Amazon

Role: User Experience Design Intern

Tools: Figma

Role & Skills: User Experience Research, Usability Testing, Product Definition & Strategy, Stakeholder Alignment, Mid-Fidelity Prototyping

Timeline: June 2025 - August 2025

Redesigning training for store associates at Amazon Fresh Stores (AFS) and Whole Foods Market (WFM) to make it easier and more scalable to learn how to use Dash Carts, the smart shopping carts that let customers skip checkout.

Dash Carts are Amazon’s smart shopping carts that automatically track items as customers shop, so they can skip the checkout line. With this new training, store associates will quickly learn how the carts work in real-life scenarios, making it easier for them to support customers and keep the experience smooth. Currently, the training system is inconsistent and not standardized, which means associates don’t always get the same experience. In some cases, they never even touch a Dash Cart during training, leaving them without the hands-on, contextual learning they need. This creates gaps in knowledge, lowers confidence when assisting customers, and ultimately impacts the overall shopping experience.

Project Goal & Overview

Researching What the Current Training Ecosystem and Its Pain Points Through 28+ Stakeholder Insights

  • Stakeholder Alignment

    Through several feedback loops and conversations with product managers, UX designers and researchers, training leads, store managers and associates, and our developers, I uncovered conflicting priorities and worked to create a shared vision for scalable training.

  • Discovering Touchpoints & Tools

    I mapped out all the training materials and tools associates use—an ecosystem that is unidentified on the Amazon side. This revealed a cluttered, inconsistent system that often left them without hands-on cart experience.

  • Long-Term Challenges

    I identified bigger issues like poor communication between Amazon teams and lack of visibility into in-store training, which slowed updates and reduced associate confidence. Indicated here are key focus areas identified in understanding the content gaps in training.

Final Solution

Training Mode Designed for Associates on the Dash Cart for a Contextual, Learning Experience

The anatomy of the solution is static, customer-facing screens are supported by overlay modals with layered pop-ups and key highlights, enabling fast design implementation through an easy click-through flow. This makes the solution intuitive, highly visual, and easy to retain even for non–tech-savvy users. More importantly, it remains lightweight to design by leveraging existing content, making development seamless as new features are introduced and additional modules are pushed.

The demo highlights one such module—the checkout process—showcasing common high-level failures as an example.

Site Map of the Task Flow

I mapped out the flow here: starting with the sign-in process that leverages a unique QR code for access, which then opens up a scalable associate mode designed to house all future associate tools, including this training mode. From there, the focus shifts to two key features: selecting a module to train on and completing a quick refresher knowledge check.

Why Does This Work? Validating the Solution!

  • Implementation

    The solution uses a lightweight development approach with a reusable overlay design, making it simple to deploy and easily scalable across stores.

  • User Impact

    Associates benefit from intuitive, contextual learning that boosts confidence and provides repeatable, referenceable guidance during real customer interactions.

  • Business Value

    The framework supports high-turnover environments, drives higher Dash Cart utilization (our kingpin goal), and ensures information remains fresh, accessible, and trackable for training visibility.

Usability Testing with 4 Key Associates and Store Supervisors validated that the step-by-step structure of the solution was effective, along with its improved clarity with a customer-facing flow and a confirmed refresher at the end!

Whole Foods MA-47 Associate

“I liked the highlights on the screen and how it walked through it like a customer would”

Whole Foods MA-47 Customer Service Supervisor

“This is perfect for new hires and some of our team that has no Dash Cart experience”

Conclusions

Overall Project Outcomes & Deliverables:

  • Functional POC—Quick Implementable,

  • Framework for North Star Training Mode

  • Created PR/FAQ for Conceptualizing Long

  • Term Vision with Roadmap Milestones

  • Developing Module Checklist to identify Dash Cart training content gaps

  • Aligning insights from 28 stakeholders

  • Positive Feedback from Usability Testing

My next step recommendation was to run A/B testing with this training mode to measure the success metrics outlined in the long-term vision documentation, while also validating my proposed designs for future features that address remaining pain point gaps.