UX/UI Prototype: Instacart Local
During the Fall 2021 semester, I took Management of Technological Organizations which is a general management course for ITI majors. This course was structured around a single group project where each team was given the task of producing an IT solution based on the assigned focus area. With the financial impact of Covid-19, my team members and I decided to address the financial struggles faced by small business owners.
We built off of the existing Instacart interface to create Instacart Local, which would encourage the support of small businesses at the user’s convenience.
Low-Fidelity Prototype
The project consisted of four stages and the latter two involved the submission of UX/UI prototypes. For Stage 3, I was given the task of drafting the low-fidelity prototypes for Instacart Local, as shown above. As we built off of the existing interface for Instacart, I found it easiest to create hand-drawn drafts using Adobe software on my iPad. These drafts were later used to create the high-fidelity prototypes.
User Research/Testing
To ensure the most user-friendly app, our team conducted a basic level usability test of the current Instacart app. After going through the shopping process start-to-finish, it was found that the biggest issue for users was locating orders currently being processed, as they are not currently displayed on the Orders page.
To address this challenge, our team decided to include a section labeled “Order in Progress” with a clear separation between previous orders. Having this separation will make it easier for users to find orders being processed and minimize any confusion between past and current orders.
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
For the high-fidelity prototype, certain design choices were made to keep the integrity of the current Instacart app. Instacart Local features the same minimalist style comprised of rounded elements and sans-serif font, which help to create the same type of warm, non-threatening environment for the user. In addition, the same color palette was utilized for the highlighted icons, search bars, and other labels. Certain icons, such as right-facing arrows and the “+” icon, were borrowed from the Instacart app to make it easier for Instacart users to become accustomed to shopping with Instacart Local.
Takeaways
As this was my first project that involved UX/UI design, I realized that there are many factors that come into play while creating prototypes.
The most important takeaway from this project is the importance of gaining user input from usability tests and research. If there was one thing that I wish my team had done differently, it would be using a wider pool of users during usability testing. A wider range of users would mean a wider range of experiences and expectations, which would have allowed for more well-rounded findings and even better improvements for Instacart Local.
Overall, this project has helped to sharpen my visual design abilities and served as a good starting point toward my career goals in the UX/UI design industry.