Helping Trader Joe’s enhance in-store navigation and product discovery through a mobile app concept.

Role: Experience designer — research, feature strategy and prototyping
Team: Cross-functional student design team
Timeline: 2 week intensive project
Client: Trader Joe’s (concept project)
Scope: Research, ideation, feature prioritization, design and prototyping

The Challenge

Trader Joe’s lacked a dedicated digital experience to guide customers inside stores, help them discover specialty products, and integrate social and community features aligned with the unique cult-like Trader Joe’s brand following.

Context & Constraints

Open-ended team brief requiring selection of a target experience area
Multiple potential customer segments with varied shopping habits
Virtual collaboration limited sketching fidelity during ideation
Two-week delivery window
App concept designed for future engineering handoff, but not live implementation

The Solution

TJs Shop: A conceptual mobile app designed to enhance in-store experiences with:

Customizable Navigation Routes: Helping shoppers create optimal paths through stores based on list items.
Product Discovery Tools: Surfacing specialty and seasonal items to reduce fear of missing out.
Shared Shopping Lists: Letting friends or partners co-create and manage lists together.
Community & Social Features: Enabling a community page to reflect Trader Joe’s devoted fan culture.
Prototype Flows & Specifications: Wireframes, flows, and annotated screens prepared for development handoff.

Create shopping list

Start shopping from a pre-made list

Outcomes & Impact

Produced a complete prototype with annotated screens for future engineering collaboration.
Showcased a mobile strategy that helps Trader Joe’s catch up to peers with navigation and discovery features.
Encouraged teams to think about how digital can complement the in-store experience — especially for community and specialty product engagement.
Reinforced the value of research-led feature selection by tying decisions back to surveyed customer needs and journey pain points.

My Role & Ownership

I contributed to user research, persona definition, feature synthesis, navigation and social feature flow definition, component/system alignment, and wireframe prototyping following team decisions.

Key Decisions

Define a Target Persona with Distinct Shopping Patterns
Through survey research and affinity mapping, the team identified a key target: seasonal or supplemental Trader Joe’s shoppers — customers who visit for specialty items monthly rather than routine groceries. This refined focus guided journey mapping and feature prioritization.
Balance Navigation Help with Discovery & Community
Rather than only focusing on navigation, we combined customizable routes, product recommendations, and social engagement features to reflect both utility (finding items) and delight (discovering products and community interactions).