Nothing can go smoothly and apparently now is the time for our problems to occur. Yesterday we had a meeting with a specialist on game mechanics and we hoped that he will give us some advices on how to develop our ideas. However, the reality didn’t meet our expectations. Since the beginning of the project we were really enthusiastic about everything and tried to do our best, but it seems like we overestimated our possibilities. The verdict was that we cannot handle this project within the given time and also with the budget that we are provided with. The project became too big and in order to finish it on time and in a proper way we have to make it more simple. It could be done in two ways – we either change the whole concept or leave only one game instead of three.
We have done a lot already to work out the existing concept so we decided to stick to it but leave only one game. The only thing we have to change in this case is the story (to fulfill the games that we are going to leave out).
We are also currently looking for people who can help us in programming and animating. Today we had couple of interviews with programmers and luckily we found the person that matches our requirements. We are looking forward to meeting him in our team and we believe that he will help us to bring our project to life.
Today we had another meeting with our assigners. Since the last meeting we have made our concept more explicit. We came up with a great story that will be followed with mini games in it. We really hope that this kind of approach will attract potentials to IKEA and with that will improve the employer brand which is one of the goals of our assignment.
We were also happy that IKEA was really enthusiastic about the work we have done and looking forward how everything will look like in the end. However IKEA is not the only party that is interested in it, it is also interesting for us, because you can never know what will be the final product. So we will continue our work and try to keep everybody excited about the things we do.
If you are interested in the work that we have done you can check out our Design Document and also the posters, that give more insight about the games.
Developing a product like ours is not an easy thing. The in-house at IKEA Haarlem helped us a lot, by finding out how it all works in a real life, but now we wanted to know a bit more about technical requirements, that we can use in our product. So on the 20th of November we went to IKEA Service Office. There we were given two computers to work on so we can check what kind of information/movies/games are available to us in the IKEA toolbox, which is a large database within the intranet for employees.
We also spoke to Hanne Willigenburg from the web-team in the Service Office. She told us how IKEA handles web related products and services and told us that we are free to develop what we wanted, which is of course very good news.
The results of this visit were very helpful: we’ve gathered a lot of resources we can use in this project, for example guidelines regarding copy and style but also movie clips we can use for the look and feel of the project. Pictures about logistic instruments and machines were also obtained, this makes the designing of the icons a bit easier.
Next to this we’ve also found a lot of useful images concerning the logistic processes. Also some very detailed job descriptions of the functions (retail) logistic manager, goods flow teamleader and goods flow manager, which could help us to communicate to the target group what IKEA expects from them.
On the 13th of November we visited the IKEA store in Haarlem. We had an appointment with the Deputy Logistics Manager, Jeroen Karssen, to give us a tour through the logistics department of that store. Since the most interesting part of these processes happen in the morning, before the store opens, we agreed to go their early. So at 07:30 we arrived at the store. After being welcomed and signed in by the kind lady from the reception we met up with Jeroen and he invited us to start with a cup of coffee in the employee restaurant. Here we talked about everything that happens in the morning and what he is going to show us this morning.
After we picked up our safety shoes we were ready to go to the logistic warehouse and the loading docks where everything is taken from the trucks and put into the warehouse or marketplace. But before this we went through the showroom and Jeroen explained us how everything is categorized in different parts of the store. He also told us how some products are taken directly from the factory to the store without being stored at a distribution center first. For example a certain type of glasses which were manufactured in the Netherlands, then stored in a distribution centre in Germany to go to the Netherlands again. This costs a lot of time, effort and money and was therefore inefficient, so not the IKEA way. From the marketplace we moved to the loading docks where the trucks arrive with the ordered goods. From here they move the products to either the marketplace and showroom directly or store them in the warehouse, this depends on the capacity in each individual part of the store. Since IKEA wants to protect their concept we cannot go in to the details too much. But it was interesting to see how everyone from different departments kept updating each other constantly to reach their goals in the best way possible.
Afterwards we had an interview with one of the teammanagers Logistics, Jasper Geerts. He told us what it is that he does as a teammanager and what his style of leading is.He also explained some more issues of the logistic processes and how he works with his manager and the co-workes but also together with the other departments.
“More freedom for employees and the key is to motivate them. Also let them make mistakes sometimes. At IKEA employees are motivated to take their own initiative. But sometimes it is forgotten to communicate this. Also there are differences between the way of leading between each manager, so it is also important to be on the same track as your team about leadership and clearly communicate what you expect from your employees and what they can expect from you. Let them make some mistakes now and then and have them reflect on what went wrong and how they can prevent it from happening again. Talk about it, show them the right direction an see how they can do better the next time. Self reflection on activities. Find a balance between directive and coaching leadership is important but this can also create confusion among the employees.”
After the Concept Presentation we received a lot of feedback and were also given a decision which of the concepts they would like to see further elaborated – namely Time Framed Question.
To perform this concept a website should be developed. It starts with an interactive video that shows the benefits of IKEA as an employer. After that it presents the user with a challenge they have to solve in their own creative way.
The open platform gives the target group the freedom to be innovative and creative within IKEA. The most creative and innovative solution has a legitimate chance to get an interview with a recruiter. Aside from this all the ideas will be presented on some kind of leaderboard so students will be able to compare his/her ideas with others and a competitive element is presented.
However, we presented the ideas, not the finished product so we were asked to further develop it a bit and also make it more specific. So we are now working on storyboard, use cases and a lot of different things that will help us to specify our concept.
