After one semester I’m still happy with my chosen topic, or rather say topics (plural). I still believe that my thesis will make sense by combining the agile topic with the use case of cash registers. As one might already tell, simply by looking at blog entries, I had some struggle outlining and combining these two perspectives. Overall I think the working title Agile_x_SelfCheckout is a good approach to sum up what I’m working on.
Dividing the topics more clearly
For the future I have decided to cover each topic separately in my research. So for example in the first half of the next semester I will cover the “agile” perspective, and in the second half it will be all about the findings concerning the cash registers.
Collaboration with REWE Digital
I have started my student job at REWE Digital some weeks ago. I already have a better perspective now on my responsibilities at work. The biggest benefit of collaborating with this company is that I have the access to the test systems and could perform detailed user tests, even including pseudo payments.
Disclosure and sensitive information
As for the blog entries this means that I have to be really careful about what information I am allowed to include in each entry. I have to make sure not to expose disclosed information that is to be kept a secret within the company.
Self Checkout or Served Solutions
So far I have put a lot of focus on self checkout solutions. However, it depends on my specific tasks and goals as an employee of REWE digital, which prototypes I will get to work on.
One things remains: whatever artifact I will be working on, I know that I will have the possibility to cover something relevant to the whole service design process.
Accessibility?
The topic of accessibility remains my biggest concern. I would love to cover it, but once again, due to the possibilities within my employment, it still needs to be decided wether or not, this is a relevant topic or not.
Next Semester
I am looking forward to continuing working on this project and increase my expertise concerning agile project management, as well as getting a better understanding of the struggles users of both served as well as self checkout registers are exposed to.
I will kick off the next semester by adapting my research question to open more possibilities.
Mental Models are a powerful way to describe what is going on inside user’s brains. It gives us more cues about how they perceive certain things so we can empathize with their experiences [1]. Viable cues concerning mental models can be identified via different methods. A popular one is card sorting, it is especially relevant for challenges concerning information architecture. Furthermore, we can get a better understanding of user’s processes by observing how they interact and act in their current environment. Specifically in the grocery and retail context so called “PLU-lists” are a major artifact.
PLU-List
Every customer of a supermarket has already been exposed to this code – wether they know it or not. A PLU number is an international code, that defines products like fruits and vegetables. The PLU code for a banana typically begins with the number 4. Additional information, like country of origin of the product can also be identified through this code. Sometimes employees know this number, or at least specific selected numbers, by heart. In case they have to look it up, they have to take a look at a list – this is also where the name stems from: PLU stands for price-look-up code. [2]
Possibilities for informal user research with high value and impact
I’m aware this might be a bold move, but I believe that a lot of online forums, especially via reddit, can be an interesting way to observe user’s and customer’s behaviour. This works for both – in a market research as well as a design related user research way. While this is obviously an informal way of researching something, I strongly believe it is of high value. It gives you first hand impressions of customers, and possibly even employees.
Subreddit “Target”
Down below I have found a picture, this is an example from Target that I found via Reddit. It was attached to a post, where an employee reached out to the forum in the r/Target subreddit, because they were curious about which codes are popular and commonly used.
While this subreddit has a rather extrem title, it definitely opens a new horizon concerning honest opinions of angry customer’s.
Reviews
In contrast to reddit google reviews covers a larger range of customers. Clicking through various stores on google maps quickly gives you a good overview of different challenges customers and sometimes even employees face. This works efficiently via google maps, because they also give you options to filter the different reviews (e.g. by keywords)
While fonts and color choices are important to take into account, service design puts process and problems into deeper perspectives. Requirements and processes are strategically challenged, to align with business values. Therefore, the problem definition in service design outlines the user experience as well as other perspectives and puts employees, customers and other counterparts into relation.
In a supermarket this means all things from the back office and warehouse to the retail space as well as the cash registers have to be considered.
A powerful tool within the practice of service design is the so called Service Blueprint. I personally would describe a service design map as an extension of a user journey map. The fronst stage processes (1) describe all the steps that the customers can directly observe (e.g. scanning of articles). Back stage actions (2) highlight how the fronst stage steps are interfering and how they relate to what’s happening out of the customer’s sight. The line of invisibility (3) visually divides these two perspectives. Another mentionable part of a service blueprints are so called artifacts (4), also known as physical evidences (e.g. a receipt).
