DM DOC RD-04 / ON
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Hybrid Explorer

A table in On's stores that tells you about the shoes you put on it.

Company
On
Role
UX Designer
Year
2024
Practice
UX Research, Prototyping, UI Design
Headline
In On stores
Outcome

The problem

In a shoe shop, the two models in your hands look about the same. Everything On knows that would tell them apart lives online, where nobody standing in the store is looking.

What it is

A table. You put shoes on it and it tells you about them.

Set a model down and the screen wakes with its details. Add a second and you get the comparison. Keep going and it starts surfacing models you haven’t picked up.

On shoes placed on the Hybrid Explorer table, with the interactive screen displaying product details and comparison data

Finding the moment

The research happened in the stores, watching how people shop for running shoes. What they reach for, what they put side by side, where they stall.

Comparison was the gap. Customers would hold two shoes, look between them, and have no way to learn what separated them. That’s the moment the table was built for.

Hybrid Explorer table showing the shoe comparison interface with multiple On models side by side

What it deliberately doesn’t do

It doesn’t compete with the product. Handling the shoe is why people came into the shop, and a screen pulling attention away from the thing in your hand would make the visit worse.

So the table stays quiet until a shoe is on it, and the interaction is built on something customers already do: pick one up, put it down, look.

The wider On retail store environment showing the Hybrid Explorer integrated into the in-store shopping experience

What I took from it

The digital parts of a physical space work best when you don’t notice them working. This one succeeds because it follows how people already shop, and doesn’t ask them to learn a new one.

On the record
The Hybrid Explorer transformed how customers interact with our product range in-store. It bridges the gap between digital and physical retail in a way that feels natural and engaging.
Nicolas Martin Global Head of Business Development, Special Ventures @ On
This project exemplifies what cross-channel customer experience should look like. The seamless integration between the physical table and digital product information creates a truly immersive shopping experience.
Simon Sirel Head of Cross Channel Customer Experience Evolution @ On