A digital application that allows suburban parents to quickly find items and reserve orders for pickup at a Twindow convenience store location. While the product’s development was in its infancy, the ask was to produce a research-driven design.
Twindow
Sketch
Axure
Wireframes
Interactive Prototype
4 Weeks
The new company’s proposed mobile application allows customers to create orders at any time, any place, and pick up at their convenience from any Twindow store location. They aim to offer an efficient solution for busy suburban families struggling to find time within their work and home life schedules. Twindow plans to offer products such as essential grocery items, over-the-counter medications, prepared meals, and meal kits. Their goal is to put customers first by reducing waiting time, removing minimum order requirements, and eliminating hidden service fees.
Build order through the Twindow mobile application
Scan the auto-generated QR code at the Twindow store
Automated picker quickly assembles the order
Pick up order from the drive-through window and continue on
Our team was tasked with building an intuitive mobile application that helps Twindow users quickly find items and reserve orders for pickup.
We analyzed several competitors that offered similar services to identify strengths and weaknesses in their offerings.
Ubiquitous throughout the country, Walmart is a big box store with a large variety of inventory products that routinely provides cheap prices.
Curbside pickup at no cost
Pickup time restrictions
Minimum purchase amount
Using advanced technology with no checkout required, Amazon Go is a “Just Walk Out Shopping” experience where shoppers never have to wait in line.
Higher product cost
Walk-in physical store
Quick check out process
A mobile application allowing users to request delivery from any merchant in their city.
Convenient delivery service
Delivery time restrictions
Delivery cost
Based on our analysis, Twindow sets itself apart from its direct and indirect competitors by offering decreased wait time, no minimum order requirements, and no necessary walk-ins. Additionally, our research into the competitors’ digital applications gave us inspiration for efficient product searching, saving, and order building opportunities.
To meet the needs of our potential users, we conducted interviews to understand their shopping/errand-running behaviors, goals, and frustrations.
In order to make sense of the raw takeaways, we produced an affinity map that aimed to find connections and trends from our user interviews.
Most prospective users described themselves as planners in order to maintain a structured lifestyle for their families.
Prior to visiting the grocery store, they consistently created an itemized list at the beginning of the week and visited 2-3 stores as a part of their shopping routine.
All prospective users wanted to complete their weekly shopping trips as quickly as possible- hence their shopping lists.
All of those who shopped with children shared that their presence prolonged the shopping experience.
Though convenient not to physically enter a store, many prospective users felt that getting groceries delivered was too costly.
Those who tried shopping apps like Instacart in hopes to save time felt like it wasn’t worth the effort it took to search for products.
Prospective users ran to places like Walgreens or Target to purchase last-minute, forgotten, or emergency items left off their weekly grocery list.
They also communicated and coordinated with significant others to pick up on their way home from work.
We created a persona that embodied the common behavior, goals, and frustration patterns from our user interviews.
Introducing Molly, a busy 31-year-old, full-time attorney commuting to the city from her hometown of Arlington Heights. A mother of two and married to her husband Matthew, her schedule is filled with family and professional responsibilities.
Molly is dependent on her car for commuting to work and running weekly errands - including purchasing groceries. Every week, she creates a grocery list on her iPhone to reference while shopping. Despite her best planning efforts, there are times in which Molly or Matthew need to make an extra trip to the store for last-minute, forgotten, or emergency items.
Age: 31
Occupation: Attorney
Salary: $100K annually
Household: Married, 2 children
Residence: Arlington Heights
Purchase weekly groceries as quickly as possible
Simply and efficiently purchase last-minute unexpected items
Effectively communicate with her partner about last-minute purchases and pickup
Grocery shopping with her children prolongs the experience
Forgotten or missed items that disrupt their schedule
The working suburban family needs a digital tool that allows them to efficiently purchase and receive last-minute shopping items so that they can successfully balance a hectic work schedule while maintaining a family life.
Considering our research, we created principles to follow in order to guide our design decisions along the way.
Give users the ability to personalize the service and incorporate preferences, so that they can have a familiar, relatable experience while using our tool.
Our intention is to create a direct, transparent interface that our users can quickly learn and easily interact with.
Our design will always incorporate ways to let our users feel confident about the costand time benefits of using Twindow.
After analyzing the major trends we saw with prospective users and keeping our problem statement and design principles at the forefront of our minds, we produced ideas that aimed to solve their goals and needs.
We interviewed six working mothers that lived in the suburbs and were smartphone users. We were able to identify some of the stronger concepts that our team deemed worthy of further exploration.
A personalized Twindow shopping assistant tool that provides purchasing reminders and suggestions based on the user’s order history and account preferences.
A shopping application where users unable to travel far can quickly find items immediately available at Twindow stores close to their current location.
A hands-free ordering platform that allows people en route to the store easily access their most urgent/pressing purchases.
