Redesigned the in-store order fulfillment picking application to solve critical usability issues that caused late deliveries and missed pickup windows — improving picking efficiency by 14% and reducing list complexity by 40%.
Fulfillment managers and pickers at Albertsons stores struggled to navigate, scan, and pick orders on time. The existing app's usability issues were directly causing late customer deliveries and in-store pickup orders not ready on time — impacting customer satisfaction and operational costs.
Core issue: Slow connectivity and app failures made fulfilling orders 50% more labor intensive than necessary, turning a tool that should help pickers into one that actively slowed them down.
Small text styles, truncated product descriptions, and tiny product images made it difficult to find and differentiate items during picking.
Inefficient UI layout buried critical customer notes, causing pickers to miss substitution preferences and special instructions.
The UI added unnecessary steps to scan items or totes, slowing down each pick and compounding across hundreds of items per shift.
Slow in-store connectivity and frequent app failures made fulfilling orders 50% more labor intensive than it should have been.
Every design decision was grounded in the reality of the picking environment — fluorescent-lit aisles, gloved hands, time pressure, and spotty WiFi. The goal was to strip away every unnecessary tap, maximize readability at arm's length, and surface the information pickers need exactly when they need it.
Observed pickers in-store to understand real workflows, pain points, and workarounds they had developed to compensate for app limitations.
Audited every screen against WCAG standards — text contrast, touch target sizes, color usage, and screen reader compatibility.
Redesigned components to increase visibility by 213% — larger text, full product images, and high-contrast layouts optimized for quick scanning.
Decreased picking list complexity by 40% and surfaced item scanning directly to list view, eliminating unnecessary navigation steps.
Worked with engineering to implement offline-capable patterns that kept pickers productive even during connectivity drops.
The redesigned app put ADA-compliant, high-visibility UI at the center of every interaction. Product images, descriptions, and customer notes are immediately visible — no drilling down, no squinting, no guessing.
Scanning was surfaced directly to the list view, eliminating the need to navigate into individual item details just to confirm a pick. The simplified pick list reduced cognitive load and let pickers focus on speed and accuracy.
Redesigned components with larger type, full product images, and high-contrast color system meeting WCAG AA standards.
Streamlined list views by removing redundant information and surfacing only what's needed to pick accurately and fast.
Moved item scanning from a separate detail view to the list itself — eliminating taps and keeping pickers in flow.
Clear visual differentiation between Open, In Progress, and completed orders with assigned picker names and stage-by times.
This project reinforced that the best mobile UX design comes from understanding the physical context where the app is used. Sitting at a desk with a Figma file tells you nothing about what it's like to use a 5-inch screen under fluorescent lights with cold hands and 30 orders to fill.
The biggest wins came from the simplest changes — making text bigger, removing unnecessary steps, and putting scanning where pickers already were. Accessibility isn't a constraint; it's a design accelerator.
[Feel free to expand on these reflections with your own perspective.]