Course Project
The goal of this project was to design a digital product that would add unique value to the Trader Joe's shopping experience.
Completed as part of David Travis' Udemy course, I chose this particular prompt because it called for a solution that simultaneously met the needs of both users and the business.
Sketch
Illustrator
What value could a Trader Joe’s specific app provide for the user that other shopping apps cannot?
What are the baseline utilities users would expect from a shopping app?
What user needs are already met by the existing Trader Joe’s experience?
What are strengths of the existing Trader Joe’s shopping experience that could be enhanced?
5 shoppers at Trader Joe’s gave me permission to observe them while they shopped and answered follow up questions while they checked out.
Written observations
Audio recordings of follow up questions
Diagram's of users route through the store
Many users prioritize sticking to a budget but have difficulty doing so.
“Not spending too much money but getting what you need."
“Finding the food that I want and not spending too much money.”
One shopper came back to return items because they went over budget
“I don’t want to be in the grocery store; I’d rather be somewhere else.”
“What takes the most time is thinking about what I want to eat that week, writing down recipes”
“I always appreciate a quick check out”
“My least favorite shopping trips usually involve long waits”
Speed matters. Almost all user frustrations with the shopping experience stem from things taking longer than they should.
“They employees there are kind and helpful, especially Paul the wine guy.”
"Paul is the guy to talk to for a wine recommendation."
"He was there right away to help us."
A consistent highpoint was personalized assistance from a TJ's employee. All three of these quotes referenced the same employee and were unprompted.
“I shop here all the time, so I know where things are”
“I enjoy stores that are easy to navigate”
“Having things in the same place every time I come; it makes things more efficient”
“A smaller store so it’s easy to navigate”
One of five shoppers had to backtrack to find an item
The current layout of the store is very intuitive and users can navigate it without assistance.
“I like these little end things - they give you ideas”
“I always get stuff I didn’t plan on buying - they put ideas in my head”
“Let’s look and see if they have anything fun”
Users appreciate suggestions. Deciding what to buy requires mental labor many are happy to outsource to the store.
“I enjoy finding things where I think they should be."
“They don’t have the hummus I normally buy?”
“Where is that?”
“It’s frustrating when they don’t have what I was looking for and I have to find it somewhere else.”
When users have established the expectation that they will be able to find a certain item, it is especially frustrating when it is not available.
What understandings came out of this research that could inform decision making about how to better help students improve their writing?
What value could a Trader Joe’s specific app provide for the user that other shopping apps cannot?
Autofill items when populating list/avoiding manual item entry.
Up to date pricing information and budgeting tools.
What are the baseline utilities users would expect from a shopping app?
Recipe and new item discovery.
Sharing and collaborating on lists with other users.
Converting recipes into list items.
What user needs are already met by the existing Trader Joe’s experience?
No need item location features since stores are already intuitive to navigate.
No need for sale or discount notifications because TJ's has neither.
What are strengths of the existing Trader Joe’s shopping experience that could be enhanced?
Having questions answered by TJ's employees.
Receiving product suggestions from TJ's employees.
Discovering new items from product displays.
To help maintain a consistent experience, I used existing Trader Joe’s interfaces as the foundation of the visual system.
The color palette is bread and butter Americana:
I preserved as much of the homepage typography system as I could, adjusting text size to fit a mobile interface.
The primary change was consistently using blue as a signifier for clickable content and reserving red for top of the visual hierarchy.
Users would need to be able to achieve primary use cases such as finding and organizing recipes.
The discover menu also gives users an additional opportunity to be pleasantly surprised by the discovery of new items.
Where most shopping apps require manual item entry or have a generic database, a Trader Joe's specific application would be able to auto-fill directly from the store's inventory.
Access to this data would also help avoid users going over budget or expecting to buy an item that is out of stock, two of the principle pain points identified in research.
Unprompted, three of five users interviewed celebrated their interactions with an employee named Paul. His personalized interactions were a consistent high point in the shopping experience.
Beyond providing better wine suggestions, this feature would help other employees provide the same level of individual attention.
What data would help indicate how these modifications achieved project goals?
Attract more customers by providing unique value propositions.
More customers complete more of their shopping at Trader Joe's
A large number of users use the Trader Joe's app to manage their shopping