Buying your groceries at the lowest price just got easy, so did getting them delivered

We Connect you to the lowest costing grocery store

We connect you to the cheapest available grocery store option based on a itemized list you've created

Connect to a shopping cart 

Easily navigate the cart by tapping on the screen where you want to go. Use the arrows to look around

View item details and gain insights on upcoming sales and when they end

"A grape is not always a grape" user interview

Shop at home, at the office or on the go. Connect to the connected Goodz shopping cart and let the shopping begin

To select an item simply tap it and then add it to your cart 

Easily view what you have and need

We provide a safe, immersive shopping experience that allows

users to pick and choose the items they actually want

Easy and automated delivery service

Simply checkout and select your delivery options

Delivery selection of UI is currently under revision

Research & Concept Development

Our end concept was to provide an automated way to help users maximize savings at the grocery store to get the lowest total cost, without risking exposure to COVID-19...

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It started off as an automated way to help users maximize savings at the grocery.

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Take a look below and see how Connected Goodz came about

Seed Topic

In the very beginning of this project, before COVID and all, our seed topic going into this project was simply saving money

Some simple ways people can save money

eating at home

canceling subscriptions

reduce energy consumption

lower cell phone bill

cutting back on groceries

buying generic

skipping the coffe shop

Easy to save- simple acts

Hard to save- continuous acts

skipping the coffe shop

skipping the coffe shop

canceling subscriptions

reduce energy consumption

lower cell phone bill

eating at home

cutting back on groceries

buying generic

It was not long before we knew that one of the main ways people can save money is by eating at home and saving money at the grocery store

UX Topic

UX Topic

Our focus for the project became grocery savings

Guide to saving money at the grocery store

coupons

budget

creating and sticking to your list

tracking expenses

using cash

planning on what you need

sales

saves money on budget

prevents going over budget

sales & couponing research

  • Households with incomes of $100,000 or more are twice as likely to coupon as those who earn less than $35,000                                                                                      27.9 % of US households earn less than $35,000 annually

  • College-degree holders are also twice as likely to use coupons as those who did not graduate from high school.

  • Coupon users, on average, have at least one unemployed adult in the household

sales & coupons:

Require users to spend excruciating amount of time, dedication and effort to find the proper sales and coupons

 

Can be difficult, misread, and misused

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Price booking & analyzing sales across multiple stores to find the best deal is a daunting task and easily miscalculated

"For people that have full time employment and a busy schedule, managing and analyzing  the effect coupons and sales have on the overall price of their groceries can be like taking on a full time job"- user interview

A mission was set to figure out why utilizing sales and coupons are such a pain

Sales

Products follow a sale cycle in grocery stores
 

In order to maximize savings, you must monitor the sale cycles of the items you purchase at the stores you shop at

Best Deal

Sale Price

Base Price

Product A

Weeks

Base Price

Sale Price

Best Deal

Product A

Product A-

ideal time to buy

Weeks

The graphs above represent a model of a one products price fluctuations as weeks progress.

As you track more items, keeping up gets more and more complicated

Product A

Product B

Product C

Imagine keeping track of all the items you buy at the grocery store(s)

Coupons

Searching and clipping coupons is a time consuming task that people are not usually capable of with their busy schedules.

90% of shoppers use coupons in some way, However coupons valued at $465 billion went unused.

Nearly half of non-coupon users blame time for their lack of interest

28%

rarely/ never use coupons

80%

want coupons to be automated

60%

say their coupons expire

70%

43%

too much effort

wish to find more coupons for their items

Desire all coupons be digital (not limited to smartphone)

Say they use both digital and paper

Prefer to receive coupons on their smartphone

Lackluster consumer experience viewing coupons on mobile screens

Issues with point-of-sale scanning of mobile-based coupons and offers

Line hold-ups caused by redemption of sequential mobile-based coupon offers

Redemption policies that conflict with manufacturer's coupons

Outdated retail systems that lack coupon functionality

Interviews & Surveys

Sample questions

Do you change where you shop based on sales/ coupons

What prevents you from using coupons?

Do you search to find the items you need on sale?

Are you familiar with item sale cycles?

How do you attempt to save money when grocery shopping

what's the most challenging part about saving money on groceries?

If you have difficulty finding/ looking for sales, what are they

What is the most challenging part about using coupons

What is the benefit/ issue of using digital coupons

What resources/ tools do you use to find coupons and sales?

What’s the most challenging part about saving money on groceries?

“That you won’t always get to save, which sucks. Couponing is like a full time job”

“Dedicating time to finding coupons and comparing prices”

“The convenience component. How much is my time worth? Spend 30-60 minutes or spend 25% more for something that’s faster or already prepared”

How do you attempt to save money when grocery shopping?

“I use coupons and try to match store sales with coupons to get the best deals.”

“Have a budget of what I can spend & price match”

“Coupons (physical and digital), rebate apps, weekly ads, writing a list, meal planning around deals, setting a budget”

What’s the hardest part about using coupons?

"It takes time to research what coupons are available, which ones match sale items, order the coupons, keep them organized, etc."

