Accessible grocery store
Individual MSc thesis project within the field of industrial design engineering. The project focused on facilitating the shopping experience in the grocery store for people with low vision. A major focus in the project was on an early phase of the design process, on identifying customers’ needs and user studies. The outcome of the project was a smartphone app that serves as a support for both seeing and low vision customers in the grocery store.
Design process
The project was planned based on the human-centered design process described by IDEO.org (2015). The overall process is divided into three phases: inspiration, ideation, and implementation.
Inspiration
This phase was the major phase of my project. My goal was to make a thorough user study to really understand the perspective of people with visual impairments. During the phase, I used a great number of methods to systematically generate and manage the information.
Empathic modeling
How might people with visual impairments experience their everyday life? I started my thesis by trying the life of people with visual impairment by using mock optics that simulate different visual impairments.
There are obviously different types of visual impairments spanning from mild impairments that are possible to correct with glasses, to complete blindness. Here are a couple of images illustrating the most common types of visual impairments.
The picture below shows a visit at a grocery store wearing mock optics that simulate Narrow field of view, which can be caues by i.e. retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Simulation of RP in the middle of the image. Another vision impairment is age-related macular degeneration (AMD). 25% of people over age 75 get diagnosed with AMD (SRF, 2017).
Persona creation
Based on interviews, observations, and my research I created three personas to use for reference throughout the project.
”Independent grocery shopping is the last thing I’ll give up."
- Ingrid
Patrik
works as a lawyer, is 43, and was born with cataract. He lives with his wife Annika and their two boys in the suburbs of Stockholm. Everyday life is stressful as for any two kid parent working a full-time job and the most important thing is that the everyday routine just works.
Ingrid
is a 70-year-old retired nurse. Impaired vision since the age of 62 and has around 20 % vision left now. Lives alone in her two-room apartment in the center of Stockholm since her husband passed from cancer 15 years ago.
Karin
is a 31-year-old high school teacher living on the outskirts of Stockholm. She finds it difficult to get inspiration for new dishes and to create variations in her cooking. She does not have a vision impairment.
"I don’t want any special treatment just because of my vision impairment. Treat me like any other customer."
- Patrik
Ideation
This phase was built on an ideation workshop with designers, different screenings and concept selections, and user feedback.
Mission statement
To keep a clear focus in the project i mission statement was created based on the learnings from the ideation phase.
Design a concept of a smartphone app that provides support during parts of the grocery shopping process in physical stores. The app should be accessible for people with low vision, but be useful for all customers.
For the final result of my study, read my full thesis.
