Designing a new pathway to the extracare program.
An experience strategy to increase Extra Care membership among non-members earlier in the journey.
Prototyped with AI workflow
X
8 weeks
UXR & Product Design
User Researcher
Mural, Claude Code,
Claude, Chat GPT
Team
Roles
Tools
Duration
Akshay Pagar
Bhairavi Ruparel
Self Intiated Project
CareFind is a kiosk experience designed to help non-members discover offers and unlock aisles in store.
Project Overview
CVS's free loyalty program is a proven driver of spend. Enrolled customers consistently outspend non-members. Yet acquisition relies on a single channel, employee- assisted checkout.
The project set out to understand why shoppers don't engage beyond casual purchases, and designed a new touchpoint that reaches them at the moment of discovery through a new kiosk service.
Now search anything in the store at your own convenience
My Contribution
Research Hat
Designed a screener
Contextual Inquiry
Conducted user interviews
Qualitative Analysis
Design Hat
Designed the survey
Contextual Inquiry
Conducted user interviews
My role was to help the team understand why non-members weren't engaging uncovering the barriers, shopping behaviours, and brand perceptions that directly shaped the kiosk features.
What we solved for?
How might we encourage non-members to sign-up for the loyalty program while at the store?
Key Challenges
Extra work for employees!
Employees are often times operationally constraint and may not initiate this conversation.
Pay and leave mindset!
Customer avoid this interaction and view it as an inconvenience to their experience.
What do employees say?
"It's like all of us on the floor are hoping the others will pick up the slack and get enough signups to not risk corporate cutting hours or dropping workers."
-r/CVS
Key Outcomes
DISCOVERY RESEARCH
Defined 4 mental models and current state journey to ground use cases and address core user expectations and needs.
EXPERIENCE STRATEGY
Developed a experience strategy to drive loyalty conversions earlier in the user journey.
RAPID PROTOTYPING
Developed the kiosk interaction flow, developing a new experience for a kiosk context.
The Solution
FEATURE 1
Shoppers wanted to browse products privately, without interruptions. We introduced a self-serve unlock flow that removes the staff interaction.
FEATURE 2
Shoppers wanted limited interactions while navigating the store. We designed a store map feature that helps users find any product and other details without using any device.
Current State Journey
The current user journey has membership touchpoint
only at the end of the journey.
Research Insights
4 mental models that define shopping experience at CVS.
Even though people said they shop for convenience they exhibited different behaviors
Convenience
Limited In-Store Interactions
Behaviors to reduce friction
Quick Errand Mindset
"It's right next to me… I do end up going to CVS if at all, it's really convenient for me to just get the stuff that I need."
- Research Participant 1
Pay and Leave!
“I just want to quickly check out. I don't want to stand there and learn more about a membership plan.”
- Research Participant 4
Keeping it Private
"sometimes you want to keep it private..you don't want to tell anyone that you have like, dry face…."
- Research Participant 3
Browse Here-Buy Online
"I would browse in pharmacy, but end up just ordering them online instead."
- Research Participant 5
We aimed to solve for these pain points and frustrations
Research Insights
Among non-members, 71% visited CVS just 1–2 times in 6 months,
and were neutral towards Extra Care's value
-Based on our survey.
"They look like there's only one register open. If I register, how long do people behind me have to wait?"
- Research Participant 3
Top reasons for people avoiding sign-ups
1
Store and brand experience shaped users' perception around sign-ups.
2
Fear of spam and data privacy issue made users reconsider sign-up
3
Staffing issues made sign-up feel like a social inconvenience.
Experience Strategy
The kiosk concept introduces a new, value-first loyalty
touchpoint early in the journey, not when users leave.
Principle 1
Don't interrupt the shopper, reduce friction.
Principle 2
Show the program value before an ask.
Principle 3
Service users in discovery phase, not just checkout.
Business Decision
Design decisions for building trust
while increasing signup.
Building Trust
2 Day promotion window
Sign-ups feel like spam, so we decided to time-box it. The shopper unlocks an offer with their number, we hold it for 2 days, and they can opt out anytime.
Value First offer
10% off Promo code
We decided to provide an upfront offer, as this user segment won't commit
due to lack of knowledge on
the benefits.
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