My first step into taking on this challenge was downloading the app, using it myself, and taking notes of my impressions and pain points I noticed.

• Parity with web experience: The app is missing some features and is organized differently from the website, especially when searching for products. For example, in-stock availability is not shown in filter options, and color options for a given item are all displayed separately rather than grouped together.
• Redundant options: The new experience toggle on the search page seems unnecessary since both options essentially give the same experience/result. This seems like it could be unintentionally misleading or confusing for users.
• In-app scanning feature: I shop in-store at my local IKEA warehouse, and would appreciate an in-app scanner rather than just taking pictures of the item tags using my phone's camera app. The only usage of the camera is for room planning and scanning in-store that only works with certain IKEA warehouses. I understand that this is an existing feature in those certain warehouses, but I would want something that can be feasibly used across all warehouses without the need for QR codes.
• More intuitive UI: Some UI behaviors, such as the “Customize it” button behavior on product pages, could be more intuitive. As a user, I would rather see all product customization options in one place than a separate pop-up page.

Afterwards, I looked into the app's reviews in the Google Play Store and took note of some of the most common pain points users have mentioned.

• Frustrating to find certain items because of Swedish naming unless you memorize them
• Unable to filter for in-stock items when searching, or by stock in specific location
• Would prefer highlighting unavailable products so they're easier to remove from cart. Only available options are to delete it or save for later.

From my research, it seems like the biggest pain point to resolve is the issue of conflicting item availability information between in-store stock and online.

Since 2020, IKEA has been going through supply chain shortages and limited stock of some of their items. This leads to frustration and confusion from many customers who are seeking to purchase certain items on their website or app only to see it be unavailable indefinitely, despite still being listed online.

As this was meant to be a quick challenge with a deadline, I mostly focused on solving the main pain points I observed while using the app and several improvements to the overall design.

I identified three areas for improvement:

1. Improve in-stock availability when searching and in shopping cart
2. Utilizing the camera for in person shopping experience
3. Redesign product pages to better present information and utilization of space

I researched other commerce apps (Amazon, Target) and looked at inspiration from related ideas on Dribbble and the Figma community, plus some past submissions for similar prompts on Uplabs. Afterwards, I drew up some initial sketches before moving over to Figma to create a set of wireframes.

What I learned

One of the biggest things I've learned was how to connect and integrate online and physical shopping elements. As most of IKEA's revenue comes from in-store shopping, there could be more digital integration with walking around the showroom to the warehouse for example. I find that most shoppers, including myself, will take photos of tags for products I am interested in to save for later. However, this means these photos will be saved on my phone's storage and possibly forgotten, whereas the IKEA app can easily scan the product I want and save to a list for viewing later, view all color options, or directly add to my cart. Not only does this make for a more organized and streamlined shopping experience for customers, this could also lead to increased sales and conversion rates for IKEA.

One small thing that I learned in this project was how to design based off of an existing design system - in other words, according to the challenge's prompt: “keeping their sleek and Scandinavian approach in mind”. I had learned to do this in my previous internships, however this time I did not have the official components on hand. Thankfully, IKEA's design system is very straightforward with its blue and yellow color scheme and single font, Noto Sans.

What I would improve for next time

As this was a short project, I only focused on a few areas I saw immediately that could use improvement. If given more time, I would create the “Scan tag camera” screen and connect it to the “Add to list/Favorites” screens.

Another interaction I would consider is if a user wanted to add an out of stock item from the product page. Based on current interactions in the app, IKEA allows users to add out-of-stock items to their cart, but leads to later frustration when they find out they can't purchase it during checkout. I would add a feature that notifies users that the item is out of stock, and gives them an option to notify them again when it's back in-stock.

I noted that one user in a review mentioned that they had a hard time shopping at IKEA because of the Swedish naming system. I felt that it is its own challenge that can be explored well on its own that a short-term project tackling various features would not be able to accomplish fully. Hence why I added names of the products below in the search history section in the Explore page – it may help jog some memory for users. This is also why I added examples of search queries on the search bar rather than their original “what are you looking for?”, which I found rather vague.

Overall, I thought this was a fun short challenge for me to study an existing brand and do research on how I can make their app even better for their customers. This is the first project where I take a real existing brand's app (and one I use personally) to find ways to improve the experience.