Near‑identical cleaning products were split between "Cleaning Aids" under Home Needs and "Cleaning Tools" under Cleaning Essentials, then dumped into one long scroll.
What I did
Ran a heuristic evaluation, sketched three directions, built a hi‑fi Figma prototype and tested it with quick‑commerce users.
The result
One merged subcategory, items grouped by type, plus sort, filter and quick filter pills — shaped further by what testing surfaced.
Why Zepto
I use Zepto regularly, so its friction was my friction. Picking an app from my own week meant I could spot the rough edges from lived experience, not just from screenshots.
The project came out of Anudeep Iyyagari's design challenge and workshop. His User Centred Design workbook pushed a plain approach: ask common‑sense questions about the experience, answer them honestly, then check each answer against established heuristics.
The problem
Browsing for household items, I kept hitting the same wall. Home Needs held a subcategory called Cleaning Aids. Cleaning Essentials held one called Cleaning Tools. The products inside both were largely the same kind of thing — and scattered across the screen in no particular order.
Symptom
Users scroll a long, unordered list hunting for one item.
Because
There's no sorting, filtering or grouping to narrow it down.
Because
Similar products are split across two subcategories in two parents.
Root cause
The catalogue follows internal structure, not the mental model of a shopper walking a supermarket aisle.
Four heuristics, broken
Mapping the common‑sense observations to Nielsen's heuristics made the gaps concrete.
01Match between system and the real world
Products weren't sorted the way people see them in a store, where items sit together by category.
02Flexibility and efficiency of use
Few ways to narrow down to a specific tool; users were stuck in a long list with no shortcuts.
03User control and freedom
An endless scroll was the only path, limiting how freely people could explore or jump to what they wanted.
04Recognition rather than recall
Comparing items meant remembering details, with little visual cueing to lean on.
Make the app shelve things the way shoppers already think.
Ideation
Three directions came out of brainstorming, each answering a different heuristic. They turned out to work best together.
Group within
Group items inside a subcategory by type, so mops sit with mops and brushes with brushes.
Sort & filter
Add sort and filter controls, plus quick filter pills along the top for one‑tap narrowing.
Merge the two
Collapse Cleaning Aids and Cleaning Tools into a single subcategory, so everything lives in one place.
first on paperPaper wireframe: pills on top, Sort and Filter at the bottom.
I sketched the screen on paper first: category rail on the left, pills across the top, Sort and Filter pinned at the bottom next to the delivery nudge. The strongest version moved into a high‑fidelity Figma prototype.
The redesign
What changed on the subcategory screen, and which heuristic each change answers.
Structure
One subcategory instead of two
Cleaning Aids and Cleaning Tools merge into a single home. Shoppers no longer need to guess which parent holds the item they want.
real‑world match
Before: the same mop set sits in two categories — Cleaning Tools and Cleaning Aids.After: quick filter pills on top, Sort beside the delivery bar.
Navigation
Sort, filter and quick pills
Three pills — Toilet & other brushes, Jhaadu/Mops/Wipers, Brooms & Dust pans — sit above the grid. The selected pill shows a clear-cross, and the Filter sheet repeats the same categories alongside brand, price, discount and origin.
efficiency + control
Filter sheet with an active pill still visible above.Categories mirror the pills: one mental model, two entry points.
Scanning
Grouped shelves you can recognise
Labelled groups break the endless list into short, predictable sections. Shoppers compare like with like on screen instead of holding details in their head.