SUPERMARKET ONLINE STORE

Working for a supermarket chain of this caliber can be a dream for any designer. With no budget constraints, the company could afford extensive user testing, research, and iterative validation to refine the product until it perfectly met customer expectations. However, in organizations of this size, achieving organic progress is a major challenge. The complex hierarchy, involving numerous departments and approval processes, made decision-making and validation difficult.

Additionally, this was a family-owned business, and at the time of the project in 2014, UX was still an unfamiliar concept outside professional circles in Spain. Given the involvement of so many departments, we established biweekly workshops where we conducted validation exercises, selection processes, co-creation sessions, and real-time design iterations. Axure was an invaluable tool, allowing us to prototype and test changes on the spot, ensuring quick refinements based on immediate feedback.

After six months of work—designing processes that spanned multiple areas, departments, facilities, and applications—the company launched a Friends & Family test with a small internal group. The results were unexpected: they realized that, with their current infrastructure, they wouldn't be able to handle the level of demand the new experience would generate. As a result, they decided to put the project on hold temporarily.

As a professional, this was one of the rare times I had to step away from a project—not because it failed, but because it was too successful.Years later, it was proven that if they had launched the new store, they would have been overwhelmed by success, as their infrastructure was not prepared. Digitalization is more than just having a new website.