Overview

As part of a Master’s program project at Fachhochschule Ost, our team partnered with Coop—Switzerland’s largest retail network with 2.5+ million members—to optimize the promotion workflow in ERGO, their inventory management system. The project focused on reducing manual workload and improving productivity for store employees managing promotional activities.

Problem

Store managers and employees spent excessive time managing promotions in ERGO, leading to productivity issues:

• Complex, time-consuming workflows for setting up and tracking promotions
• High cognitive load from unclear information hierarchy
• Manual processes that didn’t scale across Coop’s large retail network
• Frequent errors and delays in promotion execution

Process

1. Discovery & Objectives

At the kick-off meeting at Coop headquarters, we collaborated with stakeholders to prioritize research questions focused on workflow optimization and employee productivity.

Our objectives were to:

1. Reduce time spent on promotion management tasks
2. Simplify the promotion workflow and reduce cognitive load
3. Improve data clarity and information hierarchy
4. Validate improvements through usability testing with measurable metrics

We focused our research on Coop retail store employees, and conducted a scoping workshop with stakeholders to define problem statements, hypotheses, and proto-personas.

2. User Research

We conducted contextual inquiries at retail stores, observing employees as they managed promotions in ERGO. Following these observations, we ran remote interviews to understand behaviors, validate workflows, and identify pain points.

The research revealed two primary personas (shop managers) and one secondary persona (district manager). User journey maps highlighted key pain points and opportunity areas across the promotion workflow.

3. Ideation & Prototyping

We presented research findings to stakeholders and prioritized two key opportunity areas. Using techniques like “How Might We” statements and affinity mapping, we generated solutions collaboratively.

Ideas were translated into future-state scenarios and requirements, which informed a high-fidelity clickable prototype.

4. Usability Testing

The prototype was tested in two iterations with shop managers and district managers, selected based on our personas.

Super fast, super clear, super easy. That’s great. — A managing director about the new prototype.

Outcome

The redesigned interface streamlined the promotion workflow while maintaining all necessary functionality. The solution integrated seamlessly into existing work patterns, focusing simplification on high-friction areas identified in research.

Impact

Usability Metrics:

• System Usability Scale (SUS): 88.6/100 (excellent usability)
• Time savings for shop managers: 69–79% reduction in task completion time
• Time savings for area managers: 31–49% reduction in task completion time

These metrics were measured through comparative usability testing, where participants completed identical promotion tasks using both the current system and the new prototype.