Grosho
Rethinking the grocery shopping experience to allow shoppers to reduce time spent in-person shopping.
OVERVIEW
Role: Product Designer
Platform: Mobile App
Duration: 4 months
Tools: Figma, Google Forms, Adobe Illustrator
As college students with packed schedules, we oftentimes spend too much unnecessary time on tasks that don’t require it. I wanted to dive deeper into the frustrations of in-person grocery shopping and ultimately create a solution to optimize our time in grocery stores.
Solution Demo
Mobile app that lets users choose their preferred store, create shopping lists, check product availability with alternative suggestions, and navigate the store using an in-app map
To oyster, or not to oyster
CONTEXT
How did this project come to be?
It all started when my friends and I were looking to host an oyster party because of Whole Foods' 12-for-12 oyster deal. By the time it came to grocery shop, we took a whopping 1.5 hours to get all the ingredients due to the unfamiliar store layout.
This led me to investigate…
How might we create a more efficient in-person grocery shopping experience for college students?
Taking a Deep Shuck Dive
RESEARCH
I conducted user research to better understand the pain points of in person grocery shopping. Out of the 40 responses, the survey revealed two main pain points:
1. Items are hard to locate
2. Unclear product availability
How to Simplify the Shopping Experience
OBJECTIVES
To decide on what to gear my solution towards, I based it on the most typical actions performed and needed by college students, which I conducted user interviews to gain insight on. I found that every single participant said that they rely on their phones heavily while shopping—whether to check prices, look up items, or navigate the store more efficiently. This reliance on mobile convenience led me to my final solution:
in-app store map + navigation
Unclear product availability
real-time inventory + alternatives
Sketching the Shell
IDEATION
Polishing the Pearl
TESTING
HORIZONTAL
VERTICAL
And the winner is… both?
7/8 users said they preferred vertical scrolling overall to be able to find stores faster.
4/8 users mentioned that they still liked horizontal scrolling for the featured sections after the initial browsing.
Essentially, they wanted more breadth initially for discovery, and later more depth when it came to the featured sections.
Examining this Breadth → Depth Model
This led me to investigate: Does this breadth to depth model work for the store-specific item catalogue as well? Would users like to see a vertical scroll view of categories before seeing select items?
I drew on cognitive patterns and what college students tend to gravitate toward, and the result ended up contrasting the Breadth-to-Depth.
Solution:
— Catalogue of items to reduce cognitive load
— Option to switch tabs to view aisle categories (still ensures efficiency for in-store shopping)
If we were to start with the broad categories, this would mean users would have to mentally predict what’s inside and recall what they need.
For college students especially, having a catalogue of specific items taps into dopamine-driven behavior & what we call “doom scrolling” which has to do with the desire to quickly find something we like, without effort or frustration.
01/ In-app Store Navigator
FINAL SOLUTION
02/ Product Availability
FINAL SOLUTION
Key Takeaways
REFLECTION
01/ Tailored understanding 🙇♀️
I learned that it's important to know my user group and develop a tailored solution for them. For example, if it were catered more toward seniors, there would definitely be less clutter on the screen, and fewer clicks to take. If it were for younger children for whatever reason they might be grocery shopping, it could have been something a lot more gamified.
02/ Take things 1 step at a time ⏳
One of the challenges I faced was defining and narrowing the scope of the project. I had many ideas, but given the time constraints, I couldn’t design everything. This experience taught me to prioritize core features that would have the greatest impact while ensuring they were realistic and achievable within the timeframe.
03/ Oysters are worth it 🦪
This was a very fun (albeit a bit hectic) project, and I'm very grateful to have learned and grown as a designer. I'm looking forward to continue building shuck-worthy solutions, one oyster at a time!
