Project Overview

I worked as a UX designer at Walmart Headquarter during summer 2019. I mainly spent the 10 weeks on a project utilizing Walmart's store robots - BossaNova to help store associates do their daily work - checking inventory and shelf issues. I was exposed to the whole design process and worked closely with business partners and developer teams. I conducted contextual inquiry, store research, created lo-fi to hi-fi prototypes, tested and iterated my design and presented to partners and the head of Walmart Design.

Due to NDA, I cannot share details about the project, contact me for the password to check out my design process of the project. Feel free to contact me for more information!

Some Photos

The device associates are using

BossaNova Robot scanning shelves

Contextual Inquiry

Testing

What I learned

Design is a way of communication

We've been always knowing how important communication is for designers. I learned a lot about communication skills during my internship, and also realized that design itself is a way of communication. For a complicated project, it's very possible that long discussion doesn't lead to a clear direction or people cannot express clearly what they want, this is when design can help a lot. I found that concrete(but not necessarily "right") screens or flows help stakeholders express what they want or do not want, which helps us designers to dig deeper into what's the root problem and causes.

Design system and its pros and cons

During my internship, I had the opportunity to get involved in elements design for design system. It gives me the chance to learn how to utilize design system and its limitations. Design system can not only speed up designer's work - but it also facilitates developers' work. More importantly, it benefits users too - lower associates' training cost, lower their memory burden and the possibility of making mistakes. But design system also has its limitation, sometimes in order to follow it, we don't choose the best solution. That's why balancing between following patterns and meeting user's needs is crucial and difficult.

Research takeaways

The first thing I learned is that reality is always different from the plan. I've prepared very detailed schedules and scripts before testing, but when we drove on the road at 4 am and got to the Walmart stores in another state, everything was different. But it doesn't mean plan is not necessary - we just need a more flexible and expandable plan, and be prepared for any unexpected situation.

Another key takeaway I got is to pay more attention to what they do, when it contracts with what they said. This is something I've read for thousands of times online, but it's impressive only when I experienced how it makes sense. Especially when the participants thought that you as a worker from Homeoffice might influence their performance, it's very likely they would say something they thought we would want to hear. Try to build a suitable relationship and get authentic results is crucial - before that, we need to at least realize this situation.