Internal tool · Mobile app
Picking app
Click & Collect was running on a Slack channel and a Google Sheet. I watched pickers work, then designed a mobile app to replace both.
The impact
ProblemClick & Collect picking ran on a Slack channel and a Google Sheet.
OutcomeEvery picker using it within a month, and post-pick corrections down from 7.6% to 0.4%.
The background
Click & Collect launched at one branch in 2025 and took off. Behind the scenes, it ran on a Slack channel and a Google Sheet. It worked, but it was held together with tape.
By late 2025 the branch was handling about 30 collections a day, and more stores were about to go live. Rolling Slack out branch by branch would have been chaos, so we decided to build a picking app. I was the sole designer, working with one developer over about three months.
The problem
Slack was doing four jobs it wasn't built for: a work queue, a record of who was doing what, order data and customer messages. That hurt three groups:
- Pickers scrolled a chat feed, with bin, weight and quantity buried in a PDF. Two people could start the same order.
- Customers were left waiting at the desk when an arrival message was missed.
- Managers had no overview and nothing to report on.
What I found
I spoke to 7 pickers, 3 managers and 2 technical team members, across 5 observation sessions and 10 interviews. Pickers got most of my time.
I watched pickers handle goods with one hand and use Slack on their phone with the other, shouting across the picking area to work out who had already picked what.
The picklist showed one item's weight, not the whole line, so pickers walked back for a trolley.
A long chat feed, split across two channels, at just one branch.
Issues disappeared into the scroll, so nobody noticed the same one happening three times.
The core flows worked fine, though. My job was to keep what worked and change how it was delivered.
What I did
A smooth pick was the easy part. The hard part was everything that can go wrong, so I mapped every flow, from pick issues and refunds to part collections and no-shows. Then I walked pickers, the developer and management through simple wireframes.
We kept the flows people already knew, and added:
- Tabs for Live Picks, Arrivals and All Picks, with filters and search
- A picker status (online, break, offline) to help manage workload
- Notifications and comments, so pickers know when to act
- A store setting, ready for other branches
The first release covered Click & Collect picking only. Deliveries could wait until we knew it worked.
The design
What changed after testing
Feedback came through weekly calls, user testing and a Slack channel. The picklist was the screen everything hung off, so I shared a few versions instead of one.
Order of information
- Tried
- SKU, bin location, then quantity.
- Learned
- What you need first depends on whether you're finding an item or counting it. I'd got that wrong.
- Changed
- Took the best parts of each version and reworked the order.
Row size
- Tried
- Big cards for each item.
- Learned
- Orders with lots of items took too long to scroll.
- Changed
- Smaller rows, with more of the order on screen.
Smaller changes: bolder SKUs, free stock levels, tappable phone numbers and a live picks filter.
The result
100%
Of pickers using it
By the end of month one, and the app was optional
from 7.6%0.4%
Post-pick corrections
Was 1 in 13 picks. Now almost none
from 239.5
Arrival chase-ups per 100 orders
Automated reminders when no one acknowledged a customer
Live
Status for every order, in every store
Picker names on each order, and the reporting managers asked for
Pickers now see bin, quantity, weight and free stock before they set off, with picks grouped by where things sit in the branch.
★★★★★
“Loved the click and collect service and the bonus that staff bring your goods to the vehicle. Top marks!!”
What I'd do differently
Time was tight, so I designed the core flows properly and moved quickly on the rest in Claude Design. Some parts, like comments, went out with little design behind them. With more time, I'd go back to those.