To help my readers, best understand the scale of this project we must look at the physical form of Chadstone, the largest shopping centre of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
Home to over 500 retailers, a hotel, corporate offices and a pipeline of continuous development to keep expanding. It is the largest project I’ve ever worked on.
While working in an agile team with just over 4 months to design, build and launch, there were various epic’s to work through. Information architecture, mapping and wayfinding, parking, retailer directories, tourism and much, much more.
One of the first challenges we faced was the organisation of information. Combining the functional requirements a user might need with that of inspirational, luxurious content that the Chadstone brand was so synonymous for.
We developed and tested various iterations of site navigation and through mixed methods of testing, such as surveys and treejacks we were unable to land on the perfect solution in our time frame. Instead we decided on a structure that allowed multiple paths to ambiguous information. This process also helped us understand the reliance and power necessary for a successful site search.
Navigation was another monster of a task. Helping people not just navigate in store but to and from, using public transport, free transfer buses or driving only to then have to...park. This was fascinating situation where there was plenty of parking on most days and at most times but the public seemed to be harbouring a false sense of fear whenever they chose to go. So how could we stop the deterrent of parking keeping people from the center?
Focus was also placed in highlighting not just the shopping ellement of chadstone but also the entertainment and dining precincts. We also designed key pages to help international visitors experience the centre and better cater to tourism.
The work was also acknowledge through it’s win at the 2017 AMY awards.
