Tesco
Scan Assist
Redesigning a self-checkout experience to help reduce loss while keeping the customer journey intuitive.
- My role
- UX Designer
- Timeline
- 12 weeks
- Team
- Product · Engineering · Data · Research · Business
- Discipline
- UX Strategy · Interaction Design · Prototyping
Tesco Scan Assist self-checkout experience
The problem
Loss prevention interventions were interrupting honest customers and slowing colleagues down.
The approach
Mapped the end-to-end checkout journey, then designed interventions that stay quiet until they need to be loud.
The outcome
A calmer checkout for customers and clearer, faster decisions for colleagues on the shop floor.
01
Overview
Self-checkout carries two competing goals: let honest customers leave quickly, and protect the business from loss. Scan Assist sits exactly in that tension.
- Context
- Scope
- Constraints
02
The Challenge
Interventions were designed for the business, not the person standing at the till. Customers felt accused, colleagues felt like referees.
"I just want to pay and leave. I don't want to feel like I've done something wrong."
03
Discovery
Research, stakeholder insights, data and a hard look at the existing experience.
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Research synthesis and affinity mapping
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Existing experience audit
04
Key Insights
Insight 01
Silence beats certainty
Low-confidence prompts eroded trust faster than they prevented loss.
Insight 02
Colleagues are the interface
Most resolution happened in conversation, not on screen.
Insight 03
Timing is the design
The same message landed very differently before vs after payment.
05
Opportunity
What did the research tell us? Frame the opportunity as a design brief, not a feature list.
06
Ideation
Sketches, concepts, workshops and explorations.
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Concept sketches
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Workshop output
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Early explorations
07
Design
Wireframes, user flows, interaction design and high-fidelity screens.
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User flow
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High-fidelity screens
08
Iteration
How the design changed once real people got their hands on it.
Before — original experience
After — redesigned experience
09
Outcome
Measurable results where available, plainly stated.
−00%
Unnecessary interventions
00s
Faster colleague resolution
00
Stores in pilot
10
What I Learned
Keep this personal and honest — what you'd do differently, and what stuck with you.
11
Next Steps
Explore next
Add what you'd investigate with more time.
Improve next
Add what you'd refine or measure further.