About the project

Design of a user-friendly e-commerce platform for a well-established Afro-Caribbean grocery store in London, aiming to modernise and grow its customer experience through digital innovation. From the first tap to the final doorstep moment, every detail seeks to save time, minimise hassle, and bring joy to the customer.

The app will allow customers to view images and clear descriptions, browse products and complete orders with ease. It will support both online and in-store shopping, featuring accurate product availability, loyalty rewards, new user discounts and a subscription option for free delivery.

This project focuses on designing a user-friendly e-commerce platform for a well-established Afro-Caribbean grocery store in London, aiming to modernise and expand its customer experience through digital innovation.

In addition to everyday groceries, the platform will offer curated meal boxes and dedicated sections for recipes catering to a diverse, community-based audience.

This project followed the Double Diamond design process, which includes four key stages: Discover, Define, Develop, and Deliver.

This framework helped structure the design journey from initial research and ideation to the final output, ensuring the user remained central to every design decision.

A brief summary of each phase is outlined below to show how the Double Diamond approach was applied throughout the development of the grocery app.

I conducted an in-depth competitor analysis of six food delivery service providers. These platforms are reshaping the digital food delivery landscape and offer a range of services similar to the XYZ app. The analysis evaluates each platform across key areas, including user experience (UX), visual design and branding, features and functionality, usability and accessibility, and customer feedback.

Indirect Competitor Overview

To benchmark Afri-Carib’s digital experience, a comparative evaluation was conducted against three indirect competitors - Lidl, Cook Food and Hello Fresh, across critical user experience touchpoints.

Direct Competitor Overview

To assess how Afri-Carib's digital offering compares within its niche market, a focused evaluation was conducted against three direct competitors: Samisonline, Afrobox, and Afrobasket. These platforms were selected for their shared emphasis on African and Caribbean grocery products, targeting a similar customer base within the UK. The analysis examined key aspects of the user journey, including product discovery, navigation, visual design, checkout flow, and mobile responsiveness, to identify strengths, weaknesses, and potential areas of differentiation for Afri-Carib.

After creating the personas, I mapped out each person’s journey from discovery to delivery, capturing their goals and key touchpoints along the way. These insights guided my user flow decisions, ensuring it addressed real user needs and behaviours.

This project gave me the chance to design a grocery delivery app tailored to the African and Caribbean community in London. I aimed to create something that felt both familiar and fresh, an app that could capture cultural roots while making everyday shopping quicker and easier.

I followed the Double Diamond process, starting with surveys and competitor research to understand what users really needed. Creating personas helped me focus on real pain points, such as accessibility for older users and the desire for culturally relevant product offerings. From there, I looked to apps like HelloFresh for simplicity and SamisOnline for its range, blending these inspirations into a minimal viable product with curated boxes, ready meals and grocery staples.

One of my biggest priorities was accessibility. I made deliberate choices around colour contrast, text balance and user flow to ensure the experience felt smooth and approachable. For me, this wasn’t just about function, it was about making users feel comfortable, excited and in control of their shopping.

The next phase will focus on usability testing of the MVP. This will allow us to observe how people interact with the app, identify friction points, and provide insights to guide the next round of improvements. Our goal is to create a grocery delivery app that feels accessible, culturally authentic and enjoyable to use, bridging the gap between tradition and convenience for African and Caribbean communities in London.

AfriCarib

About the project

Tanya