Review of H-E-B Mobile App
Overview
Project: To run a 5-day design sprint with the goal of recommending and testing improvements to the H-E-B mobile app for a better experience for a first-time user
Role: Heuristic Evaluation, Ideation, Visual Asset Production,
Usability Testing
Team: I collaborated with fellow UX Designer Gem Kosan in the sprint process. He built the prototypes and conducted half of the user testing.
Results: We pinpointed specific usability challenges in the H-E-B app through heuristic analysis, and we implemented and tested our ideas to see if they resulted in an improved user experience. Our test findings recommend growth opportunities for future versions of the app.
iPhone 10 screen showing the H-E-B app's home screen

Photo of App Prototype on iPhone 10

Heuristic Analysis
First, we conducted a heuristic usability analysis of the process of making a shopping list. We both walked through the basic tasks of adding products to a shopping list and clipping coupons in the app and stopped to make notes where we noticed issues matching with one of Jakob Nielsen’s 10 general principles for interaction design.
Ideation
Crazy Eights: For ideation, we individually brainstormed solutions for each issue through the crazy eights method - quickly sketching/writing 8 ideas each within a 10-minute time limit.
Sheet of paper divided into eight equal parts by penciled lines, and within each section is a screen idea sketched out in pencil

Example of Crazy Eights Sketches

Heuristic Principle #3: User Control and Freedom
Return to Home: There is no easy home menu button accessible from the list or product page views. To return home can sometimes require the user to go back through 3 screens.
Finding Coupons Page: The coupons were not quickly findable after we finished making our shopping lists and were ready to check-out.
Our Solution
Add persistent menu tab bar at bottom of all screens to assist users in finding their coupons and returning to the home screen.
User flow of screens starting with product detail page and going to the Home screen and then the user's coupon page

App User Flow to Return Home from Product Detail and Find Coupons

Heuristic Principle #2: Follow Real-World Conventions
Default List Names: When first using the app, you are provided with two empty lists: “Wish List”, and “(Your Name)’s List”. Our hypothesis is that the name “Wish List” does not reflect how people think about their grocery list.
Quick Add and List Icons: We thought the star icon was not the best symbol to represent the actions of adding an item and viewing a list. So we decided to explore symbols more commonly connected with those actions.
Our Solution
Update icons to more recognizable symbols:
- Shortcut button for adding items as a plus symbol instead of a star
- View list icon with a checked circle instead of a star.
To test our hypothesis about the list names, we included an interview question in our testing to ask users if they would like to rename the default "Wish List" to a different name.

Original H-E-B icon buttons for viewing list and adding an item next to our new versions

H-E-B icons (left) compared with our proposed icons (right)

Usability Testing
By conducting usability tests with two prototypes —one with our solutions and one without— we were able to see if our ideas produced an improved user experience.
Task Success Comparison
In comparing the usability test results of the unchanged prototype with the results from our altered prototype, we saw the rate of a first-time users’ ability to easily complete the selected tasks increase from 26% to 73%.
Bar graph showing data results from usability testing

Task Success Comparison from Usability Testing

Pie graph showing 9/10 users would choose a different name than "wish list" for their shopping list
Interview Question:
Would you choose a different name than “wish list” for your shopping list?
Findings: All but one of our ten participants would prefer to use a different default list name than “Wish List” for their grocery list.
Some of the repeated list name preferences were either to use a person’s name or “my” to describe the list, name it by the date or “today,” or use the name of “grocery” or “shopping.”
Impact: This result supported our initial hypothesis that “Wish List” does not reflect how people typically think about their grocery shopping list, and our recommendation would be to use the date or a person’s name as a default list name.
"Because I share a list of groceries with 4 other people, I don't know if I would use [this app]."

Quote from Test Participant

Interview Question:
How would you feel about using this app in the future?
Findings: In response to our question about using the app in the future, five of our testers mentioned that a determining factor for them would be how easy it is to share their list with family members. The fact that half of our testers individually mentioned this factor without any prompts from us is compelling.

Impact: As far as I know, except for just using the same login information, there is no way to share lists currently in the app. Adding a list share feature is an opportunity for future growth to bring in more users to the app.
Outcome
I was surprised and pleased with how much we were able to learn and accomplish in the 5 day sprint and the following week of user testing. We developed insights into specific elements of the H-E-B app through heuristic analysis and user testing, and we were able to brainstorm and implement practical changes to improve its usability.
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