Opportunity Space.
How can we turn grocery shopping into a fun learning experience for children?
Grocery shopping can be a mundane experience for young children. There isn't much to do except dragging their feet and following their parents. But what if we can knock some excitement into it? Provide them something they love? Like games, or puzzles. We saw grocery shopping as a valuable opportunity to cultivate cognitive skills in children. A potential space to leverage and impart decision making abilities within them.
Supermarkets are filled with opportunities for decision-making. There were so many options to choose from, weigh pros and cons, and balance constraints and requirements. What if we entrust children with responsibility, and let them make these decisions in a fun, yet learning oriented way? We imagined children navigating the aisles, not as passive observers, but as active participants in a gamified experience. From selecting the healthiest snacks to solving puzzles that teach budgeting and prioritization, every decision would become a small but impactful lesson. With the right tools, even a trip to the grocery store could become a meaningful and memorable learning journey.
How did I contribute?
This project was carried out as part of the UX Graduate Studio course taught at Purdue University. Our team consisted of five graduate students: Laila Dodhy, Golnaz Safri, Ivy Abraham, Taha, and I (Hassaan).
All members contributed more or less the same but we also played to our strengths. I was primarily involved within the user research (contextual inquiry), solution ideation, sketching and paper prototyping phases. My proactive management abilities kept the team organized and focused towards the goal.
Final Design.
A paper play-kit for children.
The following section annotates and explains the activities within our proposed grocery toolkit in a sequential manner, and highlights the implicit transfer of skills during each.
Fig 7. The overall design, super center map, and nutrition activity
Fig 8. Teaching children decision-making
Fig 9. Inculcating responsibility through budget planning
Design Process.
Fig 1. Overall design process
1. Secondary Research
We consulted academic literature for information on three distinct domains: Children as Consumers, Cognitive Development and Education while co-shopping. Our findings include the following:
- Western families often have a negotiation-based structure, giving children more independence and autonomy.
- Grocery shopping is used as a learning opportunity, teaching children to select produce using senses and to develop analytical skills like price and health assessment.
- Shopping trips serve as chances for younger children to expand their vocabulary and knowledge.
- Parents tend to spend more when shopping with their children.
- Children use their "purchase-power" directly or indirectly in shopping decisions.
- Children, particularly aged 4-11, significantly influence family shopping decisions.
- Technological interventions may not suit very young children due to different cognitive and emotional development stages.
- Interventions should be straightforward and based on tangible concepts.
2. Primary Research
We began with an exploration of Walmart super center and shadowed shoppers throughout their experience. We then shortlisted families as our target group and did interviews with 6 families, along with a mix of unobtrusive and participant observations (~30 participants) in our next trip.
Fig 2. Observing families at Walmart
The snapshot of Miro below shows our findings from the two trips. We will explain it in the next section.
Fig 3. The process of categorizing our findings
Findings.
What did we learn from engaging with users?
Our interviews and observations yielded the following insights about our target audience:
- Families tend to treat grocery shopping trips on the weekend as opportunities to spend time together.
- Parents educate their children about product quality, price, physical qualities, nutritional value, and expiration dates. They teach young children the names of items too.
- Parents want to make their children financially responsible and make their older children help them select items and make the grocery store list.
- Parents tend to spend more when shopping with their children.
- Smaller children are generally put in carts and do not have much autonomy.
- Young kids usually cause chaos in stores. They are placated through toys, snacks, and mothers holding their hands or picking them up.
- Siblings tend to copy each other. Younger kids especially copy their older siblings.
- Children (especially 9-11 year old) tend to help their parents shop and negotiate about item purchases.
- Mothers are generally responsible for shopping and they tend to ask children for their opinion on items. Hence, showing they want their children to be more active in this experience.
- Children tend to wander off in the Toys section but stick to their parents in the Fresh Produce sections.
- The purchasing power of kids was observable as parents also agreed that they tend to spend more when they come to stores with kids. But they do not buy whatever the kid wants.
Experience Mapping.
Mapping the journey of the users.
