interviewing businesses
Conducting survey with shoppers
Since we wanted to know the shopping experience of people from a range of audience, we decided to conduct a survey. No. of participants-65 Age group-21-30y/o
How might we
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How might we create street shopping as an experience for the customer ?
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How might we help customer navigate in street markets better ?
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How might we attract more customers to street markets?
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How might we help customers find the desired quality of products?
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How might we help customers prevent the rush of the markets.
User Personas
Brainstorming ideas
Solution
An interface with an interactive map which lets the user explore different businesses of commercial street, along with their stories. It also acts as a navigating tool for the users who are trying to locate particular shops. This maps provides variety of shops and products to the shops and user so that they do not have to search the entire market.
Storyboarding
Illustrating the map
As our main focus was on making an interactive map, we illustrated a map of Commercial Street using Adobe Illustrator. For the purpose of this project, we chose a geographical location of area 5,562.54 square meter and illustrated detailing out all the businesses and vendors in that area.
Information architecture
Mid-fidelity prototype
Hi-fidelity prototype
Initial visual language
Final visual language
Initially we had chosen red and yellow which is same as Karnataka’s flag but after getting feedback from our facilitator and others, we wanted to highlight the vibrance and the lively mix of fashion, food, and fun in Commercial street. Hence, chose the following colors.
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Feedback
We did user testing with the prototype and here were the feedbacks recevied:
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The starting price mentioned for each stores received positive feedbacks from all the users.
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They liked how well categorised the shops were and also the avatars feature.
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One feedback that we got was users wanted affordable ways to commute to Commercial street mentioned in the application which we will be taking into account in the future.
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Another feedback that we got was, the user wanted to customize the avatars so a personalized path is created based on their interests. We made a quick prototype of it and it was well-received.
Future scope
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Real time update of the shops that are busy
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Video and audio incorporation for a better experience
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Data collection of all the shops and street stores in and around Ward 110 for a rich digital ecosystem
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To add best possible and affordable routes to commute to Commercial Street to make it easier for shoppers to reach the street
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Integrating AR for a better overall experience