Improving user experience for Store Ops.
Guitar Center's store associates relied on a legacy fulfillment app untouched for over a decade, accumulating deep UX debt across picking, packing, receiving, and shipping workflows. Over 12 sprints, I partnered with POs and conducted associate and manager interviews to surface pain points and redesign the experience from the ground up.
I conducted in-person user interviews at local stores to gain a deeper understanding of user priorities and daily routines. Employees rated the app poorly, expressing that while it wasn't hard to use, it lacked intelligence and offered little support for repetitive tasks, making their work more labor-intensive than necessary.
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Using material design and tailwind as foundations, I established a streamlined and accessible design system.
Armed with store associate friction points from the interviews and having done a complete audit of the legacy app I was able to prioritize the trending issues. Using a mixture of low effort fixes and addressing the top most pain points, I approached the design as less of an overhaul and more of a focused on most impactful refresh.
Several high-impact issues were immediately apparent during the audit, mainly the misuse of color.
Visual Hierarchy
Red as the majority color makes it hard to differentiate between critical and routine content.
Interactivity
Reserving a unique color for interactive elements restores its meaning and improves scanability.
Status Messaging
Status badges paired with a color coding system make order priority instantly understandable.
I optimized space and density and created a color code to reduce recall and improve recognition.
Updated desktop dashboard
Updated mobile dashboard
Having a clear understanding of the most important info, I was able to design for clarity and reduce clutter. Using a side sheet for filters cut down on the cognitive load.
Updated Fulfill Orders List
Personalized data for department managers.
Giving more granularity on mobile was a welcomed addition.
After the app launch, and allowing time for associates to fully adjust to the changes, I conducted another round of informal interviews to check in with users. The mood had shifted dramatically—from frustration to genuine enjoyment of the app. By addressing major pain points and delivering meaningful solutions, we succeeded in elevating the experience for Guitar Center employees—an outcome that, while difficult to quantify in traditional business metrics, is invaluable in supporting employee satisfaction and productivity.