Instacart

Redesign

Instacart is the leading online grocery platform in North America. And since the pandemic began, more and more people have changed their grocery shopping habbit and start trying online grocery apps. I myself used Instacart for 1 year and I found some improvement space for UX design. I interviewed people that I know who are Instacart users and redesigned the app.

Gui    Chinese, 31,           Yamibuy + Chowbus + Weee + Instacart

1. The app always asks him to rate the shoppers, it pops up whenever he opens the app. He feels alright to rate the shoppers but would prefer the rating system to be hidden. 

2. The app only lets the users search in one store at a time, it could not show one item’s availability at all stores.

3. He likes the “add items into the order” function, very useful because he often forgets things. It makes it easier for him to go back and add something before the shoppers start shopping.

4. He also likes the “ Your items” function, he doesn’t need to search for his favorite items every time when he uses Instacart

5. Otherwise, everything else is generally cool

Jane      American, 21        Instacart+drive to supermarkets

1. The biggest issue for her is that instacart could only search for an item’s availability at one store at a time. (eg, if she couldn’t find her favorite cold brew coffee in Market Basket, she needs to quit market basket, go to the menu, then go to Hannaford/..., then search for the coffee, ....)

Would prefer instacart to show an item’s availability at other stores at the same time

2. She does not it when instacart asks her to rate the shoppers.(page pop up all the time)

3. She does not like the process of checking out. She often hesitates before she checkout, if she does not want the 11 items she added into the shopping cart for Hannaford supermarket, she needs to “delete” 11 times, that’s annoying.

Would prefer a button to select all the items in one supermarket.

4. Want ratings for items in the supermarkets(people could write reviews, share photos), had a bad experience

Elanah    American, 61         instacart + driving to supermarkets(rarely)

1. The home page does not look like a “home” page, looks more like a menu page ( left top), strange for her.

2. The checkout page does not offer tools to “select”, you cannot practice one action to multiple items, could only delete items one by one...

3. The biggest issue for her is to select the “replacement option” for items in her order, again, if you want to make everything “refund me if not found”, you need to practice the action to items one by one.

Yang      Chinese，55          in China, do not know how to use instacart

1. Do not know if the home page really is the “home” page.

2. It is confusing for him how he can choose different stores, whether he can buy items from different stores at a time, no instructions.

3. No rating system for food in the app

Shi :       21，Chinese          instacart+chowbus +yamibuy

1. When he added an item to the cart, he was not sure if the item was added, “It would be better if there was an animation to show the adding process clearly”

2. When he cannot find plums at “Costco”, the app does not tell him where else he could find plums. He went to Hannaford, but out of stock too.

3. Would prefer the app to show availability at all stores, especially for items that could not be found at the selected store.

4. When he chooses the “replacement option” for the order he just put, he complained. “it should provide a tool to ‘select everything’ 

1. Rating system annoying   >  put rating system under “past orders”

2. Home page “strange”( especially for elder people)  > redesign home page, functions, and buttons remain unchanged, only change to look to make it more “home”

3. Cannot select multiple items at a time to practice one action > create a tool

4. Do not show the availability of all stores   > show availability