The experience map represents the various interactions and touchpoints of users, more specifically, parents and their children as they perform grocery shopping at Walmart. Since our solution focused on the interactions of parents and children, I showcase the experience journey of both these entities in order to link it up with our solution as well. The characteristics showcased by parents are similar to those of other shoppers, except that they have an additional responsibility of managing their children as well.
The map has 5 sections: lens, journey model, qualitative and quantitative data, and takeaways.
I color coded both user groups: yellow for parents and orange for children. The journey model is visually described, whereas the insights and takeaways are textual. All data is based on our primary and secondary research. Quantitative data is based on estimates derived from observations & interviews.
Fig 4. User experience map (also known as the user jouney)
User Persona.
Who should we focus on?
Based on our insights, we finalized the following user persona for our target group.
Our target user is a curious and outgoing 10-year-old tween from Lafayette, Indiana, who enjoys learning and helping others. A 5th-grade student at Lafayette Elementary School, they love science, art, gymnastics, and collecting stickers. They are proficient with technology, using tablets for education and dancing lessons, but avoid smartphone games, finding them childish. They aspire to make healthy food choices and become more budget-conscious, often guided by their supportive mother during shopping trips. While they find grocery shopping a bit boring, they enjoy exploring snacks and new foods, making them an ideal user for an interactive, educational shopping experience.
Fig 5. The user persona diagram
Low-Fi Sketches.
Ideating possible solutions.
Converging to the solution idea of a paper playkit, we ideated and sketched the initial versions of the various modules involved. Core functionalities include inculcating financial responsibilities, imparting soft skills and understanding of nutritional information.
The sketches proposed by the team are as follows:
Fig 6. Sketching possible solutions
Evaluation.
How did children react to our solution?
How: We carried out testing with three children at Walmart, who interacted with our play-kit while shopping with their parents. This was followed by a very short and casual interview and a gamified survey. The survey evaluated the satisfaction of our participants regarding the grocery shopping toolkit.
Results: Based on our findings, all of our participants found the toolkit to be fun and engaging. They reported learning valuable skills such as how to read product labels, manage money and stickers, create a budget, and navigate the store using a map. One child specifically mentioned learning about the difference between unit price and retail price. Another highlighted learning how to manage her budget and grocery list effectively.
Overall, both participants rated the toolkit positively and expressed their intention to use it again during their next Walmart visit. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of our toolkit in enhancing the grocery shopping experience for tweens and fostering essential life skills.
Challenges: Working with children proves to be a challenge since formal methods do no apply, so we as designers need to come up with more engaging methods to collect useful data. Also, conducting interviews and tests at Walmart was relatively tricky because we had to approach parent spontaneously, and ask them to participate within our activities.
Future Considerations.
How can we iterate on our design?
Based on our evaluation, we identify several design opportunities for addressing the usability concerns of our toolkit. We draw these insights directly from our observations and participant feedback.
Calculator. We saw the need for external assistance, such as a calculator or support from an adult, to aid our users in complex calculations. It directly informs a design implication that our toolkit could incorporate a small calculator to assist participants with such mathematical tasks.
Minimal text. The excessive text in the 'Know Your Product' sheet posed a challenge for participants in comprehending its instructions. To facilitate a seamless understanding of the sheet, we propose incorporating visuals to effectively convey key information. Additionally, breaking down the instructions into concise and comprehensive steps will further improve the user's ability to follow the guide effortlessly.
New activities. Based on parent’s feedback on the toolkit, there is an opportunity for improvement by introducing additional sheets to familiarize children with seasonal fruits and vegetables. This extra section could also provide information about the offers and stickers utilized by Walmart, aiming to educate children on obtaining value-for-money products. We can also add sections that map concepts parents try to teach children such as rollback offers and deals.
Enhanced store layout. The current store layout could be enhanced to facilitate more intuitive navigation for our participants. To address this challenge, we propose introducing a simplified list of categories within each zone on the map. By clearly displaying the product categories within each area, participants can quickly identify the location of the products they are seeking.
