Cornershop — Chia-Ying Tsai

The Problem

Retailers are under pressure to deliver experiences that move smoothly between physical stores and digital channels. In reality, customer-facing apps and staff systems sit in separate silos — leaving shoppers with disjointed journeys and store teams without the tools to keep up.

The challenge: How might we connect customer experience and store operations into one omnichannel system that serves both shoppers and staff?

Impact

One journey

Connected the in-store and digital experience so customers move between channels without losing context.

Two surfaces

A customer app and a staff operations dashboard, designed in parallel so the front of house and back of house stay in sync.

Viable roadmap

A speculative concept turned into a credible business case for retail innovation, ready to take into stakeholder conversations.

Together, the work delivered an end-to-end omnichannel blueprint — proof that speculative design can become a roadmap retailers can actually act on.

Goals & Objectives

Integrate design within existing technology while keeping customer experience as the priority
Balance innovation with usability
Create a platform that connects digital and physical retail touchpoints

My Role

Identified business opportunities in technology-driven retail projects
Iterated designs with UX improvements based on research and testing
Built design systems for developer handover
Developed concepts through journey mapping and service blueprints
Enhanced customer experiences across the full omni-channel journey

Research

Before designing, we looked outward — studying emerging retail tech and mapping how customer expectations have shifted across channels.

Cornershop synthesis boards — journey maps, service blueprints, and Google Glass task management mapping — Synthesis boards — journey maps, service blueprints, and cross-concept exploration across AR try-on, coffee ordering, and Google Glass task management

Click an image to enlarge.

Process

The project combined speculative design thinking with practical delivery.

Research

Retail tech + customer behaviour scan

Journey map

Speculative future-state flows

Design

App + dashboard, built in parallel

Systemise

Design system for dev handoff

The Challenge

Designing speculatively for innovation while staying grounded in real user needs required:

Exploring solutions that balanced ambition with feasibility
Integrating complex touchpoints across digital channels
Testing hypotheses through alpha-phase prototypes

Outcome

The project delivered an omnichannel experience that connects digital and physical retail — autonomous shopping journeys, AR product discovery, staff operations, and reimagined in-store touchpoints.

App — iterated onboarding, home, map, profile, purposeful shelves, and personalised coffee flows with an improved visual identity

Design system — typography, colour, logo, components, navigation, and cards documented for dev handoff

Website — onboarding, product discovery, basket, payment, and profile pages aligned with the app identity

Cornershop autonomous checkout-free shopping experience diagram — customer arrives, checks in with QR, browses shelves with virtual try-on, camera tracking detects items picked up, and receipts are sent in-app after leaving the store — Autonomous, checkout-free shopping experience — Just Walk Out flow with camera tracking, app basket, and in-app receipts

Cornershop virtual AR try-on — Nike trainers visualised on a user's feet through the phone camera, with a product detail view for the Nike SB Zoom Blazer Mid alongside — Virtual AR try-on — bridging physical and digital browsing on a single device

Cornershop real-time store performance experience for managers — Manager workflow — real-time store performance, team oversight, and adhoc task allocation across a full shift

Cornershop employee task management with Google Glass — six-step shift flow — Google Glass flow — hands-free employee task management from shift start to end of duty

Cornershop Google Glass employee task management interface detail — Google Glass interface detail — incoming task, stock replenishment aisle cue, and in-context completion flow

Key Learnings

Adapting tech-led processes to UX — Working within a technology-first environment meant advocating consistently for user-centred approaches
Holistic thinking — True omni-channel design requires considering every touchpoint — digital, physical, and the transitions between them
Cross-device consistency — Maintaining experience quality across phones, tablets, and in-store displays required robust design system thinking