The Pickup App supports over 28,500 Target Team Members daily as they prepare and deliver guest orders. Target’s Same-Day services drove $20 billion in revenue in 2024 with Drive Up leading growth.
The opportunity
The Pickup App underwent a full engineering rewrite to modernize the tech stack. This presented a rare opportunity to rethink the entire user experience but it came with significant challenges.
The challenges
UX was not part of the original planning. Engineering was already building. Scope was large, timelines were tight, and alignment was missing.
My role
Sole UX designer at kickoff in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment
Built foundational structure and aligned product, engineering, and business
Advocated for scalable systems, including enterprise design tokens
Became a steady presence through org changes—leading with clarity and calm
Supported 14 Engineers, 3 Tech Leads, 1 Product Manager, 1 Principal PM, and 9 Business Partners
Understanding the Team Member
To better understand the experience firsthand, I worked in stores fulfilling Drive Up orders. I gathered feedback from Team Members and Leads, uncovered key issues, validated new workflows, accessibility, and task efficiency.
Store layouts vary and aren’t always optimized for Pickup. At this store, the staging area (in pink) is 115 steps from the café—about 57 seconds roundtrip. Some layouts are even more complex, requiring freight elevators.
Bringing order to an unstructured space
When I joined, the design space was disorganized—scattered screenshots and outdated files created risk and confusion, and engineers were preparing to build from them. The environment was fast-paced, multi-track, and lacked structure.
I quickly stepped in to bring order and clarity. I aligned cross-functional teams, introduced frameworks to organize workstreams, and prioritized efforts to enable timely decisions without sacrificing design quality. This structure allowed us to move confidently across multiple projects in parallel, reduced churn, and embedded UX into roadmapping and strategy conversations.
UX Wins
Working in a rapid, iterative cycle, I delivered quick prototypes and continuously integrated feedback to keep pace with engineering. I rebuilt core flows to better support Team Members in high-paced, dynamic environments—prioritizing clarity, speed, and ease of use under pressure. To focus efforts, I defined key problem spaces and framed the work with job stories and metrics that drove UX value and operational impact.
Improved guidance on tasks
With high Team Member turnover, onboarding needs to happen quickly and effectively—often right on the floor. I introduced light coaching moments within the experience to help new TMs understand their options and next steps without disrupting the workflow for seasoned Team Members
Improved clarity of information
The original experience made it difficult to quickly see key vehicle details and parking space number. This was especially challenging outdoors, where glares make small text even harder to read.
Explorations focused on improving clarity of vehicle and parking info while also conserving vertical space. The goal was to ensure key details are easy to scan at a glance without disrupting task flow.
The final designs make vehicle details and parking space easy to read at a glance. Improved hierarchy help Team Members act quickly and confidently, even while in motion.
Improved usability
In the updated design, I reorganized content for clarity, surfaced key actions, and improved scrollability, helping Team Members move faster and with greater confidence.
The original experience required extra effort to scroll and scan, made it unclear what actions were available, and buried important status and instruction details.
Improved usability and understanding
The updated design improves button clarity and labeling, and makes item details easier to read at a glance—helping Team Members move faster and avoid mistakes.
In the original design, buttons didn’t look or feel tappable, and it was unclear what each one would do. Product names and quantities were also hard to quickly understand.
Improved contextual content
Complex Flows
This work went beyond UI improvements. It required solving for complex, real-world flows. Team Members navigate a range of scenarios that have various combinations, including store-specific restrictions, age-restricted items, and shared responsibilities across roles. I had to design not only for the individual TM’s experience, but also for how their actions and updates are viewed and understood by other Team Members making the design challenges uniquely complex.
Strategic scope expansion
While timelines remained tight, focused prioritization allowed us to strategically expand scope—bringing in UX improvements and high-value features that directly addressed Team Member pain points.
