Family Dollar App Redesign and Video

ROLE

UI/UX Designer

DURATION

6 Weeks

TEAM

6 UI/UX Designers, 2 Content Designers, 2 Product Managers, 5 Developers, 5 Video Producers

TOOLS

Figma

SKILLS

Wireframing, Prototyping, Design Systems

Background

With over 8,000 stores across the United States, Family Dollar is a premier discount retailer. Although they had a pre-existing mobile app, it was outdated, lacked user-friendliness, and proved difficult to navigate.

In an effort to transform the mobile app and enhance the customer experience, Family Dollar partnered with Publicis Sapient. Family Dollar aimed to introduce several reimagined features to the mobile app, including data-powered personalization, exclusive rewards, and retail media benefits.

Moreover, Family Dollar engaged Publicis Sapient to create an interactive prototype and video for display at an Investor Conference in order to generate investor enthusiasm for how the new app aligns with the brand’s evolved position and app feature set.

Challenge

How might we reimagine the Family Dollar app to significantly enhance the customer experience? Additionally, how might we effectively demonstrate the app's upcoming features and advancements to investors in order to create investor enthusiasm?

Role

For the interactive prototype and video, I was responsible for crafting wireframes and high-fidelity mockups. For the mobile app redesign, I designed the sort and filter experience, engaging in competitive analysis, wireframing, implementing our design system, and presenting final designs to clients. I collaborated closely with product, development, and content design teams.
Investor Day Prototype/Video
Mobile App Redesign

Solution Overview

We produced high-fidelity screens for an interactive prototype and a video showcasing the future vision of the Family Dollar app. Collaborating with the India Production Studio team, we created a compelling video that ran continuously during the conference.

RESEARCH

Current State

I began by familiarizing myself with the current Family Dollar app experience and identifying potential areas of enhancement.

DEFINE

Prototype and Video Focus Areas

Communication with the client revealed four primary focus areas for the new app, intended to be highlighted in the interactive prototype and video. This allowed us to identify which screens were essential in conveying the new focus areas.

IDEATE

Wireframes

Moving forward, I was responsible for the personalization and retail media wireframes. For personalization, emphasis was placed on tailored language through copy such as “Good morning, [User Name],” “Your Favorite Categories,” and “Recommended for You.” This personalized approach extended to retail media screens with the inclusion of a “Buy Again” section displaying users’ purchase history. Additionally, the retail media screens showed sponsored brands and allowed users to like/follow brands, which in turn customized content to their preferences.

UI Exploration

Given the tight timeline, I quickly jumped into UI exploration. I was tasked with crafting the UI for the “Your Store” section and the products vs. coupons tab. After exploring various designs, I integrated them into high-fidelity screens to see the designs in context.

Your Store

The "Your Store" content is on the app's home page, offering users the ability to view their selected store's hours, explore its current ad book, and modify their preferred location. After multiple explorations, we opted against using containers, as it diverged from Family Dollar app design patterns, and favored center-aligned icons.

Tabs

Since users can search for both products and coupons, we added a tab bar below the search box for filtering between these results. We chose bolded orange and black "Products" and "Coupons" tabs, accented with a gray underline, for their visual appeal.

FINAL SOLUTION

Final Deliverables

After individually tackling various components, the design team came together to consolidate our work into a final set of eight screens for the video and prototype on display at the Investor Conference Day.

The Family Dollar booth featured a large television continuously looping the video throughout the conference. Two tablets were on display for investors to interact with the prototype.

REFLECT

Takeaways and Next
Steps

The Family Dollar CMO shared the overwhelmingly positive feedback from investors and the Dollar Tree executive team at the conference. The interactive prototype and video successfully generated enthusiasm for the upcoming September launch of the new Family Dollar app, demonstrating just how effective proof of concepts are in showcasing future solutions.

Given the tight two-week timeframe to deliver the prototype and video, effective communication with the India Production Studio team was crucial. Our collaborative efforts enabled the timely delivery of a polished end product.

Solution Overview

Product and Coupon Sort/Filter
The new product and coupon sort/filter functionality enables users to find their desired items and deals with ease.

RESEARCH

Current State

We aimed to introduce sort and filter functionality on Family Dollar platforms, a feature not supported in its entirety in the current Family Dollar app. While the website already supported these functions for products and coupons, there were multiple functionality issues and discrepancies in options between web and app versions.

Competitive Analysis

After understanding the current state, I performed competitive analysis on seven industry leaders and competitors of Family Dollar to identify trends and best practices in sort/filter. Amongst competitors, I noticed consistent use of slide-up sheets for sort and filter. Embedded in these sheets were either nested pages or accordions. I used these findings to guide my design exploration.

DEFINE

Sort and Filter Options

Given the absence of a pre-existing complete framework for product and coupon sort/filter options, I worked with the content design team to define and establish all necessary sort/filter options for both products and coupons.

IDEATE

Sketches

As I entered the ideation stage, I sketched various sheet designs, exploring the efficacy of accordions, nested pages, pill displays, checkboxes, and radio buttons. Additionally, I explored the display of the sort and filter buttons within the results grid wall.

Wireframes

Following my initial sketches, I brought my concepts into wireframes and outlined a sample flow. To avoid extensive scrolling within sheets, I opted for a nested sheet experience, employing radio buttons for single-select options and checkboxes for multi-select options.

TEST

Tech Review

After my first round of wireframes, I collaborated with the development team to assess the feasibility of my designs. These discussions highlighted the need for several design adjustments.

Firstly, real-time updating of the product and coupon results number in the CTA proved unfeasible. For this reason, the CTA copy transitioned from “Show X Results” to “Show Results.” Additionally, since the app uses a hybrid of web and native content, I had to align the single vs. multi-select functionality of filter options with what web was already supporting. Consequently, “Average Rating & Up” had to remain a multi-select filter and “Price” had to remain a single-select filter despite my proposed switch where “Average Rating & Up” would be single-select and “Price” multi-select. I refined the below wireframes accordingly.

Refined Wireframes

IDEATE

Design System

At the onset of the project, Family Dollar provided our team with their brand style guide. Our design lead used this to create a foundational UI kit consisting of color, typography, iconography, and layout details.

As I was wireframing, I compiled a list of required components for sort and filter. Using the newly established foundational UI kit, I created the necessary components for sort and filter flows, which included components for sheets, lists, radio buttons, checkboxes, and tabs.

FINAL SOLUTION

Final Screens

I then implemented the design system into my sort and filter screens, resulting in the final polished product showcased below. I presented 28 screens to the clients, and upon their approval, I delivered a series of flows detailing interaction behaviors to the development team.

REFLECT

Takeaways and Next
Steps

This project emphasized the importance of receiving feedback early and often. While each designer owned specific features, I ensured a diverse perspective on the final solution by seeking input from co-designers at every design stage. I participated in collaborative working sessions, presenting and asking for feedback on competitive analysis, sketches, wireframes, and component designs, which was crucial in refining my solution. Communication with the development team was equally crucial as this allowed me to considered technical limitations early in my design process.

One particularly rewarding aspect of this project was building a design system from scratch. While my prior work was focused on UX, this opportunity allowed me to tap into my visual design skills and my attention to pixel-perfect detail.
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