Tesco Direct – Improving the Online Shopping Experience
UX/UI and front-end consultancy for Tesco Direct, combining interface development with an investigation into ways of improving the team’s UI development processes and technologies.
Introduction
Tesco Direct was Tesco’s major non-food e-commerce service, offering customers a large and varied range of products online. Working within such a substantial retail operation provided experience of the challenges involved in developing and maintaining user interfaces at scale, where usability, consistency and efficient development practices all have an important part to play.
My involvement combined hands-on interface work with a broader consultancy role, examining the team’s existing UI development approach and recommending ways in which its working methods and technologies could be improved.
Working at E-commerce Scale
Tesco Direct operated on a very different scale from a typical e-commerce website. A large product range, high levels of traffic and an established development environment meant that interface work needed to be consistent, maintainable and capable of supporting continued development.
My role involved working on the user interface while also looking beyond individual screens and features to consider how the development team approached front-end delivery more broadly.
Reviewing the UI Development Approach
An important part of the engagement was investigating the team’s existing UI development methods and technologies and identifying opportunities for improvement.
This meant considering not simply how an individual interface should be implemented, but how the underlying approach could make future development more efficient and consistent. Recommendations were made around working practices and technologies, bringing a consultancy element to what might otherwise have been regarded primarily as a front-end development role.
Technology, Users and Business Needs
Working on Tesco Direct reinforced the importance of considering technical decisions within their wider business context. For a large e-commerce operation, improvements to development processes can have an impact far beyond a single page or feature.
The experience contributed to an approach I have continued to use throughout my consultancy career: understand the immediate requirement, but also look for opportunities to improve the processes, technologies and ways of working that sit behind it.
Read the Full Project Story
This article provides a short introduction to my work with Tesco Direct. For more information about the project, my role, responsibilities and the wider professional context, read the full Tesco Direct project page on Mike-Speight.co.uk.