UX: Redesigning the Information Architecture for Singapore’s Grocery E-Commerce Giant — RedMart
“Design a flexible and scalable category landing template”
To my surprise, it was through solving this problem that I truly internalised the value of user-centricity and how it translates to ‘scalability’ and ‘flexibility’ across pages. Read on to find out more!

RedMart is Singapore’s largest online grocery marketplace with more than 100,000 products categorised into 13 broad categories. Their mission is to save consumers time and money for the important things in life, and this includes ensuring that consumers are able to find what they are looking for quickly and easily.
The Brief
- Improve the categories Information Architecture (IA)
- Improve navigation design
- Design a flexible and scalable category landing template
Goal: Better findability, discoverability & user experience, without using Search.
Duration: 3-week Design Sprint
Focus: 2 main categories of (1) Fruits & Vegetables, and (2) Baby, Kids and Toys
My Role: Project Manager, User Research, Information Architecture, UI Design
First things first: Understanding the Usability of the Current Site
Methodology: Usability Testing & Heuristics
The first thing we did was to conduct a usability test to understand the frustrations and pain-points users faced as they browse the current site. The 2 tasks were:
- To think-out-loud as they browse the website
- To find a particular item without using the search function
We also conducted a heuristic evaluation. The findings from this step were used in designing the solutions to the brief. I will share the findings in the relevant categories that follow.
Improve the categories Information Architecture (IA) & Navigation design with focus on Tier 2
Usability Testing Findings
- Users found it frustrating to look through the long list of categories (ie. there was no categorization, lending itself to cognitive overload)
- Users felt that Tier 2 items were not organized in a way that intuitively reflected the Tier 1 title (ie. Users felt that with a “Fruit & Vegetable” title, they would expect to see “Fruits” before “Vegetables”
- Users did not understand some of the naming (eg. Awesome Australia)
- Users felt odd that some Tier 3 headers were brought out on the menu, while others weren’t (eg. “Tomatoes” were on the Tier 2 navigation menu even though they were a sub category of Fresh Vegetables)
- Some users took a long time to find particular items, and indicated that a list of items in alphabetical order would help
To address the concerns we discovered, we developed the first proposed solution…

To understand how the proposed fared, we conducted a usability test with 7 Guerilla Interviews.
The Results: Average time to complete tasks decreased. 5 out of 7 preferred the prototype.
In true agile fashion, we took the findings, iterated and developed a revised which was collectively tested in our final prototype.

Improve the categories Information Architecture (IA) with focus on Tier 3— Fruits & Vegetables
Next, to understand how effective RedMart’s current categorization for Fruits & Vegetables currently is, we conducted an open card sort on Optimal Workshop.
Method: Open Card Sort
- Open card sort for Fruits, 32 participants, 37 fruits
- Open card sort for Vegetables, 32 participants, 45 vegetables
Findings:
- The results revealed that RedMart’s current categorization was strong
- There were, however, a number of items that had low agreement scores (eg. pandan leaves, bean sprouts, peaches, kiwis and figs)
The good categorization came as no surprise to us as RedMart probably had conducted extensive testing, data analytics & tweaking to arrive at their current grouping. As such, we decided to maintain the current groupings, and address the ‘problem’ items.
Goal: Test ‘problem’ items, Method: Tree Test
To verify these items, we conducted a tree test with 12 tasks and it was clear that users found it difficult to locate those items. One of our testers told us that she felt demoralized after doing the test!
After synthesizing the data from the card sort and the tree test, backed by the insights from the usability testing, we developed a new IA.



Applying the methodologies to other categories in Tier 3 — Baby, Kids, Toys
We conducted User Interviews to understand Mother’s buying behavior as we do not have any experience in this area. The 2 main insights gathered were 1) What the most commonly purchased essential baby items were, 2) Their considerations when buying those items.
Again, drawing from our experience with the Fruits & Veg category, we conducted a card sort to understand how users categorize the items. Contrary to the Fruits & Veg category, the results showed that people did not group things consistently and this should be improved on.
We ran a second round of card sorting to develop the revised IA for Baby, Kids & Toys. We did not continue with a final Tree Test as we decided to test the IA in the final prototype test instead. Read on to find out the eventual results!

