Smhood
Optimizing the Grocery Buying Experience
Overview
The Pandemic, with lockdowns and social distancing, brought about a change in consumer shopping behavior with increased awareness and adoption of e-commerce. A lot more people are buying online today than a year ago, however, existing systems are not optimized to offer quick delivery of users' orders. Buying your groceries and daily essentials online should be as quick and easy as buying from the "shop" around the corner; just a few minutes away. Smhood is a product that allows users (consumers/shoppers) to buy groceries on their phones and have their orders delivered in minutes. I led the ideation, strategy, and design for Smhood's web and app interface.
Role
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User Research
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Web Design
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UX Design
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UI Design
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Visual Design
Finding; The Problem
Being particular about brands I patronize, I would often struggle to find choice products when the stores closest to me run out of stock. This often meant that I had to visit multiple stores in search of a specific product, which is not a time-efficient activity. The option to buy online from current e-commerce solutions means I don't get the product for another day or week.
By carrying out research on a range of prospective consumers, I was able to map out an ideal customer journey to understand how they currently solve for this inconvenience. About 95% of participants involved in my research had been in, at least, a similar situation in the last month. To solve the problem of how users can buy efficiently, it was important for us to simplify the process and optimize how they find desired brands and products.
Buyers' reaction to Products being out-of-stock
38% Checked other stores nearby
26.7% Bought a substitute/alternative
23.3% Left to check back another time
12% Visited eCommerce websites
Design Direction
To ensure that I kept the end-users at the center of the solution, my design decisions revolved around the questions;
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Who am I designing for?
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What goal are they looking to achieve?
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How do they currently solve this problem?
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What will be the simplest most rewarding experience?
Using the data and testing several assumptions, I identified the 12% of users who were inclined to visit e-commerce websites as the group which offered the highest opportunity for possible early adopters. I created a simple profile of the ideal user to better inform my design decisions about who the solution will serve.
Conceptualizing the Solution
A consumer's main goal is to purchase products conveniently within the shortest possible time. By creating a platform that connects to a network of independent store inventories, we are able to leverage a robust data set to optimize how consumers interact with retail stores around them. To test this primary use case, an MVP was developed to make finding products easy. I created concepts of the design around helping users find products in retail convenience stores around them without onboarding, and came up with a simple information architecture that focused on product discovery within locations for the home page. I conceptualized the user flow using wireframes to illustrate a number of user tasks, including onboarding and buying on Smhood.
From Inspired to Design
Smhood's design was created around the brand's theme. I started by building a comprehensive components library within Figma that would be included and function in various sections of the app. These include colors, typography, icons, buttons, interaction states, spacing, etc.
User Onboarding
The onboarding experience was designed around the service's core feature, Search, to help consumers find products and their prices in retail convenience/grocery stores around them. Without having to create an account or input login details, consumers can search for products and confirm what stores around have them in stock. In order for users to get up to speed with this feature, I designed an experience that was simple and intuitive, taking inspiration from popular social media and eCommerce apps.
Creating an Account
To experience the full suite of Smhood's services, such as delivery, creating a shopping list, buying in-app, etc., users will be required to have a Smhood account. I designed the sign-up process to be seamless by requesting users to only provide necessary information, and also adopting some elements from popular eCommerce and daily use apps, to allow for an intuitive user flow.
Buying on Smhood
The buying experience on Smhood was designed to incorporate familiar features from how users experience buying from physical retail stores; evident in the format of how the generated receipt is presented, and flows from popular eCommerce apps. The product was also designed to enable users to access the List and Receipt features easily, such that they can use the app to write down (type out) a shopping list to include needed grocery items in advance, and helps them keep track of their spending with a simple presentation of their receipts.
Moving Forward...
The complexities of solving for e-commerce are unique, but when done right users don’t notice these and are immersed in a pleasant, yet simple experience. As Designers, we are often tempted to flex with aesthetically attractive, trendy, and out-of-the-box designs, but it is important that we always lead with the ‘Why’. The primary goal is to understand the user, and their problems and then come up with designs that meet them at their point of need. That being said, there is still a lot more to be improved on with Smhood, but I’m proud of everything learned so far and look forward to endless improvements.
