UX Case Study · Concept

Aldi InStore Shopping App

A concept app that makes in person grocery shopping faster and calmer. Designed for the shoppers who’d rather stay out of online delivery.

Role: UX Research & Design
Type: Mobile app concept
Methods: Interviews, affinity mapping, prototyping

Hand-drawn concept screens: item search, store map, cart, and QR self-checkout

01 — Overview

Most grocery tech pushes people online. Some don’t want to go.

Most grocery innovation aims at delivery and online carts. But a sizeable group still prefers shopping in person and feels left behind by systems that assume everyone wants to move online. Aldi is a concept app for them: it keeps the in store trip and removes the friction around it.

We used these user pain points as our insights to develop the design goal 

Problem statement: we aim to improve the in-person shopping experience at local shops, for those who aren't familiar with digital solutions, when they want a pleasing and efficient shop — The problem statement that anchored every decision.

02 — Research

Listening before designing.

To what extent can digitalizing the in person grocery shopping experience improve customer behavior and satisfaction? In this short project we used Aldi shoppers as the main target audience. for a starting bases, I asked customers shopping if they like shopping in person or digitally and why.

Affinity map of interview notes, grouped into in-person experience and online experience — Interview notes, clustered into in-person vs. online themes.

Three attitudes surfaced again and again: people found local stores easy and convenient, they were skeptical of online systems, and many carried a bias that delivery simply costs more.

Interview results: easy and convenient, skeptical, and bias — What shoppers told me, in three recurring attitudes.

03 — Persona

Meet Flora.

Those attitudes converged on one person. Flora is 45, a kindergarten teacher in Germany with two kids. She loves shopping at the local store but isn’t comfortable with digital systems and she’s worn down by long lines and hunting for products on the shelves.

Persona: Flora, 45, kindergarten teacher — background, pain points, wants, needs, and obstacles — Flora — the shopper the concept is built around.

04 — The current trip

Where a calm errand turns stressful.

Mapping Flora’s current trip showed exactly where things go wrong. She starts calm and happy, then loses time searching for products with no help in sight, and ends drained at a long checkout.

Experience map of Flora's shopping trip, with her emotion dropping from calm to chaotic by checkout — Experience map — her mood drops from “calm and happy” to “chaotic” by the checkout.

I need help!!! Where are the workers?

05 — Design goals

Turn each pain point into a feature.

Trouble finding products became a smart item search with a shopping list. Long waits at checkout became mobile / self-checkout with live line updates. Store-layout confusion became an in-store map. All of it pointed at the same outcome: save time, shop stress free, and leave the store satisfied.

Design goals mapping pain points to features: smart item search, mobile/self checkout, and store map — Pain points mapped to features, mapped to the feeling we wanted.

06 — The concept

Keep Flora in the aisles; handle the rest.

I sketched the flow as a storyboard, then built a paper prototype: find a product, scan as you go, follow the store map, and check out with a QR code at self checkout.

Hand-drawn storyboard of Flora's shopping trip using the app — Storyboard — the trip, start to finish, with the app.

Paper prototype screens for the Aldi concept app — Paper prototype — the full screen set.

Interactive prototype home screen: find a product, scan a package, shopping cart — Home — find a product, scan, shopping cart.

07 — Reflection

Possibly a solution towards international students

Although we kept a user similar to Flora in mind, the project turned out to be most likely more useful for foreign students. It could be a good solution for adding accurate product translations and offering different languages. It could be a way to help a foreigner become more comfortable with shopping until they familiarize themselves. The solution we made wasn’t so different from self checkout, but it enhances the self checkout concept.