UI/UX Design       Mobile       Prototyping       User Research

Track, Report, and Support: Find the Best Grocery Prices and Support Your Local Shop!

The Problem

New Zealand suffers from an overpriced supermarket duopoly, local shop prices turn out to be fair.

Grocery prices have risen significantly due to last year's inflation rate. Despite this, local shops can still offer better prices than the big chain retail stores. However, local shops lack online prices for shoppers to compare, and this lack of information contributes to why most people choose to shop at supermarkets.

White Board Research

Supermarket Price Rollbacks: Addressing the Lack of Genuine Competition

During my initial white paper research, I drew on articles about the goals, motivation, and achievements of the grocery sector, including an eye-opening report from the Government.

New Zealanders know that the supermarket industry doesn’t work for them, and this opinion is backed up by the Commerce Commission. It’s not competitive and shoppers aren’t getting a fair deal, and the Government intended to legislate to resolve the current duopoly.

Competitor Analysis & The Gap

The competition lacks price information for local shops

There are several existing grocery price comparison websites or apps in NZ; however, those platforms only show prices from chain shops with online shopping. Furthermore, many of these prices are outdated, and users need to remember specific branch names to find a supermarket they might visit. Competitors apps doesn't promote discovery, and their users end up shopping at the same stores as they did before.

My Insight

We spend too much time hunting for the cheapest ingredients.

👱‍♀️: "I don't know what's on sale, so I end up buying random food I think is the cheapest. However, I often find that the next shop is even cheaper, or my expectation of finding cheaper food at the next shop turns out to be wrong."

The interviewees tend to visit all the nearby shops, sometimes even dedicating their entire day off to it. This is because they are unaware of the current sales and there is no online resource available for them to compare prices except for supermarkets.

Persona

I consolidated the research results and created three personas based on what we learned from the research. It helped the entire team better understand who we are designing for, and what are the most important things to focus on.

Wireframe

Upon completing the information architecture, I proceeded to work on paper wireframes to visualize the positioning of components and elements on each page. This process allows me to carefully consider the design, that it will present content and functionality in a structured manner. Following extensive team discussions and iterations, I refined the wireframes to ensure conciseness and alignment with everyone's expectations.

Testing & Improvement

Alert Function Removed from Navigation Bar

Enhancements made based on feedback:

We combined the alert function from the navigation bar with the Watchlist, enabling users to conveniently filter products and set up alerts. Additionally, we replaced the shopping cart icon with a heart icon to align with user instincts and avoid confusion regarding the checkout function.

Auto-Locate Nearest Shop

Onboarding Flow

We have added onboarding screens to the app, presenting users with feature highlights upon their first launch. These screens provide a quick overview of the app's functionalities and capabilities.

Page Showcase

To create a seamless user experience, it is important to not only deliver good functionality, but also ensure consistency across the entire app. To achieve this, I developed a robust design system that served as a foundation for every component I created.

This design system proved essential as it guided my decision-making process. It prompted me to ask crucial questions such as the necessity of each component, its logical placement within the flow, and the clarity of the information hierarchy. Moreover, the design system facilitated smoother communication between the engineering team and myself throughout the project.