Wawu – Afro-Caribbean Grocery Marketplace in Canada

Overview

Wawu is an e-commerce marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of African and Afro-Caribbean groceries across Canada. Similar to Instacart, Wawu offers a same-day delivery model—built specifically for the underserved immigrant communities seeking cultural essentials.

I led design as the founding designer—driving research, UX/UI design, testing, and building a scalable design system from scratch.

Initiated the project with a comprehensive usability audit of the existing app, employing heuristic evaluation, user interviews, and performance analytics to identify friction points. This audit revealed significant areas for improvement, particularly in the app's navigation system, goal tracking features, and social engagement mechanisms.

The Problem

As immigration to Canada increases, African and Caribbean communities often struggle to access familiar grocery items locally. Many buyers resorted to international shipping due to:

• Difficulty finding local stores

• Long delivery times

• Poor inventory visibility

• High product markups

• Inconvenience of long in-store visits

Sellers, on the other hand, struggled with visibility, inventory management, and logistics.

My Role

As the founding designer, I was responsible for:

• Conducting market research

• Mapping buyer–seller–logistics flows

• Designing the consumer app, seller app, and shopper app

• Creating and managing a modular design system

• Aligning user and business needs under tight timelines

Tools Used: Figma, Slack, Google Forms

Research Approach

Due to a tight 12-week MVP timeline, I leaned heavily on secondary research:

• Watched vlogs and user-generated content on grocery shopping in Canada

• Analyzed competitor models (Instacart, DoorDash, Etsy, Oceanbuy)

• Conducted a UX-focused competitive audit

• Identified key frustrations and opportunity areas for each stakeholder group

Stakeholders

• Buyers: Immigrants seeking affordable, convenient access to cultural groceries

• Sellers: Small businesses needing visibility and inventory tools

• Wawu Team: Managing logistics and quality control across the platform

Key Solutions

For Buyers

• A seamless checkout experience to reduce cart abandonment

• Same-day delivery options with transparent estimated delivery times

• Personalized store discovery based on past preferences

For Sellers

• Automated inventory management with low-stock alerts

• Intuitive product listing flow for faster onboarding

• Flexible fulfillment: choose to use Wawu logistics or manage deliveries independently

Personas

I designed around two primary user types: the buyer and seller, focusing on motivations, pain points, and goals to ensure the design process remained user-centered.

Information Architecture & Flows

I structured a clear end-to-end mapped buyer flows.

Due to legal restrictions, seller system flows are excluded.

Design System

To ensure scalability and consistency, I built a modular design system in Figma:

• 8pt grid system for vertical rhythm

• Reusable components (buttons, form elements, states, cards)

• Responsive layouts for various screen sizes

Final Designs

Bringing Afro-Caribbean commerce to life—one screen at a time.

After multiple iterations and stakeholder feedback sessions, I translated the research insights and product goals into a clean, scalable UI across the buyer, seller, and shopper apps.

The final design focuses on:

• Clarity and ease of use across all user types

• Consistent, modular components to streamline future development

• A culturally relevant, friendly experience that reflects the community it serves

Below are selected screens showcasing the key flows across the platform:

• Home & Discovery: Browse curated Afro-Caribbean grocery stores based on location

• Product Listing & Inventory: Simple interface for sellers to add/manage products

• Checkout Flow: Streamlined multi-step flow with clear delivery expectations

• Order Tracking: Real-time updates for buyers and shoppers

• Fulfillment Tools: Options for sellers to choose delivery or self-fulfill

Each screen was designed with usability and scale in mind, ensuring that the experience could grow alongside the platform.