Introducing the Coop App: The Journey from Ideation to a great shopping experience
We’re excited to share the story of the Coop App designed by our design team, developed by our friends from Datanor, maintained and monitored in the cloud by ADM Cloudtech, and hopefully already used by you! Designing the app was an insightful experience, and here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how it all came together.
The Beginning: Ideation
Every great project starts with a spark of inspiration. This meant diving deep into competitor research to see what worked and what didn’t in the current market.
From there, we sketched out our own ideas, using Figma to create our first prototypes. We were focused on creating an app flow that felt smooth and intuitive, especially when it came to scanning and payment processes, which are at the core of any shopping app.
Testing the Waters: Usability Testing
Once our basic flow was set up, it was time to get feedback. We held usability testing sessions to see how well users understood the app. These sessions were incredibly helpful to discover what features clicked with users and which didn’t quite hit the mark.
Through this process, we also learned much about what people liked (and didn’t) in similar apps already on the market. Their feedback guided us in refining the user experience.
Defining Key Interactions
One of the coolest parts of the Coop App is how it interacts with self-checkout (SCO) machines. We carefully mapped out the entire flow, making sure that every part of the flow would feel seamless.
But, as with any project, we hit some challenges along the way.
- Mobile scanning isn’t supported in every store yet.
- While Figma is great for prototyping, it doesn’t allow us to simulate real product scanning as camera testing can only be done in the development stage.
- Additionally, we realized that removing the overlay between product scans might accidentally trigger unwanted scans.
Streamlining the Shopping Experience
Despite these challenges, we kept pushing forward. The feature we’re particularly proud of is the automatic payment option that is designed to further enhance the checkout flow. This is where we really set this app apart from others on the market. Unlike most apps where you still need to tap through options on the self-checkout screen, with the Coop App, everything can be done directly from your phone. When you approach the self-checkout, all you need to do is scan the QR code on the machine. If you’ve already added your payment card to the app, that’s it! No more fiddling with the self-checkout screen. It’s a quick, seamless experience that puts the control right in your hands to simply scan a product, scan the self-checkout device, and walk out hassle-free as their purchase was automatically completed.
It’s all about making the shopping experience smoother and more enjoyable.
Happy shopping!