An immersion in the collecting world
Part I: Reviving the marvelous 80's & 90's through Design Thinking
Every time you grab that special object, you take a stroll down memory lane… Gradually you vividly recall that unique moment, a smile is drawn on your face and, once again, that singular smell flourishes in your mind. Some of our objects aren’t as mere as the name itself, we naturally attribute them with nostalgia as we want to keep our past endlessly alive.
“I believe I started my collection because I’ve never overcome my childhood”
Collectors are ever journey to melancholy gathering precious objects from their significant decades. That makes me think, do we collect objects or memories?
My team and I were asked to reinvent a store of collectibles, turning it into a referent in the collecting community of the 80’s and 90’s. An expedition was taken off through a Design Research Plan to deeply understand collectors’ needs while answering the question: why do collectors gather objects attributing them with personal value? This is a pretty amazing world that my teammates and I fully enjoyed getting closer and closer to a collector’s mind.
I invite you to keep reading the following lines if you want to know how we got to understand them and how we came through with an innovative solution for the business.
Research Questions & Benchmark
Reading, reading and more reading… We got soaked with information about the 80’s and 90’s collectibles, the collector’s behaviour and needs. However, we still didn’t get the answer of some questions, so we wrote them down as a research questions classified by the user, product and the competition. Reflecting our doubts helped us to create the competition benchmark, the survey and the interview guide.
When analyzing our competition, we had a wide sight. We thought we could compete across online channels as well as physical establishments. A long list of variables to compare with was made, including innovative ideas such as filters by decades, filters by memories and product’s revaluation notice. For our surprise each original variable is already done by some of our competition!
Survey
The first step we took to get closer to the collecting community.
When starting a collection, fanaticism and nostalgia are the most important reasons to start gathering their treasures. Nostalgia is also present when asking them the best moment that collecting has given to them.
“Collecting makes me remember different moments of my life that are related to these objects”
“Memories: being 10 years old and my parents buying me my very first figurine”
What also collectors love about collecting is getting to know new people!
“I used to collect fossils and minerals. It allowed me to get to know very interesting people who have brought me somehow value to my life”
“I used to collect vintage clothing, and it allowed me to get to know fantastic people in street markets, stores and even through digital channels”
“Be able to share the collecting experience with friends who have the same passion as mine”
Living in a digital era, is surprising that most of our respondents obtain their objects through physical establishments, specially specific stores and street markets. Although there is a representative part of our respondents that choose digital channels.
We could confirm that the 80’s and 90’s are decades of interest for the current collectors. However, the “I don’t have enough money”, “ I don’t have time” or “I don’t have space” are ever present when deciding not to start a collection or not expanding it yet.
Interviews
Once we got a general view of their community, we got into deep territory. Through in-depth interviews we got to know seven collectors, who moved us into their own nostalgia. They told us stories and anecdotes about their amazing collections while proudly showing us, with a big smile, some of their adored objects.
“If I lost my collection, it would be like losing a piece of my life”
Listening to their opinion and experiences we got different points of view of understanding collecting. From the one who collects because he likes to gather things, to the one whose collection is his biggest treasure in his life.
“I have a collection of collections”
In that sense, collecting is among materialist and emotional. However, our interviewees started their collecting story during their childhood; they were that curious boy that is surprised by every tiny detail of their surroundings. “Why this? Why that? Why?” Curiosity is what makes children discover their own interests; discover if they are a collector.
It didn’t matter if it was their relatives who showed them something new and intriguing or they found it by their own, the thing is that they discovered they loved something and wanted to expand it. But it is not when they have an economic stability that they start seriously their collection.
What it is certain is that there is a link between collectors and their objects, they are not going to throw their collections to the bin, yet there are some of them who don’t dismiss the option of selling it in the future if they earn good money with it.
Collectors enjoy not only gathering objects, but also gathering with people who can share the same passion and talk hours and hours about it. Some of our interviewees are in facebook groups, forums or have a group of friends to debate about their favourite topic with the same eagerness.
Their collection is an achievement and they are proud to show it to the others, be it sending pictures or exposing it in their house.
When they look at their collection, memories from the past come to their minds; they remember the time when they got the object or the occasions they used it. Whichever the memory is, it is positive.
Persona & Empathy Map
After compiling the information, we depicted it in four different personas and their empathy map. We took a deep scope of a collector and tried to think, feel and behave as them. Let me introduce you two of our personas:
Violeta Gil Lozano is a 18 year old with an inherited love for the music from her parents. She’s a vinyl collector of the 80’s and 90’s, she loves to get them from a street market. However, she can’t find people of the same age as her with the same passion for the 80’s and 90’s music.
Clara Rodríguez is a 25 year old, her biggest treasure is the videogames and consoles that has inherited from her father. She wants to keep collecting consoles until she gets all of them from the very first one existed. One of the old consoles has broken, but she doesn’t know where it could be fixed.
User Journey
After getting into a collector’s mind, we imagined the journey they could have when getting a new object to expand their collection. We analyzed which are the differents phases of their journey, their touchpoints, emotions and pain points. At the very end, we took the pain points as an opportunity to improve their journey and wrote down possible solutions.
When looking for the console, Clara opted for a street market, instead of Violeta who looked for her vinyl through the internet.
Pain Points & Insights
When the collector starts their collection, they want to keep these objects, because they want to recall their happy memories of the past, but they’re afraid of losing any of the objects in case they also lose the memory that they revive through it.
Part of collecting is keeping the past alive for eternity. Every object reminds a special moment that any other can’t revive, that’s the reason why they are not able to throw away their collection. But if the connection with the collection is not a strong link, then some of the collectors don’t dismiss to sell it in the future.
When the collector is counting their precious objects and realizes that one is missing, they want to have a daily count of their collection because they want to complete it. They feel frustrated because no matter how many times they count their objects, they end up losing track.
Some of the biggest frustrations of a collector, a part from the money, is space and time. They don’t have time to organize their collection, and they need more space to expose it as they would like. Translating this into a lose track of their adored objects.
When a collector is admiring their collection, they would love to share their passion with other people of their same age, because they would like to share memories and good moments with people that understands them. The collector feels frustrated because it is difficult and they don’t know how to find them.
Collectors feel as they are not comprehended by the people who doesn’t have the same interest as them.
“He’s 37 and he collects childish things”
Therefore, they really enjoy belonging to a community where they can freely share their collection with others and talk about it without being judged.
Ideation
After revising all the information that we’d been gathering from the beginning of the research, revising every insight that we found and its HMW, it was the time to come up with ideas!
It was an intense day, racking our brains with different ideation techniques: brainstorming, brainwriting, hybridization, technological trends, smart cities, impossible scenarios and Harry Potter technique. You can imagine our creativity was at 100% of productivity, so it was the endeavour that it completely drained us; but our efforts paid off pretty well!
Value Proposal
After the intense day, there we had in our Miro board, THE idea.
Taken into consideration the three insights that I have already mentioned before, we came up with a digital solution. A space where collectors can be themselves, while easily saving their collection, buying new objects to expand it, sharing it, selling it and getting to know new people with the same interests as them!
Storyboard
“Agh I’m fed up to be the only one who collects vinyls, nobody understands me… If only I could get a friend to share and talk about my collection with… Let’s see what I can find on the Internet!”
This is about to end… If I’ve left you yearning for more, don’t worry! This is just the first part of the project, in the the second part I show you the result of our social network as a prototype :)
Hope you enjoyed as well as we did getting to know the collectors’ world!