[1]
M. Stickdorn, A. Lawrence, M. Hormess, and J. Schneider, This is service design doing, applying service design thinking in the real world: a practitioners’ handbook. Sebastopol Oreilly & Associates Inc, 2018.
While the last few blog entries were focused on supermarkets and the overall topic of cash registers this time I would like to once again talk about the other aspect of my research topic: How to balance design ideas with IT and business goals.
What is agile?
One focal point I would like to discuss today is agile management. Agile is the opposite of the waterfall method. In waterfall requirements are defined and the design happens before the development of any code. As the term waterfall already promotes: there’s no going back. Once the requirements are set there’s no possibility of exploring new ones. However, especially in the human centered context new pain points of a product could be discovered in various stages of the research and design process. In contrast agile makes early involvement with the dev team possible. Small teams are working on a project and the objectives are being discussed in smaller steps and iterated within so called Design Sprints. [1]
Jira
A major tool teams are using to enable agile work and collaboration is Jira, developed by Atlassian. This tool has a wide range of possibilities. For the sake of this blog entry I will keep it short and simple and outline how one specific aspect within Jira works: User Stories.[2]
Structure of a user story
As a [function of the person] I want to [goal/perform an action] so that [benefit/value]
Example:
As the design team, we want to create a prototype for the MVP supermarketchain #1 so that we can gather feedback from potential users.
A user story consists of a simple statements that outlines the goals to be reached – It has to be mentioned that user stories are the smallest unit of work within a sprint.
From Initiative to Epics to User Stories
The largest units are initiatives, these represent the overall goals over a long time span. Initiatives are commonly defined over periods such as a year. Epics are the next smaller unit and usually define the goals for quarter of a year.
Personals thoughts
According to Jon Yablonski, who looks at different psychological practices from a designers point of view, users can easier digest information once it’s broken down into smaller “chunks”, as he calls them.[3] If we keep this in mind I think that managing tasks via user stories is a powerful tool to keep everyone in a project team focused on their tasks.
I kenn mi net aus mit der Neumodischen Einkauferei – S’verwirrt mich, man kann niemanden was fragen. Ollas muss man erst studieren.
(ORF, 1962)
Translated: “I’m overwhelmed with this modern way of shopping. It confuses me, there’s nobody I can confront with my questions. I have to study everything [all the products]”
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=531496385902554
In my last Blog post I discussed the topic of interaction and communication of customers and employees in the supermarket. With WHY do people still appreciate it (e.g. at the “Feinkosttheke”) to have this personal interaction? as my focal research question, I wanted to get a better grasp of my ux research goals.
As recommended by Jakob Nielsen [2] I started out by formulating hypothesis. To keep these as lean as possible I based them on my loose observations in various supermarkets and a few insights I got from informal desktop researches. Additionally, after scanning a paper that empirically analyses consumer’s perception in supermarkets [3] I got a better grasp of the key challenges I would like to objectify.
Hypothesis
Personal communication between staff is still of high value. However there are differences based on demographic and sociographic characteristics of the customers.
Customers prefer large retail spaces in supermarkets because they value a huge variety of product offers
When doing home and grocery shopping customers prefer doing so in store, however alternative options (e.g. delivery or click and collect) are starting to cross consumer’s minds as well.
The more products a customer wants to purchase in the store the less likely they are to use self checkout.
People in a rush with only a few items are more likely to use self checkout.
Self checkout proves more successful in an urban landscape compared to rural or suburban areas.
Customers view time efficiency as a benefit when using self checkout.
In case of a crowded checkout queue customers are more willing to queue up for self checkout instead.
Customers are afraid to lack expertise when using Self Checkout
Currently I have these nine hypothesis. However, I am planing on expanding and adapting them if possible and if necessary.
