Tesco: Colleague app

Updating the in-store colleagues most useful app to ensure they can provide continued stellar customer service.

About the Project

Inform is a multi functional utility app used by over 200,000 in-store employees. It became the de-facto tool used to answer a number of colleague and customer queries, including product stock levels, upcoming delivery times and food ingredients. In 2018 it was decided that the app should be refreshed, making use of the new API management platform and reviewing the user experience across the board.

Date:

September 2018

Client:

Tesco

Services:

App Design

My Role

As part of Tesco Technology Labs (R&D), I served as the UX Designer for Inform - one of the most widely used internal apps within Tesco’s product portfolio. The goal was to redesign the app to better support store colleagues in their daily operations, with a focus on improving usability, speed, and clarity.

Ethnographic Research

To ensure the new app met real-world needs, I conducted in-store ethnographic research during the early phases of development. Speaking directly with shop floor colleagues gave me deep insight into how Inform was used on a day-to-day basis.

Through multiple rounds of face-to-face interviews and observational studies, I was able to:

Identify the most-used and most-valued features
Highlight redundant or underutilised functionality
Uncover usability pain points and inefficiencies in key workflows

This real-world research was essential in defining user-centred requirements and prioritising functionality.

"Speaking to real Inform users to understand the apps place within the day to day operations of a shop floor worker was invaluable in determining requirements."

Information Architecture and Workflow Design

Given the fast-paced and often hectic environment of the shop floor, it was crucial to surface the most relevant information instantly. I focused on defining clear, minimal-touch workflows that aligned with how colleagues actually worked.

Key improvements included:

Streamlined login and authentication to reduce barriers at the start of a shift
Improved product search functionality
Reorganised navigation and layout, placing the most critical tasks front and centre

Once information architecture and user flows were finalised, I began translating these into high-fidelity designs.

UI Design and Prototyping

One major advantage of working within Tesco was access to a well-established digital design system. I leveraged this to quickly produce high-fidelity prototypes that were:

Brand compliant
Familiar to colleagues, reducing the need for retraining
Consistent with other Tesco internal tools, supporting seamless user transitions across apps

I conducted usability testing with in-store colleagues to validate the UI and made several micro-level adjustments based on feedback to further optimise clarity and efficiency.

Impact and Outcomes

Post-launch feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Notable results included:

A significant spike in app downloads among store colleagues
Updated in-store policies allowing colleagues to use their phones while working, so long as they were using Inform
Tangible improvements in the speed and accuracy of in-store operations, contributing to better customer service on the shop floor

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