WIC Shopper
Personal · Product Design · Mobile App
Figma · Illustrator · Photoshop · Premiere
OVERVIEW
WIC is a program that aids women, infants, and children (WIC) who are low income and aims to provide nutritious foods to those who are eligible. Although the program helps millions of women and children, their shopping experience is often more challenging than those who are not using WIC due to product eligibility and income restrictions.
GOALS
Redesign a mobile app for WIC users to increase the ease and accessibility of their shopping experience.
CHALLENGE
Creating a stress-free and easy to understand experience within a new WIC app to minimizing the duration or amount of steps needed to gather products.
RESEARCH
Families who were or are still in the WIC program were asked a series of questions about their experience within the program, eligibility, frustrations, and their perspectives with using the WIC app or website. The participants who were interviewed were as follows:
Foster Mother
This mother first heard about WIC when taking classes in order to become a foster parent. WIC helped this mother afford high calorie formula that was required for her baby’s nutrition due to her small size and dietary issues. By using WIC, this mother was allotted a certain amount of money to buy the proper formula for the infant. An issue that this mother and her husband ran into was not finding a grocery store that had the specific brand and size of formula in stock.
Father of 3 Children
This father of three was very conscious about nutrition and wanted a healthy diet for his family. Getting the right amount of vitamins and nutrients was difficult because they were vegetarian and had restricted access to certain brands or products. The scanner on the app allowed him to find the right brand and size of a WIC eligible product. However, sometimes during checkout, he would find out that the items he attained weren’t eligible for WIC, even though they had a label on it. When he was able to check out, an EBT card was used to pay. Often, a receipt would be given with the remaining balance on the card. Unfortunately, the remaining balance within the app was not that clear nor available.
Mother in Pregnancy
This mother was able to apply for WIC on the computer and it was very straightforward for her. On the app, she was able to check appointments and was later granted eligibility for her and her child. When she used the app, she could see pictures of the items, but sometimes they don’t always appear. The items are also not sorted in a way that is helpful, making her feel overwhelmed. Whenever she goes grocery shopping, she likes to use the app to creating a shopping list and find eligible items.
Mother with a Baby
For this mother, the experience of WIC wasn’t very memorable. There weren’t many pain points that stuck out to her nor barriers she can recall. During her time using WIC, she was able to ship grocery items to her doorstep which felt convenient and easy for her limited schedule.
PLANNING
When it came to designing the app, I ended up going through 3 different drafts. The first design appeared a bit clunky and confusing. I received feedback that the type felt a bit long, many of the buttons felt cramped, and the arrow for the “Find In-Store” feature felt too large. A lot of the feedback I received from that design eventually lead to a poor visual experience when viewing the redesigned app.
For the next revisions, I ended up putting more focus on creating a smoother “Find In-Store” feature and refining the sizing of type and buttons. I also attempted to add in different icons for the location screen to simplify information on duration of travel.
The feedback I received this time was that the “Find In-Store” feature, although was a neat concept, had little context in how each screen would work together as an interface; due to the fact that the prototype contained photos, rather than a video, to demonstrate how a real-life user would navigate a store. Furthermore, the balance feature was a nice plus, but felt too large for what it was and overtook the focal point. Many peers also mentioned the buttons and filters were still too cramped by the end of my third revision, leading to concerns about how users would interact with the app.
RESULTS & TAKEAWAY
In the end, I created a prototype to showcase to a group of peers. The prototype would demonstrate the happy path I previously created, and describe each action occurring on the screen.
Because I was unable to publish the app for the group to test physically, I recorded how different actions would appear and what the app would look like as a prototype; with the “Find In-Store” feature as a primary highlight.
Although I was unable to test the app by WIC users, many people enjoyed the features showcased to them. The difficulty of finding products was something that many folks related to, regardless if they were in the WIC program or not. Creating a “Find In-Store” feature was seen as a helpful solution for all users, as many were able to recall their own frustrations with navigating a grocery store.
Alongside that, the ability to see your remaining balance was a feature many saw the potential for. Whether for WIC or for personal usage, knowing your balance seemed to be a helpful concept to those who may want or need to budget their finances.
However, there were still some components that needed to be ironed-out. Although the Find In-Store feature was the highlight of the app, many felt the nutritional information felt a bit neglected.
The nutrition icons were a bit confusing; as it was unclear if the icons were meant to say if they did or didn’t include the ingredient they represented. On top of that, some were a bit confused as to what each icon meant. The icons overall felt a bit out of place with the clunky-illustrations, compared to the smoother and more simplified navigation bar.
In the future, I hope to be able to publish and rework many of the flaws within the WIC Shopper app. I’d love to see how a real shopper would use the “Find In-Store” feature or how they would comprehend a revised nutritional product page. I think, if given the chance, a smoother and newly designed WIC Shopper app could remove some health or financial stress WIC families may have. Which, hopefully, would allow them to spend a bit more quality time with their loved ones instead.