Cashiers who do not understand the policies of their stores

Expiration dates

Not working at the register

What is the benefit/ issue of using digital coupons

"Difficult to remember which ones I’ve “cut”(saved); many times, cannot use in conjunction with paper coupon."

"I don't like how unreliable they are"

"Trying to find them in the app once you choose them"

How do people find sales and coupons?

Problem Statement

Finding & analyzing the effect coupons & sales have on the total price of groceries is challenging, time consuming, and unwelcoming.

There are several apps to help those like Sam. However, the work on the users end remains the same, and the problem is not alleviated

Market Research- Competitive analysis

The main downfall of all the current apps that offer a coupon and sale savings, is that the user STILL has to put in the work to properly save on a consistent basis, and find the total cheapest groceries.

Apps like Ibotta offer great savings, however it is after the fact of shopping,and does not necessarily mean the user got those items at the cheapest price

In the end- Sam has to decide whether or not she wants to spend her valuable time analyzing and finding the cheapest value, or paying more for her groceries. Either way , to Sam she loses.

How Can We...

Save users time spent looking for coupons and sales

Maximize savings for the shopper upfront

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Simplify how a user redeems coupons at checkout

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Connect users to the best deals for the items they need without the labor

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Concept

Our concept started off as an automated way to help users maximize savings at the grocery store

Target Audience

The busy working class, on a budget, looking to get the best value for the items they need

Objective

Providing people with the ability to get the groceries they need at the cheapest price when when they wouldn't be able to otherwise due to lack of time

Concept Development & Design

We were thinking about how the user could start off with a list of items they want, and how we could utilize that list to connect them to which grocery store in the area has the cheapest total price

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Instead of having users do the work to save money, we want to do the the work and directly connect them to the cheapest total option upfront, based on their list.

To help the user manage the items they have and need, we thought about how an inventory can be utilized to easily view what you have and what you need

Move items from your inventory to you shopping list or just mark it out of stock

To figure out how our system will calculate the cheapest price on behalf of the users list, we need a neural network to analyze the items price across all stores, recognizing and applying coupons autonomously and sales information for proper buying

User creates a shopping list

Each item gets filtered through each of the user prefered grocery stores

At each store, the list above would come out to a certain amount

User is presented with the cheapest option based on their shopping list, store data, and preferences

Our Concept was met with a dilemma, we had to solve the problem of providing the coupons we found to our users, and eliminating the current hassle/ obstacles of coupons.

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According to our users, we thought it would be best to automate the handling process.

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Our goal in doing this was to eliminate the barriers of coupon transaction failures, and to simplify the overall process.

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If we provided an in app account so users can pay for their groceries with the app. All the coupons and sale discounts we found and initially calculated will be applied as apart of the transaction.

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By doing this, we could completely automate the process of looking for manufacturer/store coupons and sales, and allow the user to have a smooth effortless transaction.

In order for our app to act as a payment method, it would now have to actually know what the user is purchasing. Not just suggest where to go based on a list and providing coupons, leaving the user for their own fate.

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users can of course always deviate from their list, which is why we need to know what they are purchasing, if we want to provide an all in one payment.

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To accomplish the app knowing what the user is buying, we thought about how the phone could be used as a scanner.


we realized not only could we simply provide our users with the cheapest grocery store option upfront, but we could also better the shopping experience

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Its at this point we start thinking about how we can change the shopping experience on a procedural level.

Before starting the second design phase, a low fi prototype was made and designed after the current progress

Sitemap

Concept map

Low-fi prototype

User Testing Insights

User 1

User 2

User 3

  • Edit quantity on shopping list after the desired unit is chosen

  • Confused on plus and minus symbol in my pantry. Looks too much like a quantity adjuster

  • Needs an onboarding guidance process

  • Bottom navigation bar

  • Redesign some visuals such as the store pricing selection.

  • Add more info and visual hierarchy to the shopping lists, and shop feature

  • Shopping list needs to have more item description

  • Wording of my pantry/ inventory was misleading

  • Have deals of bought goods in the past displayed on the homepage

  • When the user selects shop, automatically have either the cheapest or most shopped store selected

Start of segment 2

Right as segment 2 was starting our world went into a pandemic and we started living in a world of quarantine and social distancing as a result of COVID-19

Our biggest problem as a society is spreading the virus, which is why social distancing and quarantine was put in place.

Most places throughout the US are shut down and only essential businesses remain open. (at the time)

 

Grocery stores are among the essential businesses permitted to stay open during the state’s stay-at-home order, but a handful of local supermarkets have been forced to temporarily close after employees tested positive for COVID-19.

 

Grocery stores are a hot spot for the spread of COVID-19, due to the high population of the stores.

"Careless customers" are "probably the biggest threat" to workers right now, according to Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers' union. The union said 85% of its grocery store member workers reported that customers are not practicing social distancing in stores.

“Such surfaces are almost unavoidable for shoppers. But they also carry a certain amount of risk in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, adding urgency to a troubling question: Have pharmacies and supermarkets become super-spreading virus vectors?”

How can we...

Help stop the spread and keep people safe?

Provide people with a in store shopping experience anywhere, at any time (in current situations at home)

Tie together our core mission, helping people get their groceries at the cheapest price to save money?

