GROCERY STORE
REDESIGN
A grocery store redesign utilizing IOT to improve the shopping experience. Deloitte Digital Design2Disrupt Challenge runner up, 2016.
✓ Researcher
✓ Designer
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Deloitte Digital challenged teams at the University of Waterloo to use IOT and emerging technology to design a disruptive solution for an industry of our choosing. Alongside a team of three others*, I designed a smart grocery store which strives to improve the in-store grocery shopping experience through the interconnectivity of both existing networks and innovative technologies.
We had two weeks to come up with a solution that could disrupt the grocery industry.
RESEARCH
While running on this tight timeline we jumped right into research about the in-store grocery shopping experience. I conducted online research focused on industry trends, pain points and emerging technology. I looked into the history and success of loyalty programs, articles about customer complaints regarding the grocery shopping experience as well as the use of iBeacons and other location-based technology.
We interviewed grocery store customers and employees of various demographics to understand their experiences. We also interviewed a Deloitte representative to get an understanding of what types of solutions the organization was working on at the time. We discovered that they were very interested in the grocery industry, which further motivated us when developing our solution.
We took the findings from our online research as well as interviews and summarized the trends.
The pain points that kept appearing were centered on the checkout experience as a result of long lines and waiting.
IDEATION
Our research inspired tons of individual ideas. We wanted to make the customer experience better but simultaneously improve the employee experience as well.
We were excited about the possibility of using smart shelves in grocery stores, carts that could scan items and track big data, loyalty programs and a digital application that could tie it all together.
Our next job was to pick out the best ideas that would be even stronger when connected.
FORMING THE IDEA
We left our ideation session with tons of inspiration and ideas. However, we needed to formally document a plan if we were going to remember all of these moving parts.
I decided to map out our interconnected ideas to better visualize the overarching solution.
We did not have enough time to set up a formal testing session, but we did speak to potential users and employees about the features of our solution. We received feedback, discussed it and iterated our design accordingly.
DESIGNING THE APPLICATION
The mobile application is what ties the individual components in our system together. I started by sketching out a rough user flow and drew some paper wireframes to inform the design.
I used these to create digital wireframes that were sent to our team’s visual designer to flesh out into mockups. We used the mockups to create a prototype of the application in InVision.
FEEDBACK
We presented our idea, prototype and blueprint to Deloitte Digital on the final day of the Design2Disrupt competition and we were commended for our comprehensive solution. We were awarded second place in the competition and had the opportunity to network with some amazing designers and industry representatives.
*TEAM MEMBERS
Komal Javad, Larissa Lee, Seyitan Oke
