American Girl – MJD Interactive

‘Create Your Own’ Custom Doll Creation Commerce Experience

In-store, Online and Mobile Custom Doll Creation Commerce Experience

American Girl set out to empower young girls by creating custom dolls and clothing that showcase and celebrate individuality. MJD partnered with them in bringing to life a playful doll creation commerce platform that inspires and delivers over 1.3 million doll options to capture girls’ imaginations. The in-store digital experience is essentially a “makers” area called “Create Your Own” that includes a dozen digital touch screens integrated with real product options to feel and choose from while you design your own dolls and clothing.

In a collective workshop atmosphere, girls can design the American Girl doll of their dreams from more than one million possible design combinations—an unprecedented level of choice. Girls can also create one-of-a-kind doll outfits and girl-sized products at the design studio in-store, which can be printed and ready to take home the same day.

The Mission: Create a uniquely modern commerce experience that increases the already impressive diversity of American Girl dolls and garments by giving girls a fun, easy-to-use tool to completely customize them in-store and online.

Challenges  

• How do you represent the doll or garment before customization starts?
• What user interface resonates best with young girls?
• How do we launch a digital product that works on desktop, mobile phones, and in-store?

Solution

Through user testing design prototypes with girls and their moms, we learned a blank slate didn’t encourage the creative process. They were inspired instead by seeing multiple, completed dolls and garments as inspirational starting points. We built the user interface as a carousel of dolls and garments, showing girls the wide selection at their fingertips. Today’s girls have had screens in their hands their whole lives. We created an interface that their digital sophistication deserves. The animated menu system allows flexible exploration of all the choices while decluttering unnecessary information during the selection process. We also gave girls the opportunity to add their own personality to their custom design, including giving their doll a name, a pet, and adding their favorite places and things. The interface, personality, and the ability to begin digital/physical storytelling around the custom dolls all create a unique commerce experience.

Visit American Girl Create Your Own