Scalable & Flexible Template — Navigation Design, Category & Sub Category Landing page, Product Card Design
And this is where things get exciting as I mentioned at the start of my article.
Across different product categories, it is intuitive that buying behavior varies. A Mom going on RedMart to purchase Baby products would have a different mindset from a PEMT going to the site to purchase alcohol. What they value and look for is different. And this is the value in-depth user research brings and influences page design.
Starting with Fruits & Vegetables, our user interview showed that
- Freshness is the top factor that 100% of our interviewees look for when being fresh produce
- Some interviewers were particular about whether the fruits were organic and country of origin
Unfortunately…
- Users did not notice the banners shouting about Live Up & Freshness at the top of the page
- They did not understand that the tag on the Product cards “4D” intended to inform them that the product would be fresh for 4 Days
- A number of them did not notice the filters and as such, did not use them

As such…
- We converted the banner into an infographic to attract attention and encourage visibility of the Freshness promise
- We redesigned the product cards to better inform, through stronger visuals, of how long the fruit can be fresh for
- We sectioned out the Filters and brought it forward and more prominently on the page. We brought the breadcrumbs below the banner ad as our research showed that users missed that on the current page and thus had no bearings as to where they were. We included the big hit — A-Z option — right on top to allow the bulk of our users who already had a shopping list to find what they need, fast. With our new filter system, users could select only the products they want to see, and the product cards would dynamically show those items only. This helps to streamline search. Finally, we kept the sub categories tabs with photos as that fared very well during usability testing.


4. The filter section of the sub category landing page is kept largely similar. Our improvement was to change the tabs to a checkbox design as through our usability testing, we realised that users again, had no bearings which level of the IA they have clicked into, despite the breadcrumbs. The dynamic selection also proved to be helpful.

Moving on to the next category of Baby, Kids & Toys…
Our user interview showed that:
- Mothers usually already have a brand they intend to buy. This is after extensive research on forums, online and through recommendations. This means that discoverability is less important to them.
- For some key baby items, such as milk formula and pacifiers, mothers will shop by “Stage”or age of their child

As such..
- We created the landing page to allow Moms to narrow down their search based on the age group of their child.
- With our now more prominent filter section, users can see and narrow their search all at once so that the products cards they consider are only what is relevant to them. For example, a Mom might click “Stage 2” -> Filter by “Brand” & “Country of Origin”, and be able to scroll through the list of products that meet her requirements.

3. Since we found out that Stage of baby is what matters to Mothers, we made use of a tag to highlight this important aspect. This is similar to the Freshness tag for Fruits & Veg.

Final Prototype Test Results (7 users)
- All users preferred the new fly out menu
- 5–7 users used A-Z exclusively to navigate the product they were looking for. The time spent completing the tasks reduced drastically.
- Users were aware of the filters and the reason why those that did not use the filters was because they did not see a need for them (a browsing preference).
- Users felt that large images made the site look more appealing. One said that it ‘looks classy and feels premium’ and that he ‘preferred this over the current roll over because of the visuals’.
- Users could now relate the freshness indicator to the number of days they could keep the produce for with the revised tag.
- More than half missed the ads, despite us changing them to an infographic. However, some said that it might be because they were very focused on the task at hand that they ignored everything else on the page.
So, how should RedMart scale across the product categories? Let’s summarize what we have so far:
- Fly out menu is a hit! By breaking down the menu into bite-sized categorizes, and providing category names to explain the groupings, users found the menu more intuitive.
- A-Z option works well and applies to product categories where users have a shopping list that needs to be checked off.
- Having the filter section grouped together above the fold promoted its usage and should be kept.
- However, more user research (to have an in depth understanding of buying behavior) should be conducted in order to provide comprehensive user-centric filters for each product category. For example, some users suggested alternative filter options such as “lose weight” or “low fat”.
- We reduced the number of products per row from the current 6 to 4. Our usability testing showed favorable results, that has to be further tested.
- The revised ‘UPS’ tags were useful in informing users of the key considerations of that specific product, for example the freshness or Stage of child. RedMart can continue with user research for each product category in order to derive the appropriate tag.
- We also redesigned the product card to separate the brand description from the item / product description. This ensures that key product description would not be cut off and missed out on the card.
- We also introduced a “like” button to allow users to collate a wishlist. This is inspired by most e-commerce websites and should be tested further.
- We also made the “ADD TO CART” button an outline instead of solid button as they were visually distracting and not aesthetically pleasing.
- To combat banner blindness, we could suggest periodically changing tup the design of the top banner. If this still tests poorly, RedMart can consider removing the top banners and place them as product cards along with the rest of the cards instead. This is to be further tested.
Proud to show a quick overview of our changes for the Fruits & Veg category as follows:




Want to have a look at the final interactive prototype? Reach out to me and I’ll share it with you!
