Shop Calc is an application for users that want to have more control while shopping.

Prices and sizes of desired products can differ. Sometimes it’s better to buy 2 small cans or bottles of your favorite soda rather than the big one and sometimes it's the other way round.

Price labels are usually printed with small letters and the price for a common unit is even smaller which can cause problems while reading especially for older people or those that have poor eyesight.

Product sizes and prices can also change discreetly without flashy sales and loudly advertised promotions and this may be unnoticed and lead to financial loss over the years.

User research

I've decided to check if there is a possibility and need to undertake any measures for this problem.

Potential users of Shop Calc are people that use mobile phones on daily basis and who are interested in knowing the common price of a given product but have problems with checking it while shopping.

Despite popular believes that only younger generations use smartphones and gadgets to aid daily life activities, studies have shown that people from older generations embrace new technologies with great success as well.

Around the age of 40 human eyesight starts do decline which means that generations that spend the most time with digital devices such as smartphones might experience some problems with reading. This combined with shopping challenges such as various sizes and amounts of the same product, promotions, different prices and very small font on labels shows that people from Gen X and Millennials are perfect target users for this app. 

User Pain Points

• Can't read a common unit price due to poor eyesight

• Same products are sold in many different sizes

• It's hard to compare prices for irregular sizes for example 180g 

• Discounted prices don't always show new price for a common unit (e.g. 1 kg) 

• Sometimes customers are not given common price

User Persona

App flow and wireframes

After interviewing potential users and generating User Persona I started to work on Shop Calc User Flow and Wireframes. The most important aspects of the app I wanted to achieve were: simple UI, ability to add products as fast as possible and get results without any distractions.

That's why the very first screen that appears after the first launch of the app is Settings View. It allows users to set desired parameters that they think they will use the most in the future. This part can be accessed from almost all of the following views.

Visual Design and Prototyping

After numerous interviews I gained a lot of feedback and ideas how to improve my initial designs. This led to creation of Visual Design and a Prototype which was again tested on potential users.

The application got a lot of positive response and after minor adjustments the final version was created.

During the whole process I've learned a lot and I hope to see Shop Calc Project implemented as a working application.