Challenge
McDonalds has had great success with the Create Your Taste menu and wanted to move forward with a totally new customised menu, counter-less store design and personalised experience.

This new store design requires a total re-think of customer service, with staff required to learn new ‘soft’ skills, service standards and roles.

In order to signal a step-change and overcome the limited access to the new store, McDonalds wanted to create and embed a new style of training in a Virtual store – to be completed before the store’s opening.

Our Response
Working to a tight (sub 3-week) deadline, we used existing designs/architectural models to re-create the new store layout for a Samsung Gear VR headset (the most cost-effective & portable solution for such a large store/staff base).
We scripted, directed and filmed new 360˚ training content that would allow staff to immerse themselves in the store environment and put themselves in their customers shoes in a way that they’ve never been able to before.

Working in partnership with our sister innovation and service design agency, How To Impact, we were able to ensure that the new training content would sync fluidly with the interface. We then developed the training materials to support the launch of the store’s training programme, ready for the opening date.
The solution was user tested with McDonald’s staff using standard methods alongside EEG brain scanning headsets to capture engagement and valance while people were “inside” the VR training experience.

Result
Within just three weeks of taking the project brief, an MVP solution was delivered for launch, along with a roadmap for expansion of the training program.
This ‘white’ store prototype can now be evolved to bring the full design solution to life for usability testing, before committing to any build costs and provide massive economies of scale for training overheads.

The speed and value from concept to execution has been best in class. We’re looking forward to seeing where this can go next!.

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