References:
[1]
“69K views · 613 reactions | Selbstbedienung und Warenvielfalt – in Europa gibt es Supermärkte erst seit den 1950er Jahren. 1962 war der ‘Supermarket’ in Österreich noch etwas Neues. (Telejournal, 1962)
Aktuelle Informationen für Konsumentinnen und Konsumenten gibt es in ‘konkret’ von Montag bis Donnerstag um 18.30 Uhr auf ORF ON (on.ORF.at) & in ORF 2.
Soundarraj, Prem & Kumar, K Kiran. (2025). An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Perception towards Supermarket and Online Shopping. European Economics Letters. 15. 2908-2918.
Supermarkets are objects of our everyday lives. They are so invisible almost, that we take them for granted and don’t think about them much, other than doing a quick google search on where the nearest supermarket is. I want to avoid the mistake of skipping the basic and most vital step for my research: putting everything in a bigger picture. To proceed so, I would like to gain a better overview and understanding of supermarkets. In order to do so, I did a quick and informal desktop research on the history of supermarkets. While I still remember the basics (e.g. 1930s USA) from my middle schools geography and economics class I want to get settled on some more details.
History
Thus I watched a TV documentary, followed by a discussion with a business economist. I also took a quick dive into the current status quo of the supermarket business in Germany and Austria and will also share some personal perspectives at the end of the blog post.
As already mentioned, the concept kicked off in the US in the 30s, in a store called King Kullen. A german pilot store opened in the year 1938 in Northern Germany’s town of Osnabrück. According to the researcher Lydia Langer the main pain points that held business people back from opening supermarkets themselves was, that they were afraid A) there will be less one on one interaction with customers and B) customers might steal products in self service stores.
Source: King Kullen
In the early 1950s Germany counts almost 40 stores that have adapted the self service concept. A milestone was reached a few years later when the first supermarket with a retail space of 1700 m2 opened to the public in North Rhine-Westphalia. The landscape of self service grocery shopping drastically changed in the 60s when the Albrecht brothers decided to give it a twist by introducing discounters. They identified high prices as a focal pain point for a lot of customers. By removing certain parts of the typical floor layout – e.g. the meat counter – and by sacrificing the aesthetic of the stores they opened up more possibilities for consumers. The documentary is followed by a discussion with the hosts of a talk show and the business economist where they discuss how the conventional supermarkets managed to backfire – e.g. by also introducing store owned brands. [1]
The fact that a retail space of 1700m2 was noted as revolutionary in the 1950s raised my attention and I got curious about nowadays conventions. For example, a hypermarket store like “INTERSPAR” commonly has something between 2500m2 and 5000m2. [2]
Personal Thoughts
As already mentioned, supermarkets are part of our everyday lives. Having everything in one place is convenient, but can also have downsides. The more products you can find in the store the more space the store requires. According to business economist Alexander Hennig supermarkets first peaked in the 70s when they would be located rather remotely for example in industrial areas of cities. During this time, people also changed their car driving habits. Today however, smaller supermarkets are becoming more and more attracting to customers, especially for those who live in cities and view a supermarket within walking distance as a necessity. [1]
Corporations like Kaufland are aware, that their stores are a focal point of people’s modern lives. In some stores they are currently testing so called “Medical Rooms” to make for example blood sampling possible on spot when grocery shopping [3]. From a personal standpoint however I will admit that I am skeptical towards these plans of the Schwarz-Gruppe. First of all, I fear that the company is rather interested in the profit they might retrieve from this concept, and that these medical check up spots will lack quality instead. Furthermore I am concerned about how this will influence the reduction of so called third spaces.
Why am I mentioning third spaces? As was already pointed out above, supermarkets are places of interaction. This raises the question: WHY do people still appreciate it (e.g. at the “Feinkosttheke”) to have this personal interaction? Düshorn, a village between Hannover and Bremen, has a non-capitalistic approach to grocery shopping. The so called “Dorfladen” in Dushorn originally started out as a compromise to find a solution for the post office, the local bakery and the Sparkasse. It is being operated as a non-profit association (”Genossenschaft”) by residents of the village. On top of buying groceries the aprox. 2.500 people living in Dushorn view the Dorfladen as a possibility to interact and catch up with others.
