Grocery Store Redesign
This user experience project dealt with the complex flow and layout of grocery stores. We were required to observe different customer interactions within a grocery store environment and create our own, new layout for a Wegmans pop-up shop in State College.
Research/Observations
To complete my research, I was required to visit numerous grocery stores and take observations. Since the project was to design a Wegmans pop-up shop in State College, I had to make sure I kept the identity of Wegmans when making my final layout/experience. This made my observations at the Wegmans grocery store more important than any other one. I needed to take into account any special features, experiences, or layouts a Wegmans has and translate them to my final design. I also needed to be aware of the most common customers of the store because of its location, college students.
The stores that I observed at include: Wegmans, Aldi, Redners, Giant, John Herr’s, Wal-Mart, and Target. Although Wal-Mart and Target aren’t exactly grocery stores, they do have grocery sections, so I felt it was beneficial to observe them as well.
Important Findings
Each store had some kind of bakery and deli counter.
Product islands are scattered throughout the store and draw attention from customers.
Most of the grocery stores utilized self-checkout (caused less traffic at the normal checkout lines).
Seasonal or sales items at the entrance of most stores that cause customers to stop and look.
Interviews
The next step in my research was to conduct interviews with shoppers of all age ranges and demographics. I wanted to investigate what their thoughts were as they interacted with different features in a grocery store. Throughout my 8 interviews, I was able to come find four key problems/ opportunities that would help further my research.
Importance of product orientation
Mobile ordering taking over in-store shopping
College student v.s. non-student shopping experiences
Drawing the customers into the store
Along with the interviews, I had a few people complete tasks in each grocery store to get first hand feedback from users. The tasks consisted of trying to find basic groceries to see how easy it was to locate them (ex. find a gallon of whole milk). This gave me valuable information on the flow of the stores, orientation of products, and user experience.
Key Ideas
What information matters, and what is the best way to organize it?
What did I see? What does it mean? Why does it matter?
How can I directly improve the employee's experience and, indirectly, the customer's experience?
CUJs—critical user journeys
Key Features
Self-Checkout and Register Balance
Produce Section
Small Shops
Product Islands
Checkout Products and Beyond
Ready-Made Food
Utilizing the Space
Window Shopping
Two-Floor Building
Floor Plan
First Floor
Second Floor
Taking my observations and interviews into account, I needed to formulate my service design for the Wegmans pop-up shop. I organized my ideas into three sections: key features, utilizing the space, and floor plan.
Snack Box App
The final portion of this project was to make an app that allowed customers to order from the new Wegmans pop-up shop I had created. There were three steps to the process of making this app: