Farmacias Del Ahorro (FDA) is one of the largest retail pharmacy company in Mexico. They have more than 1600 stores all over the country. These stores not only sell OTC and prescribed drugs but also other items related to health, babies, makeup and much more. FDA was using an almost 8 years old mobile app, which was not only bad in User Experience but also was not delivering the brand experience which users would get once they visit a store.
One of the biggest challenges for me was not being able to understand the local language. I had to rely on a translator a lot of the time in my discovery process. Good thing was that all stakeholders were very good in speaking English, so my workshops and interviews were
App was designed almost 8 years back. At very first look, UI looked very old style, lacking visual appeal and in no way it was representing the brand experience. There were multiple navigational issues. Overall User Experience was poor and confusing.
I had a series of conversations with multiple stakeholders belonging to different departments. Everyone had some expectations belonging to their departments and areas. Marketing, loyalty, category management, tech team were few among all. Stores visits gave me deep ideas about how overall brand experience is and how FDA pushes certain products over others. Stores have dedicated sections for each major category and they are placed strategically based on what sells more. These sections have their own branding which clients expect to reflect in the app.
Managing multiple stakeholders (15 – 20) is one amongst the toughest challenges I faced. Along with managing stakeholders demand, balancing the user needs is much needed for the success of any project. My learning was to remain polite and convey the necessary point, why certain things/interactions need to be in a specific way and how it’ll help everyone. Not everyone may have a good idea about modern interaction design patterns, I think in these scenarios a designer really needs to use people skills in order to balance business and user needs.