This week I have come across a paper by Christina C. Mendat and Christopher B. Mayhorn [1] from the North Carolina State University outlining Human Factors as well as ergonomics in terms of self-checkout registers. Even though the entry discusses the topic within 3 simple pages only I could get more insights and tangible data on the topic that opened new possibilities and perspectives to me. With that being said, I would like to mention that the paper was published in 2007. I’m aware that this was almost twenty years ago. Needless to say, it has to be noted that Self-Checkout Registers gained popularity in American supermarkets, a long time before they did so in Austria.
The most surprising fact that I found out comes from a historic point of view. It turns out that libraries were the first enabler for what we are now referring to as self-checkout registers. It allowed librarians to focus more on e.g. reorganizing the bookshelves instead of making sure the counters are frequently occupied.
Furthermore, the paper discusses the top issues related to self-checkout cash registers, uncovered through a survey. The top two issues are:
Barcodes and scanning: certain products are more difficult to scan than other products*
Chain reactions: a lot of the participants mentioned that they have experienced slower customers in front of them, which resulted in them having to wait longer.
*simply judging from what I’ve seen in my personal daily life, there has been a lot of improvement on this topic. Let alone the fact, that certain stores nowadays are known for being so fast, you might not be able to catch up with putting the purchased items into your shopping bag. I’m interested
Planning a research plan & focus groups
While these issues, that have already been uncovered, are of course of relevance, my goal is to uncover more insights, specific to Austrian supermarkets and costumers.
I’m planning on doing first observations in different supermarkets. With the Christmas holidays ahead though, I fear that this might not be as easy, as the stores are sometimes packed to the limit.
Furthermore, I will be using the informal gatherings with friends and family during the holidays to open conversations concerning cash registers. I might already conduct a first survey or focus group (at least to test the first draft of questions).
A few thoughts on accessibility
Additionally, I am planning on having a discussion about this topic with an ambulatory wheelchair user to get a first grasp of her challenges.
Outline of the first research questions/goals:
What are the biggest obstacles when using a self-checkout register in a supermarket? How does it differentiate between different supermarket chains?
What needs to be considered in terms of accessibility? What’s the general experience of wheelchair users in a supermarket?
Did the process of paying via the self-checkout register ever take longer than paying via the typical checkout lane. if yes: how did this inconvenience happen?
Technology of Scanning **
** this topic is simply interesting for general purposes
References
[1] Mendat, Christina & Mayhorn, Christopher. (2007). An Evaluation of Self-Checkout Systems. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting. 51. 1011-1014. 10.1177/154193120705101703.
As mentioned in my last blog entry I will continue by doing a first literature screening. Today I have focused on the book Management 3.0 [2]. In order to get insights from lots of different types of sources I have also decided to listen to various podcasts every now and then. The first podcast episode I will share my insights of will be NNgroup – Episode Nr. 27. Customer Journey Management. [1]
Management 3.0 – Basics
For now, I have decided not to do an explicit deep dive into the literature. I started out by simply reading the introduction part of the book Management 3.0 and scanning the table of contents.
Jurgen Appelo, the author, points out that management is the number one enabler for successful transformation to an agile culture. There are in total six different perspectives on the concept of management 3.0 that are being explained within the chapters of the book. A significant part of the book is also about the value of leadership.
Furthermore, it has to be mentioned, that the book and the structure behind it are called Management 3.0 for a reason. Management 1.0 in contrast heavily relies on hierarchy in organisations and deals with the arc between the people in top positions and those with less responsibility. By simply adding a few more methods Management 2.0 was defined. Management 3.0 however promises to adapt its concept innovatively. While hierarchies clearly exist within organisations Management 3.0 also points out that networks and the social complexity in organisations must also be considered.
All in all, I have gotten the impression that this book is a trustworthy source I feel confident using. I highly appreciate the way the author combines theory and reality. A topic is usually combined and broken down into two chapters. The first explains everything theoretically and in detail while the follow up chapter displays practical approaches and methods. The authors methods and expertise are often based on what he has found out via an online forum via his blog.
