Solution

During the project, we followed a number of guiding principles.

• Get to market quickly. By focusing on top priority customer needs, we didn’t try to launch with everything, but with a minimal viable product i.e. just enough to satisfy customers’ expectations.

• Cross-functional team. The team worked as a partnership between product, business subject matter experts, design, and development.

• Insights before action. The project’s foundations were rooted in regular quantitative and qualitative customer research. No hunches or subjective opinion.

The Research phase uncovered some critical insights.

• In places, the previous site was designed to reflect how products were organised internally, not around how their customers thought about grocery product categories.

• The previous design didn’t allow for serendipity, or discovery through adjacency - it assumed shoppers knew exactly what they wanted.

"Tea is not a drink until you add water, so it shouldn’t be under drinks."

Quote from a card sort test when testing the information architecture.

With these key findings we produced a set of design principles that became the north star to keep the team focused during the design phase.

These design principles gave us the clarity of thinking and focus we needed to begin redesigning the service so it solved the right problems for customers, and for the business.

• Design for the senses. Highlight the quality and freshness of by showing it in the best light.

• Design for serendipity. The customer might not know exactly what they want so we need to improve product discovery.

• Kill clutter. Where competitors’ sites are an assault on the senses, ours will provide a clean, uncluttered clarity; making an online shop less of a chore.