Rethinking Shopping for the Visually Impaired
We partnered with our co-creator Ming, who is blind, to explore the offline shopping experience for people with visual impairments. Through research, shadowing, and co-creation, we identified key barriers and designed two new features for the Seeing AI app to support better in-store navigation and browsing.
My Role
Co-Creation
UX & UI Design
Video Editing
CC + Audio Descriptions
Advisors
Pinar Guvenc
Adriana Valdez Young
Co-creator
Ming Wu
Team
5 Product Designers
Timeline
Jan ‘24 - May ‘24
We met Ming through our Inclusive Design class. She’s a writer, a board member at the Vision Loss Alliance, and a mother.
Over time, she gradually lost her vision and is now completely blind.In our first conversation, Ming shared how shopping—something many take for granted—can feel frustrating and limiting when stores and digital tools aren’t designed for people like her.
That conversation became the starting point for our project.
How Ming navigates her world:
We didn’t guess—we collaborated.
We shadowed Ming, identified barriers, and worked together to co-create meaningful ideas.
From navigating to the entrance to making payments, shopping is a multi-step journey that presents unique challenges for people who are blind.
Our ecosystem map helped us break this experience down into smaller touchpoints—from transportation and in-store navigation to community support and checkout.
After mapping the journey, we narrowed our focus to two key areas where current solutions were lacking:
Ming isn’t alone. We designed with her, but kept in mind others like her—tech-savvy users who are independent, organized, and deeply familiar with assistive tools. Still, the current systems don’t serve them fully.
Before arriving at the store, users can create or review a personalized shopping list for better planning and recall.
✔️ Easy to update with voice or text
✔️ Acts as the base for in-store navigation
Once at the store, users can activate navigation mode, which uses NFC-based item tracking.
✔️ Audio prompts guide users to product locations
✔️ Reduces frustration and guesswork
✔️ Tailored to user’s pre-made list
Users can scan a shelf and get spoken descriptions of nearby products.
✔️ Encourages discovery beyond pre-set lists
✔️ Makes casual shopping more accessible
A conversational assistant helps users explore and compare products using their list and history.
✔️ Personalized suggestions based on previous purchases
✔️ Two-way conversation mimics natural discovery
The system supports more intuitive, independent decisions.
✔️ Promotes autonomy—no need for constant assistance
✔️ Reduces pressure or dependency while shopping
While we didn’t build directly within the Seeing AI app—and couldn’t test the actual features—we did share the concepts and design directions with Ming throughout the process. Her feedback was positive and encouraging.
To close the loop, we created a video that documented our entire journey—from first interview to final concepts—and made a version with assistive audio for accessibility.
We shared this with Ming, and her response reminded us why this work matters.
🔗 Watch the Process Video with Assistive Voice
Inclusive design isn’t just about the final solution. It’s about how you get there—with empathy, openness, and shared ownership. And for us, that made all the difference.