Customer Journey Management
In this podcast the host Therese Fessenden has invited Kim Salazar, a fellow colleague from the Nielsen Norman Group, and Jochem van der Veer, CEO at TheyDo. In the episode the three experts put a lot of emphasize on the reason why Customer Journey Mapping is being done in the first place: to make things tangible and therefore visible. It is a powerful tool to detect, communicate and most of all set the status quo on user interactions. This is the case not just when working in a team but especially when working within the whole business context. It’s an effective way to attract stakeholders’ attention and drive their understanding of certain topics and issues. What I have found interesting is how all of them shared a common opinion of how important it is to view Customer Journey Maps within a larger context. A user experience isn’t necessarily linear and might be influenced by a lot of outside factors. Especially considering the fact that a lot of these experiences are happening on smartphones nowadays. While someone might buy a ticket for a concert while reading a book at home they might receive the notification reminder via email during their working hours in the office.
On that account it is essential to manage different journey maps and similar artefacts accordingly. In this context the host and her guests also discussed that the way teams are organized plays a significant role in this exchange of data. Last but not least, the importance of building bonds with allies in the company (most likely stakeholder’s and other decision makers) was emphasized by the guests.
Although I only check out this specific episode of the podcast because I wanted to gain more perspectives on Customer Journey Mapping the host and the guests often mentioned how and why this tool is being integrated in company workflows. This gives me approval that I am conducting my research efficiently.
References:
[1]
NNgroup, “27. Customer Journey Management (ft. Kim Salazar and Jochem van der Veer),” YouTube, Oct. 02, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LN6DtdSu8sc (accessed Dec. 08, 2025).
In my first blog post I explained my motivation on the topic of Creating User-Centered Strategies that align with Business and IT Goals in an innovative Agile Environment.
Within the post I already mentioned that I might have the possibility to collaborate with a company for my thesis topic. Now I have gotten the confirmation from REWE Digital to support them during my studies as a working student. I will be working on various projects concerning the design and UX of cash registers and the checkout strategy of POS registers.
As off today it seems my focus will be on the development of the design and UX. I am excited to see what the projects have to offer for me and how I can use my skills and grow. The specific path of my thesis will therefore heavily depend on what’s going to happen at my future workplace, where I will start in January.
In the interview sessions and meetings I already discussed my tasks. However, as the line between confidential and public information is still a bit difficult to grasp I will try to stay as general as possible. One major aspect of the work in the UX Team is “aligning business, IT and UX goals” – so exactly what I want to focus on in my thesis. While this is not a specific topic the company is working on, it is one of the top priorities.
Concerning my next steps of action I will do deep dives into the topic Agile and Management. Here are some of the resources and literature I am planing on having a look at:
2. Cooper, et al. About Face 3 : The Essentials of Interaction Design. Completely rev. and Updated., 2007.
3. Boston Consulting Group. Flores, Yu. Placing Desirability at the Center of Innovation. 2024 Flyvbjerg, Gardner. How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything in Between. 2023
4. Laloux, u. a. Reinventing Organizations „visuell“ : ein illustrierter Leitfaden sinnstiftender Formen der Zusammenarbeit. 2017.
Source Nr. 1 was recommended to me by the Chief Agile Manager at my previous internship. I am looking forward to discover more about Agility – as off today I’m only familiar with this topic on the surface. I would like to gain deeper knowledge. Furthermore, I might consider some of the Lean UX and Lean StartUp Principles. I am excited to start my first literature screening sessions. I will outline my results and key points as well as findings in the next blog entry.
Concerning the cash registers I will stay curious whenever I go grocery shopping. I want to get a better grasp about different kinds of checkout possibilities in supermarkets. I might as well do some benchmarking and observations by myself.
Designers are empathetic visionaries seeking to find the right answer to their user’s desires. Besides breaking down Desirability designers are also responsible for building bridges towards Viability and Feasibility. In business context designers are therefore forced to view challenges holistically within the larger business scale. In order to succeed they need to adapt to business language. By integrating their human-first approach new opportunities and possibilities open up. Their scope of work increases: driving processes and communication, breaking down silos and avoiding risks are suddenly part of their daily work.
