Ahold Delhaize USA

Holistic web, mobile, in-person experiences to enrich eCommerce

Ahold Delhaize USA (formerly Peapod Digital Labs) is a technology company that provides e-commerce solutions for its grocery retail brands, including Stop & Shop, Food Lion, GIANT, and Giant Food.

  • 2022

  • Apple iOS, Web

  • Figma, User Zoom, Apple Xcode, ARKit, RealityKit, Microsoft Sharepoint, Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint

  • Product Experience Design, UX Research, Prototyping, User Testing, Team Leadership

Responsiblity

As a Product Experience Designer, I was responsible for researching, designing, prototyping, testing, and introducing innovative digital experiences for digitally engaged shoppers. My significant contribution was materializing:

  • 1. Wayfinding: An all-new experience for shoppers to help find items in-store using labels, 2D Map and Augmented Reality (AR).

  • 2. Home Screen Widgets: Allowing shoppers to access frequent shortcuts and features directly from their iOS home screen.

  • 3. Live Activities: iOS 16 Live Activities API helping users stay informed about order delivery and pick-up status.

Joseph Tumilty - Product Design Manager at Ahold Delhaize

“In the time that I worked with Rohan, I was consistently impressed by his motivation and ability to complete tasks with minimal guidance. He is a proactive and detail-oriented individual who consistently delivers high-quality work. It was also refreshing to get his perspective as he rarely shies away from innovative ideas. In addition to his technical skills, Rohan is also a team player who is always willing to go the extra mile to help his colleagues. He has excellent communication skills and is able to effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams. Rohan will be a valuable asset to any team. I highly recommend him.”

2000+

75%

Stores

Satisfaction Rate

14.5M+

$58B+

Customers

Brand Revenue/yr

Wayfinding

Goal

Make it easy for customers to quickly locate items, enhance in-store shopping efficiency; ultimately, increase customer satisfaction through an improved wayfinding experience that saves time.

Ideation

At the start of the project, I initiated an analysis phase in which I collaborated with stakeholders to identify wayfinding pain points, conduct competitive analysis, and brainstorm potential solutions for the app. UX Research, customer journey mapping revealed that finding specific items in-store was tedious, frustrating, and inefficient. We determined that guided wayfinding in the app would help shoppers navigate more easily, provide a clearer path through aisle locations; ultimately making grocery shopping quicker, easier, and more efficient.

In-app Labels, 2D Map & AR Directions

To improve accessibility, I designed stock information labels within the app, 2D indoor maps, and AR Directions to guide shoppers directly to items. Dynamic Island on iOS 16 would allow shoppers to keep track of directions while switching between apps, such as Reminders for their grocery lists.

  • Company’s initiative

    This project was crucial for the company. UX research showed that although 32% of in-store shoppers were digitally engaged, they contributed an average of $1.8 billion brand revenue per quarter. Digitally engaged shoppers spent 2x as much as non-engaged shoppers. We hypothesized that enhancing digital features would improve the shopping experience, boost loyalty, increase revenue, and drive the company’s overall growth and success.

  • Making people’s lives easier

    Before this project, customers at Ahold Delhaize USA grocery stores had to rely on aisle headers, printed lists, or store representatives to find items, a process that was inefficient and challenging, especially for people with disabilities. By addressing these pain points, we aimed to create a more holistic, continuous, accessible, inclusive, independent, seamless, and efficient shopping experience for customers both online or in-person.

  • My personal motivation

    Personally, I was particularly motivated to work on this project because I have experienced the same wayfinding struggles as many shoppers in-store. Like many, I often found myself wandering up and down aisles in search of specific items, frustrated by the inefficiency and time-wasting that often accompanies in-store shopping. I am proud to have contributed to a project that has the potential to make a real difference in the lives of shoppers, including myself.

User Tests

To assess the effectiveness of mobile wayfinding solutions, the UX Researcher and I conducted 45-minute moderated feedback interview sessions with 4 regular users of the Stop & Shop, Giant Foods, Food Lion apps. We evaluated different approaches, including in-app labels, 2D maps and AR, using interactive prototypes. This feedback informed design iteration decisions, ensuring we met the needs of our users.

Impact

3 out of 4 participants responded positively, stating that guided wayfinding helped them “find things quicker, make life easier, and shopping more convenient.” With a satisfaction rate of 75%, this feedback validated the importance of integrating guided wayfinding into our solution, significantly improving the shopping experience.

“I’m a big fan of this, it saves me time and energy. It’s like having a personal assistant, it helps me shop conveniently.”

— Customer

“This feature is beneficial for accessibility reasons, and helps me be more independent.”

— Customer

Home Screen Widgets

Glanceable

In addition to designing wayfinding features, I also played a key role in developing iOS Home Screen widgets that would enable shoppers to engage more effectively with quick and easy access to a range of information for efficient browsing and shopping.

Small, Medium, Large

The widgets were designed in small, medium, and large sizes, focused on providing access to key features such as past purchases, shopping lists, the cart, rewards, savings, and digital coupons. Small widgets offered quick shortcuts to the shopper card, barcode scanning, and browsing. Medium widgets displayed deals of the day and product recommendations. Large widgets provided detailed views of deals, shopping lists, and more.

Live Activities

Real-Time

To further enhance the digital engagement and satisfaction of shoppers, I implemented the Live Activities API on iOS to provide real-time notifications for pickup and delivery orders, offering updates on order status and time sensitive notifications when the pickup or delivery window was about to begin.

Pickup and delivery orders

Live Activity Notifications are designed to trigger automatically 30 minutes before the pickup window, providing updated status on the lock screen.

I led design and prototyping of this system for both pickup and delivery orders, leveraging the Live Activities API to create a responsive and streamlined experience to keep shoppers informed and engaged throughout the shopping process.

What I learned

  • Technical Learning

    I gained a deeper understanding of Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, as well as ARKit guidelines, which helped me to create effective and engaging user experiences. Furthermore, I was able to leverage technical APIs and better understand the interaction differences between mobile apps and websites. I also learned that attention to even the smallest details can greatly impact the user experience.

  • Growth

    I polished my skills in managing design projects from ideation to launch, a testament to my capacity to work both autonomously and as a pivotal member of a multidisciplinary team. I learned to manage cross-functional teams and stakeholder relationships while collaborating closely and constructively with product management, designers, UX researchers and engineers to deliver flawlessly.

  • Crafted With Care

    As someone who has personally struggled with wayfinding in grocery stores, I was excited to work on a solution that could make this process easier and more efficient for both myself and shoppers alike. With that in mind, I designed these features with care, to build something wonderful. Before I left the company, these features were put on the product roadmap and expected to roll out to users in the near future.