Home Depot: Load
I worked at Home Depot for the past year. My most recent work was standardizing the process for loading items onto a truck for a customer delivery.
Who was I? I was the UI/UX designer, I was responsible for store research, working with process engineers and business, refining the actual designs, usability studies with associates and the feedback loop when we piloted in store.
What is this? The process of loading items onto a truck has historically never been systematic. It has relied on delivery paperwork printed the night before, a manhunt around the store for where customer orders were placed, and a conversation with the driver about how to load those orders.
Why was this important? We believe that systematizing the load workflow through scanning and providing access to this information in the HDphones will improve order accuracy, reduce damages and enhance customer satisfaction.
“I usually have to write down where the items are staged [placed], I can’t really rely on the paperwork because things change”
— Morning Associate, Midtown Store, 1 year
“I go to the computer to check that I have all the paperwork I need…which means I get stopped by customers…it would be great if everything was in the phone”
— Morning Associate, Buckhead Store, 20 years
Discover
We started with a kickoff call, made sure our team was aligned on what we know, expect and our problem statement.
Problem Statement & Hypothesis
We want to develop the load process to improve staging accuracy(quantity and quality) leading to greater customer satisfaction
We believe that systematizing the load workflow to ensure order accuracy for Order Fulfillment Associates handling complex deliveries will improve order accuracy, reduce damages and enhance customer satisfaction. We will know this is true when we see an increase in CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) scores, a decrease in the number of delivery rescheduling incidents, and a noticeable improvement in OTC (On-time and Complete) metrics.
Why is it important to solve now?
Regain customer trust and set expectation for home delivery to be safe and damage-free.
Create a seamless experience for load associates to ensure on-time and accurate deliveries.
What metrics do we want to track?
How much time does it take to load an order?
What kind of issues are the most common in the load process?
How many missed deliveries per store?
How often will users scan work orders with this application?
Shadowing & Interviewing
I shadowed a couple delivery drivers in the morning, made note of their trips, helped with orders to understand how their process works, confirmed these flow charts with the business and process team and we came to an understanding that this is the current flow.
Define
Personas
Who will this new update to process affect? These are the primary users:
Updated Process Flow
After conversations with business, project managers and process engineers, this became the ideal flow we wanted our load associates to take.
Develop
User Flow
User Testing
I interviewed a total of 7 associates, there were 2 Veterans (15+ years working in store) and 5 Beginners (1-4 years in store).
5/7 users understood the flow and how to interact with scanning the work orders
6/7 users understood how to report issues with the work order within the application
5/7 users understood what manual scan meant (referenced the manual pick process)
Feedback from User Testing
Add “Phone Malfunction” to the issues list
Remove completed screens, instead just return to the home page
UXUM Lite Score: 82.14
Users were asked
The new loading process in the order fulfillment app is easy to use
5/7 Agree
2/7 Strongly Agree
The new loading process in the order fulfillment app does what I need it to do
5/7 Agree
2/7 Strongly Agree
In Store Testing
I went into a couple stores at 4 am with my PMs, and developers to test a series of user stories. We made sure updates were successful and worked as intended.
Deliver
Multiple Design Reviews and Approvals
Home Depot has a thorough design process to ensure the quality of the product is consistent with other experiences at Home Depot.
Design Review
Sit with a set of staff designers, DesignOps and our manager to go over all flows, the components and review any possibility of change.
User Testing Review
Review our testing script, flows we plan to show, and intention of the user tests. Decide if we need props or any additional resources to conduct testing.
File Organization/Set Up Sign Off
Design Ops reviews our files and organization. They approve if it is ready for hand off or at least suitable for another designer to pick up.
Technical Sign Off
Staff designer reviews your files to make sure every color, text, and component you are using is from our MUI library.
Delivery Approval
After user testing, the team reviews any changes applied and the designs are given one more review to be considered ready for sign off.
Development Hand-off
All frames are annotated, and flows are ready for handoff to our PMs for stories. I would also set up a meeting with my dev leads and team for any further questions and clarifications.
Post Pilot In Store Feedback
Report Issues: In store, we discovered a lot of associates were worried reported issues would go to their supervisor or to the store metrics about the team. We decided to add language that is information is completely anonymous, and does not impact store metrics.
Exit Proof: Store associates would accidentally click back while loading an item and while that saved progress, it was unclear what that action would do, so we added a modal to make that step clear.
Personal Takeaways
Component Consistency Although this step of the process some would say was annoying, I enjoyed it so much. I was in constant communication with our DesignOps team, I learned so much about auto-layout and the level of customization a component can reach.
Feedback Receiving feedback in store after pilot and from associates was so rewarding. We were able to be actively part of the users experience on a personal level.