The major goal of this project is to identify and collect methods that could be used by designers to build trust with allies in the company.
Value of Human Centred Design
The number of companies understanding the value of human centred design is constantly increasing.
AirBnB: back in 2008 when the booking platform was first introduced, the visionaries of AirBnB were exposed to different challenges, such as the one to offer trust for guests towards their hosts. A major design enabled this by emphasising on more transparency. This was done by adding verified profiles and allowing feedback of other guests to be displayed. (Vishal Peshne, “UX Case Study: The Success of Airbnb’s User-Centered Approach,” Medium, Jan. 26, 2025. https://medium.com/@vishal.peshne/ux-case-study-the-success-of-airbnbs-user-centered-approach-7557f3d769b9)
Juicero: this example of an American start-up perfectly describes, why a good solution is worth nothing without the right problem statement, and it’s influence on financial aspects. Juicero allows its customers to buy an electrical juice-squeezer that operates by simply putting a pre-made bag of juice in the machine. However, quickly users figured out, that in order to open the said bag, they don’t need the machine at all. You can simply do so with your bear hands. (“TOOLS FOR TOMORROW,” Tools for Tomorrow, 2024. https://www.tomorrow.tools/ (accessed Nov. 10, 2025).
Image by Trenton Schulz
My Motivation
During my bachelor’s I was working as a UI & UX at a local start up. I was enthusiastic and motivated to start. As the first ever UX designer at the company I was quickly challenged with a number of obstacles:
Explaining what UX is about
We need to put emphasise on iteration and process driven outcomes. Stakeholders often seek deliverables. It can be difficult to define a specific deliverable, as artifacts such as Prototypes might suffer from a lack of granularity.
User Centred Mindset
UX-Professionals must always push their agenda to sensitize why it’s important to develop a product according to user needs. Ideas for products must constantly be challenged, whether they will deliver actual value for users and/or customers. This is also why problem statements should be focused on precisely before jumping to conclusions too quickly.
Integrating UX in an agile Environment
The company already had existing processes, most of them closely related to agile ways of working. UX and agile do go hand in hand. However, I once attended a talk, where the speaker mentioned, in her early years of agile training, there was no word of UX yet to be heard. Therefore, it can be challenging to spread awareness on the topic.
Relevance for Designers
As product designer in order to cooperate with our stakeholders and team members we must adapt to their language. In terms of human centred design, it is no good to distance yourself as a designer from other disciplines (e.g. Engineering, Business, Dev-Teams and most of all users).
We must be willing to collaborate, especially with our close colleagues from Product Management. This may include gaining trust with the Product Owner one has to report to.
Recherche Weg
In order to get a grasp of this complex topic I would like to perform two expert interviews with UX professionals with a lot of experience. I could imagine this becoming a bit difficult, as they won’t most likely be able to disclose any confidential information within their companies.
Furthermore, I am planning on attending a few talks from UX professionals (e.g. UX Graz, or some online alternatives for networking) to get an understanding of UX designer’s agenda in companies of all kinds. As of right now, I can imagine focusing on larger corporations and enterprises.
Possibility to Collaborate with a Business
At the WUC 2025 I had the opportunity to connect with Ines Lindner, a UX-Strategist at REWE International. Her responsibility is to tangle the challenge of merging enterprise architecture with human-centred values. In her talk she dives through the different processes that were enabled by Ines and her colleagues to ensure a smooth collaboration between the different parties from Design, Business and IT. One approach introduced by the speaker are so called “fusion teams”. These are teams, consisting out of employees from these mentioned parties. It allows them more freedom in collaboration and especially communication between departments. This is an essential step for breaking down silos, for which Ines has come up with a unique metaphor. Instead of bluntly referring to the different departments as “silos”, as it’s often done in business context, she uses the terms “city” and “houses”. If I’m lucky I have a chance for collaborating with REWE for my thesis topic. In this case however, the whole topic would be connected to the use case of cash registers in the stores such as BILLA, BIPA, Penny etc.
Image by REWE Group
If the possibility of connecting with REWE doesn’t work out, I might reach out to BOSCH Sicherheitssysteme, where I did my internship.
