Survey ,Interview and Research
Google Form Survey Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mmqjebTvIBXiA2Ffe5LrNsxnL52WF37pXRv_49SsYUk/edit#responses
The survey was conducted on the 19th of September 2018 where it was responded by 20 people. Based on the survey, it is shown that the respondents are people who are currently in the age of 18 - 23 that 90% of them are students with the rest 10% are divided into a part-timer and casual. The survey is also points out that Amazon is the mostly used website that people used to shop online. Based on the data, Amazon is our first choice for the online shopping website to be implemented as a model in the flow of Puzzle Pay prototype. Considering that impulsive spending is a bad habit to have, a barrier that is in the form of technology is needed by the people who wants to resolve the issue. One of the barrier is in the form of Bank Account Realization. Having the impulse spending infecting people, respondents think that their parents are the main subject that would have an impact because of their habit. Moreover, the people who are in the range of the respondents are mostly still funded by their parents.
- The respondents mostly in the age of 18-23 who are currently a student, casual or a part-timer
- Amazon is the website that people mostly used to shop online
- Bank Account Realization is one of the reason that would stop people to shop unnecessary things
- The respondents think that people around them will get an impact if they were shopping impulsively especially their parents
Shopping Addiction Forum Link: https://shopping-addiction.supportgroups.com/
Based on the brainstorm session conducted, it is thought that the user of the product is the person who realize that they have a problem with spending impulsively. In order to get an insight from the person who realize their problem, an interview is conducted with the GSO of Shopping Addiction Support Group. Continuing from the previous research method, the type of people that are involved with shopping addiction and compulsive shopping are in the age of 20's to 40's. It is reasonable to pick a user who is in the range of 20's considering the survey and the interview result data and its impact that it has with the _Impulse Spending _ behavior. Moreover, reading a story that is related on targeted user problem is needed, because it acts as a barrier that would prevent them from shopping irresponsibly.
- Most of the support groups contributor are females either in the age of 20's or 40's.
- The forum is a medium where people can share or read people stories on their problems in the particular area
- Major impact Impulse Spending has on the relationships and the life of these people.
Date/Time: September 28 - 9:42am D = Dylan, A = Allan.
D: How long have you been working with Debtors Anonymous?
A: I would say, probably over ten years now.
D: What does DA (Debtors Anonymous) do? What's their purpose?
A: Our organisation has a heavy focus on helping those who have suffered from debt usually caused by bad financial decisions.
D: Would you say that these includes people that are shopping addicts or compulsive shoppers?
A: Ah yes, a lot of our clients are now diagnosed shopping addicts who I guess you could classify as being compulsive shoppers during that period where they started creating debt.
D: Which groups would you say are the most affected?
A: Most of the people who come into our organisation are predominantly females either in their 20's or 40's.
D: Ok, uh how does each group you noted impact those around them? Is there a major difference in the impact that 20 year olds have as compared to 40 year olds?
A: Fundamentally the problem is the same but yeah the impact that each group has on their families and others around them is quite different. For instance the younger groups tend to use money that is either their parents or friends until they are cut off and then put themselves into debt. This often causes rifts with families and friends and has a major impact on the future of the person. Whilst the older groups often tend to perform these actions, such as compulsive spending, behind theirs families back. This can often have a lot of negative impact on the relationships and has often led to a divorce.
D: How do you think people get themselves into these situations?
A: One of the major causes I think is a lack of self-control. When people lack the ability to control their behaviour they often perform actions without considering the impact it will have on the people around them.
A: I think another problem can be the current situation of the person in question. I remember a case of a young girl who had acquired a huge debt from a shopping addiction after experiencing trauma brought up by her parent's divorce.
D: So you're saying she became a shopping addict because her parents were getting a divorce?
A: Yeah, it was her way of rebelling in a way against her parents but it had a major impact on her life.
D: Are there any major causes?
A: I would say the other major cause is a lack of support for the people who have put themselves into these situations. There aren't many programs that help people in the early stages of these problems or help prevent them for escalating their issues.
D: So you think there should be more preventative measures in place?
A: Yeah I think that would help from progressing the issue further.
D: So you mentioned some cases earlier but are there any notable cases?
A: Well besides the young girl and the divorce there was another case with a older lady who had her entire life changes because of a shopping addiction.
A: Her addiction got so bad that she had to reveal it to her family. This caused her husband to get a divorce and her custody of her kids was revoked because the courts assessed that she was unfit to take care of her kids.
A: Another client, a man this time, was forced to shut down his business and claim bankruptcy after he spent all of his money due to a shopping addiction which meant he couldn't support his business anymore.
After this I asked him about the stuff that his organisation does to help these people and which point he began talking to me about how their solutions have a heavy foundation in faith and religion. Most of their solutions had to do with repenting and praying which didn't play very well into what we're doing with our project. They also have a list of tools they make use of in their organisation and these were also unhelpful.
Through the research we are interested in creating solution for people who suffer a problem in controlling their desire to purchase items impulsively. The team is trying to motivates change on people and change their behaviour in preventing them to be an impulsive buyer.
The team choose a person who are in their 20's and having a trouble in shopping impulsively considering the survey and interview method we have conducted.
To support our understanding towards the problem, we define the terminology that has relation with our product. In order to know what our target audience, we conduct research on the characteristics of impulsive spender and its difference towards the term compulsive spender.
Impulse Spender
- Impulse spender is a person who possess a personality trait called impulse buying tendency, which means they have a habit of making impulsive purchases
- Impulse spending is an action of buying product without planning beforehand
Impulsive vs Compulsive Behaviour It is defined that compulsive buying as irresistible behaviors or desires to shop and spend money on products that lead to bad consequences. This is different from impulse buying in that it suggests the individual has a desire to buy, rather than to actually own the particular product. Impulsive buyers tend to find more reward in the product and a desire for the product itself (Mendenhall, 2014).
Characteristics of Impulsive Spender
- A person who is more social, status-conscious, and image-concerned, therefore buy as a way to look good in the eyes of others
- A person who tend to experience more anxiety and difficulty controlling their emotions, which may make it harder to resist emotional urges to impulsively spend money
- A person who tends to experience less happiness, and so may buy as a way to improve their mood
- Impulse buyers are less likely to consider the consequences of their spending; they just want to have it
- People who like to shop for fun. They imagine that it can be a lot of fun to go shopping online and imagine owning the products that we like. After experiencing such pleasure of the vicarious ownership, they more likely to buy those products to continue experiencing the pleasure
- A person who make a purchase that is unplanned
Moreover, it is necessary to understand why impulsive buying is a problem for the people experienced it. Although impulse buying at a certain modest level can be harmless, an excessive level of impulse buying can lead to debt and unhappiness. People who are impulsive buyer tend to make shopping as a way to experience pleasure (addiction).
After administering background research, the team conduct brainstorming session that is then developed into a graphic where it shows overall data on what is gathered and our proposed solution.
The info-graphic model is developed based on the research conducted including the addition of features on each design interaction.
