Declan Foods – E-commerce Food Delivery Platform
A student-focused food delivery platform designed to make grocery shopping simple, accessible, and convenient.
Role
Duration
Tools
Team
Project Overview
Declan Foods is a student-focused food delivery platform designed to make buying foodstuff more convenient and accessible. I worked as the Product Designer, collaborating with frontend and backend developers to design the experience across the customer and admin sides of the platform.
2
Core Experiences
3
Product Areas
3
Team Members
Problem Statement
For many students, getting essential foodstuff is more complicated than it should be. Between busy schedules, academic demands, limited mobility, and the hassle of physically navigating markets or stores, restocking everyday essentials can become time-consuming and inconvenient.
Declan Foods set out to simplify this experience by bringing foodstuff shopping into one accessible digital platform—allowing students to discover products, place orders, and manage delivery without having to make the trip themselves.
The design challenge was to create an experience that felt simple enough for everyday shopping while supporting the operational needs behind orders, deliveries, referrals, and administration.
Research & Discovery
I spoke with students to understand their existing foodstuff shopping habits, pain points, and expectations around a more convenient alternative to physical market shopping.
Most participants relied on local markets, where product availability at the time of purchase often influenced what they chose to buy. The research highlighted three recurring concerns: the stress of going to the market, uncertainty around product availability, and concerns about delivery.
3
Key Pain Points
3
Key Insights
20+
Users Researched
Key Insights
Availability influences decisions.
Students often chose what to buy based on what was available when they visited the market.
Market shopping creates friction.
The time and effort required to physically shop for foodstuff made convenience an important consideration.
Delivery affects confidence.
Concerns around receiving orders reliably highlighted the need for a clear and straightforward delivery experience.
Ideation
Using the research insights as a starting point, I explored ways to reduce the friction students faced when shopping for foodstuff.
The ideation focused on making product discovery, availability, ordering, and delivery more straightforward while balancing the needs of customers with the operational requirements of the business.
User Flow
I mapped the end-to-end customer journey to define a clear path from product discovery to order completion and delivery. The flow established the key interactions and decision points across product selection, cart management, delivery details, and order confirmation, while identifying opportunities to minimise friction throughout the experience.
Wireframing
I translated the validated user flows into low-fidelity wireframes, defining the information hierarchy, layout structure, and key interactions across the product experience.
The focus was on creating a clear foundation for product discovery, navigation, checkout, and delivery before introducing the visual design system.
The wireframes established a clear foundation for product discovery, checkout, and delivery, helping translate the research insights into a structured experience across mobile and desktop.
Visual Design
I translated the established structure into a cohesive visual system that balances usability with Declan Foods' brand identity. The interface uses clear hierarchy, purposeful colour, and consistent components to create a familiar shopping experience across mobile and desktop.
Prototyping & Testing
I connected the key screens into interactive prototypes to validate the core customer journeys and communicate intended interactions to the development team. This helped surface usability considerations and refine the experience before implementation.
10+
Test Participants
4
Testing Rounds
95%
Task Success Rate
Iterations & Refinements
Design reviews and collaboration with the development team informed several refinements across the experience. I iterated on key layouts and interactions to improve clarity, reduce friction, and ensure the final designs were practical to implement.
Final Design
The final product brings the core shopping journey together in one streamlined experience, from discovering available foodstuff to placing an order and managing delivery.
Beyond the customer experience, the product also supports referrals, order management, delivery coordination, and administration, creating a connected system that serves both customers and the teams operating behind the scenes.
Impact
3
Core User Needs Addressed
5+
Key Product Experiences
2
Experience Areas Designed
The product translated a traditionally physical shopping process into a digital experience designed around convenience, product visibility, and reliable delivery.
As the sole Product Designer, I contributed across both the customer and operational experiences, working closely with the development team to turn product requirements into a cohesive, implementable experience.
Lessons Learned
Working across both customer-facing and operational experiences strengthened my understanding of designing for an entire product ecosystem rather than a single user flow.
I learned to balance user needs with business and technical constraints, particularly when designing features that depend on fulfilment, delivery, and administrative processes.
Next Steps
Future iterations could focus on strengthening the delivery experience, improving product availability visibility, and using customer feedback to continuously refine the shopping journey.
