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OVERVIEW
How might we provide a safe and efficient experience for grocery shoppers during the pandemic?
PROBLEM
The pandemic has changed the ways in which we go about our everyday lives, and the grocery shopping experience is no exception. Not only do grocery shoppers have to worry about not finding everyday items in stock, but they also have to worry about potentially catching the virus throughout the shopping process.
SOLUTION
After investigating grocery shoppers’ shopping experiences both before and after the pandemic, we prototyped an interactive solution that creates a safer and more comfortable experience for shoppers in the current pandemic environment. In our prototype, we aimed to alleviate any tension or concerns that shoppers currently have about the virus and utilized personal technology to increase shopping efficiency.
SCOPE
UX Research, UX Design, Interaction Design, UI Design, Prototyping
ROLE
User Researcher, UX Designer, UX Writer
TEAM
Ankita Kundu, Nandhini Gounder, Ije Okafor
TOOLS
Figma, Miro, Zoom
DURATION
2 months
DEFINING OUR GOALS
During our Interaction Design course, we were given a brief to design a responsive web service and chose to focus our efforts on developing a solution that addressed grocery shopping during a pandemic.
Before jumping into research, we first defined the goals that would guide us throughout the project:
Create a safer and more comfortable experience for shoppers during the pandemic
Alleviate any tension or concern shoppers currently have about the virus
Use personal technology to increase shopping efficiency
EMPATHIZING THROUGH USER RESEARCH
In order to identify areas for improvement in the grocery shopping experience, we conducted interviews with twelve active grocery shoppers.
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Due to time constraints, we chose to use a directed storytelling approach for the interview. This method of interviewing is efficient, as it allows for the discovery of deep insights, as questions focus on participants' lived experiences.
After completing our interviews, we created journey maps for each interview in order to understand users’ actions and goals, as well as identify pain points in our interviewees' grocery shopping experience that could be improved.
User interview journey maps
FINDINGS AND INSIGHTS
Next, we held an affinity mapping session using the notes gathered from our directed storytelling interviews and customer journey maps and made a consolidated journey map based on relevant insights and phrases that were common among the interviewees.
100% of participants stated that their greatest fear during grocery shopping was exposure to COVID
"My greatest fear is that someone has COVID and is next to me or that the person helping me has COVID."
Thus, we chose to focus our technology efforts at the checkout stage, where we could implement a solution that eliminated the need to touch shared surfaces. This stage is also where technology can make the most impact, as concerns in the other phases can be resolved through relying on memory (i.e using hand sanitizer and wearing masks).
CONCEPT IDEA
A self-checkout system that decreases grocery shoppers’ exposure to the COVID virus.
Our goals were to create a safer and more comfortable experience for shoppers during the pandemic, as well as utilize personal technology to increase shopping efficiency.
Grocery shoppers can use their mobile devices to select, scan, and purchase items.
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Grocery shoppers can use a touchless self-checkout machine to select, scan, and purchase items.
PARALLEL PROTOTYPING (MOBILE)
We each sketched paper prototypes for the mobile self-checkout system and combined different components of each of our prototypes to create low-fidelity prototypes.
SKETCHES
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LO-FI PROTOTYPE TESTING (MOBILE)
In order to test our prototype, we conducted 4 think-aloud studies where participants were tasked with checking out an item.
Participants successfully navigated through our low-fidelity prototypes and liked the ability to scan as they walked through the store. They also provided suggestions on some features that would be helpful to add.
Participants wondered how an item could be removed from their cart.
Participants thought that having the item price on the pop-up would be helpful, so they would not have to go to their cart to see it.
MID-FI PROTOTYPE TESTING (MOBILE)
Keeping the feedback from our think-aloud testing in mind, we set out to develop a set of mid-fidelity clickable prototypes and conducted 8 user walkthroughs, where participants were tasked with checking out an item.
Redundant Pages
“I don’t understand the difference between 'list' and 'checkout'.”
“If I ever wanted to see what was in my cart, I would just click on the 'cart' icon. Not the 'list' icon.”
Icon Confusion
“I don’t know what the functionality of the 'list' icon is.”
"I thought the 'list' icon represented a checklist. I was confused about that."
SELF-CHECKOUT INTERFACE
With the self-checkout interface, users will be able to scan their grocery items with the machine camera and use hand gestures to indicate the action they’d like to take. The screens will use motion detection to remain touchless.
The self-checkout interface followed the same flow as the mobile app. In order to identify usability issues, as well as general areas for improvement, we conducted user walkthroughs with 8 participants in order to test the usability of the design. Users were tasked with checking out six apples.
Cognitive Load
“I’m looking at a lot of stuff right now.”
“I think a tutorial would be helpful. I like the layout, but it is a lot if you have never seen it before.”
“There are so many directions and so many things to remember."
Lack of Clarity
“I’m not sure the difference between waving to get started and waving to get assistance.”
Lack of User Freedom
“What happens if the card reader doesn't work? How do I get out of the screen?”
“If the payment step is not working, I am not sure how I would get out of the screen.”
FINAL DESIGN
iScan is an interactive solution that creates a safer and more comfortable experience for shoppers in the current pandemic environment through reduced human interaction.
MOBILE DEMO
SELF-CHECKOUT INTERFACE DEMO
MOBILE FEATURES
APP NOTIFICATION
When a user enters the grocery store, the iScan app uses the GPS feature to identify the store and reminds the user to open the app to start scanning as they go through the store.
SELF CHECKOUT INTERFACE FEATURES
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ONBOARDING
Users can access the following screen to learn how to use the self-checkout kiosk.
This screen shows customers the different motions they can use to navigate through the self-checkout process.
ADDRESSING CONCERNS
During prototype testing, users brought up several concerns regarding logistical issues. We provided suggestions as to how stores can address those issues.
1
“How would you deal with theft?”
Self-checkout ultimately relies on trust. Although there are cameras and employees around, if one wanted to steal, there aren’t many obstacles to doing so.
2
“It might get confusing keeping track of each item.”
To decrease the likelihood of customers forgetting to scan items, we suggest that stores implement scanning stations (particularly for mobile checkout) distributed around the store to emulate normal scanning procedures and limit crowds at any one point in the store. This also removes any additional tediousness from scanning every time an item is picked up from the shelves.
3
“How will this work for produce that needs to be weighed?”
Through our own informal research in stores, we found that most produce items’ quantity was simply typed in rather than formally weighed. However, for the few produce items that must be weighed, the customer can take a picture of the weigh scale as replacement for weighing it on self checkout counters.
THE VALUE OF ISCAN
SAFETY
Whether they choose to use the mobile or in-store version of iScan, customers will be able to avoid close human interaction, thus reducing their chances of catching the virus.
ADAPTABILITY
iScan’s touchless, motion-operated checkout options will not only be useful during the pandemic but post-pandemic as well. Post-pandemic, users will continue to benefit from a quicker and safer grocery shopping experience.
EFFICIENCY
Customers using the mobile version of our solution, iScan, can complete their checkout process anywhere in the store.
