Zen

A modern East-Asian grocery store experience

MY ROLE

TIMEFRAME

Product Designer

2022

PROCESS

My aim was to craft a fun and modern shopping experience catered towards teens and younger adults. I conducted observational research at several local supermarkets, noting the branding choices, wayfinding signage and information hierarchy within these physical stores. I then trawled the interwebs for the most engaging and friendly existing sites, noting their interaction mechanisms and hierarchy choices.

During user interviews and surveys a theme of confusing foreign naming and lack of sorting options emerged. As a result, I added an option to sort items by "country of origin" as well as making sure the item names were easy to understand and remember with English translations.

Another frequent pain point in user testing was feeling overwhelmed by the number of options presented. Achieving visual balance between images, text and blank space resolved this issue.

RedEarth

RedEarth

Updating an outdated app

MY ROLE

TIMEFRAME

Product Designer

2024

PROCESS

I approached RedEarth, a solar panel battery manufacturer based in Brisbane, suggesting that they consider a redesign for the app that manages their batteries. They agreed and I had a chat with the company’s R&D Director and their Brand Designer about their customers feedback on the app.

We identified several key priorities for the new design:

  • Clearer visual layout and hierarchy

  • Less technical and more conversational tone of voice

  • A modern look, matching their recently updated website

  • Differentiation between on-grid and off-grid status, with state of charge communicated in ‘hours remaining’ while off-grid

  • Less prominent live energy pricing because non-trading customers aren’t interested in this information

I used large clear text for the numerical text, while the ‘kW’, ‘%’ and ‘$’ text is smaller and or coloured grey to de-emphasise it. This combined with the coloured icons makes scanning the home screen much easier.

Buttons for Real Time and Daily Totals have been switched to a toggle as this better reflects users expectations.

Statistics and Pricing have been relocated to the bottom of the screen for easier one-handed use and better visual hierarchy.

Looking back the redesign could have gone further and moved unnecessary elements such as the Daily Totals toggle. 

I decided to remove the electron flow diagram to declutter the screen but the Tesla app manages to display it in a detailed yet simple way, using colours to differentiate energy sources.