Why Husqvarna uses 3ngage interactive product simulations for its robotic lawnmowers
Husqvarna has a long history – the company is 330 years old. But its products are really innovative. The company launched its first robotic lawnmower in 1995, when robotics were the provenance of SciFi literature. Their Automower products have since become a worldwide hit.
Robotic lawnmowers are of course quite complex. Customers interested in buying one will be considering their purchase carefully. Their questions will not just relate to how the robotic mower works – they’ll also want to know if they will be able to perform maintenance on the product themselves, without resorting to taking their mower to the shop.
We created an interactive, multi-language product guide for the Autmower, that lets consumers try the product out in a 3D simulation, accessible on any device, for instance on their smartphones.
https://3ngage.se/husqvarna-automower-blades/
The simulation lets you go through all the steps necessary to change the mower’s cutting blades, performing all the work on-screen. It’s amazingly helpful, especially if you’re not the instruction-manual-reading type of person. For your safety, it’s important that you do it right- the blades on an Automower are sharp as razors.
So this 3ngage simulation is for when you already own the product, but it is clearly also helpful for when you’re considering a purchase. You’ll be able to test the product and understand more about what it is like to own and operate it – answering many of the questions that you have as a prospective buyer. It lets you skip the step of going to a physical store to check the product out physically.
This is why you can also find the simulation inside Husqvarnas brand stores. The products are of course on display there, but they’re bulky and cannot easily be handled. So our simulation is there, in the in-store digital touch displays.
Standard product information is also quite costly to produce. With most products you will find a thick manual, several hundred pages in length, with the information presented in many languages. And as we know, most people don’t bother reading the manual. 3ngage can supplement or even replace the manual. Also, 3ngage can be connected to the client’s language localization systems, so its perfect for delivering product understanding in many different markets.
In this Husqvarna simulation, written instructions are included for every step, but they’re not really necessary. With 3ngage, you can learn to use the product without using language – it’s learning by doing.
Of course, letting a customer try out a product in a 3D simulation is much more powerful than reading about the product, or even watching a video. The engagement is higher, but the effort of the customer is much lower. The 3ngage simulations are easy to access and simple to use – they “feel good”, so people spend time in them, just playing around, learning the product at the same time.
Finally, Husqvarna will be able to collect data on how consumers behave in the simulation. What part of the product do they spend most time with? What features do they explore, and in what order? This is a tool that companies haven’t had outside of a usability laboratory. It’s like eye-tracking, but directly, in the browser.
Such data, and insights based on it, can feed back into the product design process. It can also help companies optimize how their products are presented online, by making the most imortant aspects more prominent. By comparing usage and behavior data from 3ngage simulations displayed in different eCommerce stores, in different markets, with in-store usage versus mobile phone or desktop use, companies will be able to see what aspects of a product are important to different types of customers, in different usage situations, on different markets.
You can try the Automower simulation, right now: https://3ngage.se/husqvarna-automower-blades/
Thanks for reading.