New Concept & Design

One of our biggest critics about this project in the first segment was that the concept seemed too simple and needed to be more robust and use current technologies to create an impactful design

Before moving forward, we stripped our current design down and eliminated the pantry (inventory) savings review and phone scanning

The design would be simplified to users creating a list and connecting them to the cheapest grocery store in the area for the total price of the items. Sale and coupon discounts would still reflect the total cost and would be automated to the user to use.

New Concept Development

A company that provides robots (shopbot) at grocery store locations for users to connect to and shop wherever they are at

How it works

when users make their shopping list and choose the cheapest store they want to shop at based on the price calculations we provide, that user will then be connected to a bot at the chosen store location

The user will go through an interactive experience via mobile or desktop platform to control the bot through the store and get at the items they need.

The user will go through an interactive experience via mobile or desktop platform to control the bot through the store and get at the items they need.

Connected Goodz ShopBot & Navigation

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1

2

4

1: upper left

navigate with move tool- direct the bot forward with thumb toggle

look around with arrows

floating action button for list/ cart viewing. checkout will e available here to

2: upper right

use a thumb toggle to control a cursor- click on screen where you want the bot to go and grab

look around with arrows

shopping list is scrollable and expandable on the bottom

3: bottom left

tap on screen where you want the bot to go and grab

look around with arrows

4: bottom right

swipe on trackpad where you want the bot to go

look around with arrows

To keep the bot navigation as simple as possible, we went with decision three. It allows users to tap on screen where they want the bot to go and the bot will automatically navigate to the designated spot. While the bot is navigating the user will be able to look around with the arrows.

Cart view and item details

To select item off the shelf

Items highlighted green signal that the user has retrieved that item

ShopBot sketches

Chosen bot design

Why use Connected Goodz

  • According to survey data from Morgan Stanley, 84% of people say they decided against ordering groceries online because they preferred to physically see and choose their groceries.

  • 72% of Americans mentioned the ability to touch, feel and try products as a top reason to shop in-store. 48% listed the ability to browse and discover new things as a top reason to shop brick & mortar.

  • 26% chose stores over online shopping for the ability to speak to a sales associate.

  • Despite an abundance of new options for buying groceries online, American consumers still overwhelmingly prefer to do their shopping in stores, according to a new survey sponsored by facilities management company Vixxo. ... It found that 87% of consumers prefer to shop in person

Allows people that dont want to be exposed, to have an out of the house experience and shop for their groceries they choose at the cheapest price and have them delivered without any human contact.

When people shop online for groceries they are primarily buying dry storage foods- we want people to be able to shop fresh foods from the comfort of their home (or wherever)

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Shoppers who buy groceries online are still a small minority of consumers (just 11%), according to a survey released by consulting firm Gallup Inc.

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As far as online retail goes, food and grocery is one of the less developed sectors, with a relatively meager 5.5% of all spending being made online.

Our new competitor

Instacart

Relies on other people to get the products.

Has been slow to adequately protect workers

Customers have experienced delays of almost a week in some cases

The most common issues with Instacart are around customer service, which is not as good as expected by some customers.

Instacart Shoppers are not immune to Covid-19

  • Instacart Shoppers can catch and transmit Coronavirus as easily as anyone else

  • Lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) has caused their shoppers to strike for better working conditions.

  • Instacart is being bombarded with an onslaught of orders during the stay-at-home era and is struggling to keep up.

  • They announced plans to bolster their offerings and speed up the process after customers reported having a hard time finding delivery slots.

​Instances where people on instacart steal money

3 Negatives of instacart

  • Instacart shoppers

  • Instacart fees/ pricing

  • Instacart delivery

Revisiting our user persona- Sam in a COVID-19 pandemic

Sams journey to save money and use instacart in a pandemic

Sams journey using Connected Goodz

Connected Goodz Delivery

Utilizing automated transportation on the ground and in the air, Connected Goodz has your grocery delivery covered.

If you prefer to pick up at the store, your ShopBot will meet you at your car

Delivery selection of UI is currently under revision

Drone

Although a drone delivering groceries seems ambitious, it was decided that we would design for the future of delivery systems

1st. Drone delivery does exist

Amazon air

Wing

UPS

Simply select your delivery/ pickup option on the app

Car

A more practical approach to automated grocery delivery, especially for high density cities like new york that do not have the infrastructure to support drone deliveries.

My favorite example- Flirty

Add profile picture and stand in front of the car to access your groceries

Utilizing a bladeless design the drone can safely land

Inspo

For our drone, the cart caps and detaches itself from the ShopBot and loads onto the drone

Sketches

Connected Goodz App

Wireframing

Hi Fidelity UI

Connected Goodz team

Dylan Byars

Project manager, concept developer, researcher & content creator. ShopBot UI designer

Collin Madden

Partner and UI Design

Sammuel Hernandez

Drone, car, and cart product design

Ani

Drone, car, and cart product design

A shopping and delivery alternative that ensures the safety and satisfaction of customers through virtualization, robotics, and autonomy while Providing people with the ability to get the groceries they need at the cheapest total price when when they wouldn't be able to otherwise.