Case Study · Fashion Retail
May 2023
As a solo UX designer, I was tasked with designing a new stock management feature for ENVIMO, a multi-platform point-of-sale solution, aiming to modernise business operations. The goal was to cut down processing time by half and enhance usability for retail staff.
Bit of Background
As part of their business strategy, Apparel21 initiated the modernisation of its point-of-sale (POS) and inventory management solution, ENVIMO. They aimed to achieve feature parity with its older POS product. The absence of a stock adjustment feature in the ENVIMO app, a tool essential for daily ad-hoc inventory management, was a significant gap. The challenge was to design this feature in a way that it closely mirrored the flow of Apparel21's existing desktop POS solution, thereby minimising the need for additional training. This was crucial as the desktop POS systems were continuously in use, especially during peak hours, and the ENVIMO app was designed to enable retail staff to conduct retail and stock management tasks around the store without being tied to a desktop.
Task and action (the process)
What’s the problem?
Due to budget constraints, I relied on conversations with company support staff who had prior experience with Apparel21. Through these discussions, the need for immediate stock adjustments became apparent, highlighting the importance of a swift, non-desktop-bound stock management solution. Factors like defective goods, stained items, and stolen or missing stock necessitated immediate stock adjustments. Any inability to fulfill orders resulted in delays, frustrating customers. This underscored the need for a swift, non-desktop-bound stock management solution, with simplicity being a paramount consideration.
The first step was understanding the current screens and flow. I developed two personas for the discovery phase.
ENVIMO's existing screens posed a challenge, however, leading to confusion over the dual toggle system and unclear labels. In my initial iteration, I intended for the stock adjustment action to be completed in the same page as an enquiry.
Never a straightforward project
This also meant re-building the stock enquiry feature. After discussions with the product owner, we decided to make the stock adjustment a standalone feature. This decision simplified the user flow and reduced the number of new screens needed.
The slow response of the Android-based payment terminals ENVIMO would be running on reinforced the need for a process that was as streamlined and input-light as possible. I aimed for a design with glanceable information and a clear call-to-action in the centre of the screen.
Despite these efforts, further tweaking was needed as I realised that the tap targets were too small.
From our research, many of our customers primarily used the mobile version, the whole selling point of ENVIMO. Despite that, there are certain environments (e.g. departmental stores) where a desktop POS is necessary. This was the resulting design.
Constraints
The design process involved several trade-offs. During the development phase, developers identified an overlooked flow: some businesses put security measures behind inventory management features to prevent fraud. Further, some businesses were unaware of features simply because they weren't visible. Instead of using a feature restricted banner message or hiding the feature, I designed a way of indicating that for staff that did not have access. Reducing cognitive load and increasing awareness of the features.
Results
While I don't have access to metrics to gauge the success of this design, I can illustrate how much shorter the process has become. The number of steps required in the POS system was significantly reduced in ENVIMO, indicating a more streamlined process.
