UX Design

FreshBox+ - UX Research & Prototype Case Study
UX Research / Mobile Commerce / 2026

Fresh food, without the weekly friction.

FreshBox+ is a vegetable shopping concept that combines flexible recurring delivery with familiar one-time grocery ordering - designed around freshness, control and less household waste.

Role: UX / UI Designer Methods: Interviews / Competitor Review Output: Lo-fi Mobile Prototype
Flexible weekly delivery
Pause, skip or order now
FreshBox+Menu
Leafy
Root
Fruit
Herbs
Fresh picksSee all
BRO
Broccoli
RM 6.90 / 500g
TOM
Tomatoes
RM 5.50 / 500g
01 / Project Overview

One product, two shopping modes.

Standard grocery apps are effective when users know exactly what they need today. Subscription services are effective when demand is predictable. Fresh vegetables sit between those two models: they are bought repeatedly, but quantity, timing and preferred items change from week to week.

The design challenge

How might a mobile experience help people receive fresh vegetables regularly without forcing them into a rigid subscription or removing the speed of a normal cart-and-checkout flow?

2Interviews
4Competitors
2Order modes
02 / Research Approach

From everyday routines to design requirements.

The study focused on practical shopping behaviour rather than abstract attitudes: how users plan meals, judge freshness, react to substitutions and manage recurring needs.

1

Interview

Two semi-structured conversations explored current shopping habits, decision criteria and trust concerns.

2

Synthesise

Notes were grouped around freshness, planning, control, waste and delivery confidence.

3

Benchmark

Four Malaysian grocery services were compared across discovery, fulfilment and repeat-purchase support.

4

Prototype

Insights were translated into a low-fidelity order flow covering cart, checkout, orders, profile and settings.

A
Interview A
Planned shopper
I want a routine, but I do not want the same box to arrive when my plans change.
01 Plans meals and prefers a predictable delivery window.
02 Wants confidence in produce quality before committing.
03 Sees value in subscription only when skip and pause controls are visible.
B
Interview B
Situational shopper
Sometimes I need vegetables for tonight, not for a plan I made last week.
01 Buys according to immediate cooking needs and available time.
02 Prioritises quick product discovery and a short checkout process.
03 Needs one-time ordering to remain as prominent as subscription.

Research-note convention: interview statements above are anonymised, portfolio-ready paraphrases rather than verbatim quotations. This preserves the meaning of the synthesis without inventing transcript wording.

03 / Interview Findings

Four tensions shaped the product direction.

Finding 01

Freshness must be legible

Users cannot inspect produce through a screen. The interface must compensate with clear source, quality and fulfilment signals.

Finding 02

Routine needs flexibility

Recurring delivery is useful only when users can change quantity, frequency and the next delivery without contacting support.

Finding 03

Convenience can create waste

A fixed box may solve shopping effort while producing excess food. Users need visibility and control before each renewal.

Finding 04

Two intents must coexist

The same person may subscribe to staples and still make an urgent one-time purchase. Neither mode should feel secondary.

Problem statement

People who buy vegetables regularly need a dependable way to automate repeat purchases while retaining enough control to respond to changing meals, schedules and household demand.

04 / Competitor App Report

The market solves delivery. The gap is recurring control.

Existing services provide strong selection, fulfilment and promotional value. The opportunity is not another generic grocery marketplace - it is a produce-focused layer that makes repeat ordering understandable and reversible.

Service Primary strength Speed / delivery Repeat purchase Subscription fit Observed UX gap
GrabMart Fast access to many nearby stores inside a familiar super-app.
Grocery is one category within a broad ecosystem; recurring produce planning is not the core journey.
Lotus's Wide supermarket assortment, membership value and online-offline integration.
Promotions, rewards and catalogue depth can compete with a simple produce-first task.
Jaya Grocer Quality-led grocery positioning with online shopping and scheduled delivery.
Strong retail experience, but limited emphasis on a user-managed recurring vegetable plan.
HappyFresh Personal-shopper model and scheduled grocery fulfilment from participating stores.
Quality selection is supported, but recurring produce management is not presented as the main product model.

GrabMart

Best benchmark for speed, store breadth and low-friction checkout.

Opportunity: deeper produce trust

Lotus's

Best benchmark for supermarket range, loyalty and promotional value.

Opportunity: reduce cognitive load

Jaya Grocer

Best benchmark for quality positioning and planned grocery delivery.

Opportunity: flexible recurrence

HappyFresh

Best benchmark for shopper-assisted selection and scheduled fulfilment.

Opportunity: direct plan control
01

Reversible subscription

Skip, pause, reschedule and cancel from the same surface that shows the next delivery.

02

One-time and recurring

Let users choose purchase mode at product level without splitting the experience into separate apps.

03

Freshness confidence

Use simple quality cues, replacement preferences and order status to reduce uncertainty.

05 / Prototype Draft Design

A familiar grocery flow, with subscription built in.

The low-fidelity structure follows the mental model users already know - browse, add, review and pay - then introduces recurring controls only where they are relevant.

HomeBrowse & search
ProductQuantity & quality
Purchase modeOne-time / repeat
CartMixed order review
CheckoutAddress, slot, pay
OrdersTrack & manage

01 / Browse

Fast category access and visible product units.

02 / Product

Freshness information before purchase mode.

03 / Cart

One-time and recurring items can coexist.

04 / Checkout

Delivery and payment remain conventional.

05 / Orders

Status, next delivery and plan controls together.

06 / Profile & Settings

Subscription settings use plain, direct labels.

01

Subscription is a choice, not a separate funnel

Users select one-time or recurring purchase on the product page, reducing duplication and preserving a familiar cart flow.

02

The next delivery is always visible

Orders and subscription settings surface date, frequency and status so users do not need to remember hidden commitments.

03

Pause and skip use primary language

Controls are written as direct actions rather than being buried under account or customer-support terminology.

04

Freshness cues appear before checkout

Product origin, unit, quality label and replacement preference are placed near the purchase decision - not after payment.

06 / Reflection

Automation should reduce effort - not reduce agency.

The central lesson was that a subscription is not merely a payment schedule. It is a long-term relationship between household demand, product freshness and user trust. The prototype therefore treats control as part of the core experience, not as an account-management afterthought.

Usability-test mixed one-time and recurring carts.
Validate replacement and out-of-stock preferences.
Test whether "skip" and "pause" are sufficiently discoverable.
Measure confidence in freshness information before checkout.

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