Instacart

In-Store Wayfinder

I designed an in-store wayfinder that helps shoppers find products in unfamiliar stores through aisle locations, store maps and route guidance.

Mobile App
UX Research
Wayfinding
AI

Overview
Find items in an unfamiliar store
An in-store wayfinder connecting item locations, shopping lists and store maps.
Role
Product Designer, Shopper Experience
Research synthesis, interactive prototypes, retailer reviews and implementation specifications.
Team: Product manager, lead developer and research partner
Problem
Too much time finding items
Unfamiliar layouts and products make it harder to locate the next item. Shoppers need guidance that fits the shopping list already in their hands.
Solution
Connect the list to the store
Put aisle information beside each item, let shoppers confirm its location, and offer a store map for planning the route.

Animated wayfinding prototype moving between an item sheet, shopping list and store map — The prototype connects item details, the shopping list and a store map.

Understand the store before drawing the route

Store visits and shopper interviews informed the brief. Conversations with store managers added the retailer perspective: maps, storage systems and aisle organization vary between stores.

The interview and survey summary identifies three obstacles: unfamiliar stores (35%), unfamiliar items (29%) and variation between stores (40%).² The design needed to connect a product name to a useful location across different layouts.

Compare a camera overlay with a store map

The sketches explore both directions. A camera overlay would require a new tracking stack. A map-based approach can pair the shopping list with store layouts, but still depends on useful item-location data and shopper input.

Original sketches comparing an aisle camera overlay with a top-down route through a store — Early camera-overlay and store-route concepts.

Reveal the location at the level the shopper needs

Show aisle numbers beside the shopping list, locate one item on a compact map, and connect the remaining picks to a store route. Keep found and not-found actions close, with a selectable item strip on the larger map.

Shopping-list exploration with an aisle number beneath each product — Aisle information stays beside the shopping list.

Item sheet with a highlighted aisle, product details and found or not-found actions — Aisle information stays beside the shopping list.

Earlier item and map explorations

One concept opens an in-store location from the product detail. Another keeps the remaining shopping list beneath the map, connecting the current item to the rest of the order.

Earlier product detail with a locate-in-store action, aisle information and item confirmation

Earlier store-map variation with a route above a bottom sheet of remaining items

Connect shopper needs with retailer operations

Retailer coordination and implementation specifications connected the wayfinder with store maps and aisle organization. The stakeholder goals were stronger retailer relationships and storage integration, better shopper earnings, faster deliveries and increased Instacart revenue.

Pilot results

The original project recap reports an 80-store pilot and a 30% faster shopping experience.

Faster shopping experience reported in the pilot¹: 30%
Stores in the reported pilot¹: 80 stores

Shipped with

Product manager
Product priorities and retailer coordination
Lead developer
Technical feasibility and implementation
Research partner
Shopper interviews and research synthesis

Notes

2 references

Note
Author-reported results from the original Instacart project presentation: 80 pilot stores and a 30% faster shopping experience. The presentation does not provide the measurement window, comparison method or separate item-search metric.
Note
The original interview and survey summary labels unfamiliar stores 35%, unfamiliar items 29% and store variability 40%. The sample size, survey denominator and method are not recorded.