We reimagined the grocery shopping experience from the ground up using only existing proven technology and no integration with phones. The new cart-less browsing journey brings the shopper closer than ever before to the thing they care about: the products.
The Team
We are third-year Industrial Design students from Georgia Tech who aim to design and reinvent the most seamless shopping experience.
Tynan Purdy | Catherine Sun | Hope Kutsche | Sara Inani
Design Objective
Use QR codes and adjacent technologies as more than a placeholder in physical space. Improve data transfer and enable connections to improve user experience.
Opportunities
Decrease checkout time
Eliminate cart dragging
Facilitate more browsing
Grocery Reimagined
Our reimagined grocery shopping journey encourages shoppers to browse leisurely, wait less in lines, and walk around freely.
Process
Research → Ideation → Testing → Model
Research
We started by looking at a variety of near range, partially passive data transfer technologies including QR, NFC, and RFID to establish their limits and use cases.
Survey
We conducted a survey on the experience of shopping with 150+ responses.
What is the lowest point of your shopping trip? Waiting in line
Checkout Time Trials
Observing and timing checkout at Publix
Average Checkout Time: 45 seconds
Of that, 35 seconds is bagging
Distributing item scanning would save 2/3 of checkout time
This contribution was made by Hope Kutsche
💡 Insight
Waiting in line for checkout is the worst part of shopping, of which scanning and bagging takes the longest
Ideation
Concept and Prototype
NFC Item Claiming
Write your member ID to products with a fob to claim them, then place claimed items on the conveyor. Check in at the end-zone to collect your items from a locker and self-bag before departing.
Testing
Batches of 1-6 people shopped in a small mockup of aisles, shelves and drop-off boxes to simulate browsing with a list and using ‘wizard of oz’ conveyor system. The simulation procedure was tweaked between runs based on feedback in post-interviews.
The designers rigged a rough mockup of a single checkout station with cardboard, foam core, and items found in the studio. After ten participants had checked out 2-4 times, the designers knew what UI elements were needed along the process, where belt and cart were located, the depth of the staging area, and how the belt behaved with the screen elements.
Model
Laser cut cardboard and acrylic, with 3D printed touchpoints, modeled in Fusion 360 using variables and a master sketch.
Moving Forward
Expanding from medium room-scale simulations to full scale will provide more representative behavioral data and further highlight opportunities to improve the shopper journey.
R&D
Grocery Reimagined is made of a network of tech systems including, fulfillment, database inventory, front-end UI, vision processing, and traffic engineering. A long period of development and testing is necessary before opening a pilot store.
