GRAB-TO-FRIDGE OPTIMISATION
Blizko Markets \ October 2021 - February 2022 \ UI/UX Designer
BLIZKO MARKETS is a micromarket chain with stands in shared spaces like apartment buildings or universities for people who need to quickly grab snacks or last minute groceries. The client came to me with a clear request: create a user interface from the ground up and fix the existing issues like unfinished purchases and item scanning errors.
The stakes were high, since people had no time to get familiar with the interface.I only had a couple of seconds to earn people’s attention and trust and if that moment failed, then they might never return. And that’s why I approached this project as a grab-to-fridge optimisation problem, focusing on reducing friction between seeing a product and completing a purchase (and stop people from pulling the fridge doors too early).
* This case study reflects my contributions to the product’s design during my time on the project. All product names, visuals and trademarks belong to their respective owners. The final implementation, current appearance, and future updates are controlled by the company. My responsibility extends only to the design work presented here.
SOME CONTEXT
The project was in a pilot phase, with around 10 installations across Saint Petersburg. The whole system consisted of several locked fridges with basic groceries, a tablet for interaction, a payment terminal and a barcode scanner. To start the process, users had to tap a debit card on the payment terminal to open the fridge doors. Which isn’t explicitly hard if you get used to it, but can be frustrating for the first time users.
THE PROBLEM & THE GOAL
You could basically say that there was no interface at all, as the system was designed by the dev team on outdated and constrained hardware. They did their best, but “the best” was for the internal logic and not for the people. And knowing this it was possible to identify critical problems:
— unclear initiation of purchase;
— pulling the fridge doors before they unlock;
— inability to find the payment terminal or the barcode scanner immediately;
— confusion about whether the purchase was finished or not.
This resulted in frequent user complaints and low conversion into completed purchases. As you understand these are the very crucial metrics that had to be fixed as fast as possible. Especially with the rise of delivery services which could bring you anything you want 24/7 in 15-20 minutes.
It was a significant challenge considering that the hardware is extremely outdated and limited. Backend logic couldn’t be changed. The software did not enable high end UI. Bank operations sometimes introduced unavoidable delays of several seconds.
The main goal was to make the first interaction impossible to misunderstand. If user felt confident and trusted the flow, the rest of the process became manageable. If they hesitated in the first seconds, they might never return and the product failed.
FIRST STEP: LOCK SCREEN
The first issue I addressed was the lock screen. In the initial state, the system’s screen was sometimes turned off, sometimes had a white background with some small sized text. That didn’t look like something you wanted to interact with, right? More like the machine was broken or under maintenance.
So I asked the dev team to make the screen always-on and designed a new bright-green colour background, with a fingerprint icon and a bold caption “Touch the screen to start”. All of that singled that the system was active and ready to be interacted with.
Starting screen v.1
Starting screen v.2
SECOND STEP: INITIATING THE PURCHASE
On the next screen I tried to explain how to initiate the purchase giving a short story using some iconography and structured explanation: tapping a card, a temporary charge being checked and returned, and the fridges unlocking. Some directional cues in the form of arrows were also added to point the payment terminal.
While this version was logically clear and looked accessible in Figma, real world testing showed where it’s falling back. Users still had to pause for a moment, read the texts and interpret them. The icons only worked if you’re already familiar with the process. In practice we had a lot of first time users. They hesitated, they got annoyed and they left for a much more convenient way of getting groceries. So that failed.
This iteration clearly showed that explanatory onboarding did not work in a fast, physical environment. But this iteration was crucial in order to understand that the less abstract the explanation was, the better.
Cart screen v.1
Cart screen v.2
FIXING THE CART SCREEN
Working with the cart was another battleground for experimentation. People kept missing the barcode reader and started scanning the items with the screen itself thinking that the barcode icon was the guidance.
I fixed that by the same approach: giving people visual cues with the help of colour and a huge full screen arrow so they could connect the dots without thinking actively.
MAKING THE SYSTEM MORE RESPONSIVE
I added loading states for moments where the system was working behind the scenes but gave no visible feedback, such as unlocking doors or waiting for payment confirmation.