Immediate product suggestions based on the ingredients being added to the shopping list.
A touch screen car console dashboard app that allows users to purchase items from Twindow stores.
“I typically try not to interact with too many things when I’m driving - especially when my child is in the car.”
A Twindow mobile shopping app where users can select items either by looking through categories or based on their situational needs.
“I wouldn’t know what buttons to choose…”
Though we gained some interesting insights from our initial round of ideation, we felt our produced ideas were either too narrow or were simply features that would not be able to stand alone. As a team, we needed to dive deeper and create more robust concepts.
We took some of the positive elements of our initial testing and did further brainstorming to develop stronger concepts. We then did another round of testing with four working mothers that lived in the suburbs and were smartphone users.
Real-time inventory search of Twindow within a designated area
Direct search > browsing and
useful navigation feature
Went against the user’s mental model of a home screen
Category building for quick order creation and checkout
Direct search > browsing and
product info influences purchase
Users could only see themselves using “Past Pick-Up” category
A tool that uses text message and voice command to make quick product selection decisions and build orders for users
Text of link for navigating to store
Opportunity for additional product info
A collaborative shopping list that multiple users can edit and pick-up
Helps communication & budget and text of QR code convenient
Opportunity to remove items and invite users
This round of testing provided stronger results that allowed us to move forward. Based on the feedback from our concept and usability testing, we converged the positive concepts and design elements into one final design.
Users liked the idea of a map feature and/or navigation element within the tool
This concept was the most well-received and offered the highest level of convenience
Other positive design elements to include:
Users preferred to use a direct search over category browsing in order to save time and effort when shopping at a convenience store for a specific item.
Users wanted to see confirmations when adding new items and placing an order so they were confident their task was completed.
Users wanted to have the ability to edit their orders from multiple points within the app and to have easy access to their previously purchased history.
A collaborative shopping application that allows multiple users to edit orders and coordinate with each other for a streamlined pickup process.
The home screen provides an option to create a new order or a quick link to an existing one.
Users appreciated the simplicity of the Home screen and thought it was easy to comprehend, however, some would have liked to have easy access to past order history and product suggestions for quick purchase.
Some users didn’t see the purpose of creating an order for the future like, “Tomorrow’s Office Order.” Said they’d most likely use it for quick, immediate trips.
We didn't want to overwhelm our user with category browsing but allow them to directly find items immediately using the search bar.
Users liked the intuitive and ease of the search auto-populating function.
Once an item is selected, the user is brought to the product screen. They are presented with product image, description, and price. The size and quantity can be adjusted based on users’ needs.
Adding ingredients description would be helpful to users that need to be conscious of allergen information.
Users can also view recommended products.
Users liked “Goes well with” for further purchasing and product pairing.
Users can “Add to Order” if they have an existing order or reserving multiple items. Also, they have the option to “Get Now” which essentially means quick reservation of just one product.
Users slightly confused with difference between “Add to Order” & “Get Now."
Today’s Order screen shows the user the products they've added to their order. Users can manage and edit their order from here.
Liked the efficiency of the product editing capabilities.
In general, there were suggestions about how to change the content labeling of various screens. Specifically, users found the word “Reserve” to be confusing.
The screen also allows users to invite other members to their order, adjust the pickup location and even assign someone for pick up. By clicking the members icon the user can see other users in their contacts and add them - creating a shared order.
Some users wanted the option to create a username or handle similar to Venmo instead of granting direct access to contacts because they worried about data breaching.
Once a user has been added, they have visibility into the items and can even add and edit. By building out sharing capabilities, we aimed to avoid miscommunication or double purchasing experiences that could ultimately help with budgeting among users. Additionally, the user can assign a member for pickup.
Users liked the convenience and collaborative elements of of adding and delegating.
Once a member is set for pickup the user is brought to this screen where they can adjust the location to what is most convenient. User can put in their location and the map then populates the closest Twindow stores.
Liked that the application had the ability to find nearest Twindow location
User could also utilize navigation once ready for pickup.
For actual navigation, users would prefer to have a linked 3rd party like google maps or apple maps.
Once an order is reserved, users can view the Order reservation screen. This allows a visual into the users itemized order, payment information and the QR code needed for pick up. Users are also able to edit their order from here in case they'd like to make any last minute changes.
Liked to the ability to edit on the Order Reserved screen.
The user who has been assigned pickup will receive a notification from the app asking to accept the responsibility. Once they accept and are ready to pick up, they can go to the shared order to access the QR code.
Users found the text notification a unique and convenient feature.
Based on users' feedback, future research and considerations are highly recommended to further design development.
In order to further improve collaboration and communication, we recommend conducting further research into increasing visibility among members through location sharing opportunities.
Rather than settling in just suburban settings, we recommend exploring additional areas for Twindow locations to potentially appeal to a more diverse set of users - Perhaps those who reside in the city without cars.