Company research | Interview | Museum experience design | Story boarding | Interactive prototyping | Design evaluation

Background：Océ，Customer Experience Center，Me 

Founded in 1887, Océ is a market leader in production printing. In 1983, Océ built a museum where its history and heritages of the 140 years were preserved. In 2015, Océ opened its Customer Experience Center where its newest products and technologies are presented. In 2017, I was assigned to design a new exhibition for the company museum to connect it to Customer Experience Center for new innovation. 

Redesign Challenge：Sell the company with its history

The main challenge of redesigning the museum is to present the history of Océ small format printing in a logical and emotional way with an aim to facilitate the sales in Customer Experience Center.  

I will introduce how I tackled the challenge and redesign the museum experience in the following sections.

Step1 Define the theme

'What would be the key deliverable of this exhibition?'

1）Where to intervene?

According to Océ’s strategy, there are three key roles which are contributing to the marketing of its product: the account managers, Customer Experience Center, and the museum. By analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the three and locating them into the customers' purchasing process (see right slides), I found the opportunity of Océ museum: to present Océ's brand values.

To survive the intense competition, Océ needs to prove to its customers that he is a vibrant company with a promising future. With this belief, the customers will trust Océ for a long-term relationship. Océ museum, with the rich heritage, can play a role and provide sufficient evidence to prove its unique brand values.

2）What make Océ different?

By interviewing six Océ employees from three departments, I found four key values of Océ (see left figures). However, there are only two values that can differentiate Océ not only from its competitors but also from Canon.

The special two are 'Knowledge in printing' and 'Eigenzinnig spirit'. As a technology-driven company, its investment in knowledge developing. 'Eigenzinnig' means 'always be different and surprise world in a positive way'. The tradition of innovation deeply rooted in the culture of Océ. These two values enable the company to maintain its reputation in the market for 140 years.

Step2 Organize the content

What is the story to tell?

1）Grow with the market：The development of reprographic technology and market

Océ started its exploration in small format market from office copying and in the 1940s. After years of growth, it strategically targets on high volume production printing market with its unique inkjet technology.

 
The right figure shows an overview of its development. 

2）History in brief：Océ in a nutshell

 In the museum, a chronological story of the company development will be told. Four time periods are selected to show Océ's history in a succinct way: 1960, 1981, 1997 and 2017. These four stops are the milestones in Océ's road of development from both technological and business aspect. 

This storyline, showing the company's growth from office copying to production printing, will make the transfer from the museum to the Center logical and reasonable.

Step3 Design the experience

1）Interaction quality

An active participation will also do good to achieve the marketing effect since it will lead to a deeper understanding and higher empathy for Océ's company development.

2）Five elements to create a time travel

Visitors will experience Océ's growth story as having a time travel. Five elements are used to present the flow of time and the development of Océ. The ways to interact with each element are ideated. 

3）Integration: See, do and learn

In this project, I proposed a framework for the visiting experience of the museum and listed what visitors will see, do and learn in the whole process. The interactions with the five elements were integrated into the experience in each time period.  

Step4 Refine by prototyping

The experience in the typing room and with Océ 155 was further developed for concept refinement. It is because Océ 155 represents Océ’s early attempt at developing productivity. This product is linked to Océ’s current target market: high volume printing.

Final design

A video shows the experience with Océ 155 and the comments of the tested participants. 

1）FEEL THE IMPROVEMENT FIRST-HANDLY

Visitors will experience the old way of copying and printing with the old devices and feel the improvements personally. These improvements are the proof of Océ’s growth from the product users’ perspective. Visitors will feel involved in the company development through these first-hand experience.

2）SHOW TECHNOLOGY BY PROJECTION

Explain the technology in an intuitive way by magnifying the copying/printing process and showing the inner structure of the devices by projection. The secrets hidden inside the products are exposed for visitors to satisfy their curiosity about Océ innovation.