Sabginie
UX & UI Design - App
Capstone - IIT Bombay
SabGenie is a research-driven UX project aimed at supporting small-scale fruit and vegetable vendors impacted by the digital shift accelerated during the COVID-19 lockdowns in India. The project explores how digital interventions, minimal yet effective, can help these vendors reclaim agency, build visibility, and gain customer trust in a competitive post-pandemic marketplace.
Story
Context
Post-COVID, the surge of digital marketplaces in India created new challenges for traditional sabjiwalas(or green grocers) and small vendors who lacked the infrastructure, digital fluency, or visibility to compete. As part of an academic research initiative, this project explored how minimal design solutions could empower vendors without overwhelming them with complexity or cost while retaining the core of their traditional offline marketplace, relationships with their customers.
Problem Space
How might we support local street vendors in transitioning to a digital-first economy without compromising on their accessibility, trust, or identity?
Story
Research Insights
To understand the friction points in digital and in-person grocery shopping, we conducted 16 contextual interviews across three cities with:
Vendors who adopted tech during lockdown
Customers who shop primarily online
Customers who prefer physical markets
A total of 688 statements were mapped into an affinity diagram. Key insights included:
Vendors spend heavily on infrastructure (packaging, QR codes, delivery, digital payment setup) to remain relevant.
Purchasing is driven by trust, often based on familiarity, consistency, and clear communication.
Both sellers and buyers rely on prior knowledge and verbal agreements, which are hard to replicate digitally.
Solutions must consider cost, language, and digital comfort, not just features.
Story
Design Process
Empathize: Conducted ethnographic interviews with street vendors and digital-native buyers.
Define: Mapped needs and frustrations to define key design challenges.
Ideate: Brainstormed low-tech, high-impact design interventions.
Prototype: Created low-fidelity sketches and annotated screens of a vendor-first digital portfolio.
Test: Conducted feedback sessions with real sabjiwalas and adjusted flows to be voice-led and language-inclusive.
Story
Key Solutions & Features
A customer-seller relationship–centric model that allows vendors to retain their regular customers by offering the option to deliver the orders themselves—preserving the trust and connection built through years of physical interaction.
A location-based radar system that shows vendors near the customer’s selected radius, ensuring visibility for small-scale, familiar vendors often preferred by local buyers.
Flexible fulfillment options, including vendor drop-off, customer pickup, or third-party delivery partner, giving both parties control and comfort in the transaction process.
Multi-language interface to ensure accessibility and comfort for vendors and buyers from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
Pre-order functionality to enable customers to schedule orders in advance and allow vendors to better manage demand and delivery timing.
A simple, intuitive interface designed to be mobile-friendly and culturally familiar, supporting vendors’ transition to a digital platform without sacrificing usability or identity.
Story
Impact & Reflections
SabGenie reinforced the idea that technology doesn’t need to be flashy to be powerful—it just needs to meet people where they are. Vendors responded positively to the simplicity and familiarity of the design. The research laid the groundwork for further work on micro-entrepreneur enablement.
This project became a springboard for my interest in designing for inclusion, small businesses, and underserved user groups.
Sabginie
UX & UI Design - App
Capstone - IIT Bombay
SabGenie is a research-driven UX project aimed at supporting small-scale fruit and vegetable vendors impacted by the digital shift accelerated during the COVID-19 lockdowns in India. The project explores how digital interventions, minimal yet effective, can help these vendors reclaim agency, build visibility, and gain customer trust in a competitive post-pandemic marketplace.
Story
Context
Post-COVID, the surge of digital marketplaces in India created new challenges for traditional sabjiwalas(or green grocers) and small vendors who lacked the infrastructure, digital fluency, or visibility to compete. As part of an academic research initiative, this project explored how minimal design solutions could empower vendors without overwhelming them with complexity or cost while retaining the core of their traditional offline marketplace, relationships with their customers.
Problem Space
How might we support local street vendors in transitioning to a digital-first economy without compromising on their accessibility, trust, or identity?
Story
Research Insights
To understand the friction points in digital and in-person grocery shopping, we conducted 16 contextual interviews across three cities with:
Vendors who adopted tech during lockdown
Customers who shop primarily online
Customers who prefer physical markets
A total of 688 statements were mapped into an affinity diagram. Key insights included:
Vendors spend heavily on infrastructure (packaging, QR codes, delivery, digital payment setup) to remain relevant.
Purchasing is driven by trust, often based on familiarity, consistency, and clear communication.
Both sellers and buyers rely on prior knowledge and verbal agreements, which are hard to replicate digitally.
Solutions must consider cost, language, and digital comfort, not just features.
Story
Design Process
Empathize: Conducted ethnographic interviews with street vendors and digital-native buyers.
Define: Mapped needs and frustrations to define key design challenges.
Ideate: Brainstormed low-tech, high-impact design interventions.
Prototype: Created low-fidelity sketches and annotated screens of a vendor-first digital portfolio.
Test: Conducted feedback sessions with real sabjiwalas and adjusted flows to be voice-led and language-inclusive.
Story
Key Solutions & Features
A customer-seller relationship–centric model that allows vendors to retain their regular customers by offering the option to deliver the orders themselves—preserving the trust and connection built through years of physical interaction.
A location-based radar system that shows vendors near the customer’s selected radius, ensuring visibility for small-scale, familiar vendors often preferred by local buyers.
Flexible fulfillment options, including vendor drop-off, customer pickup, or third-party delivery partner, giving both parties control and comfort in the transaction process.
Multi-language interface to ensure accessibility and comfort for vendors and buyers from diverse linguistic backgrounds.
Pre-order functionality to enable customers to schedule orders in advance and allow vendors to better manage demand and delivery timing.
A simple, intuitive interface designed to be mobile-friendly and culturally familiar, supporting vendors’ transition to a digital platform without sacrificing usability or identity.
Story
Impact & Reflections
SabGenie reinforced the idea that technology doesn’t need to be flashy to be powerful—it just needs to meet people where they are. Vendors responded positively to the simplicity and familiarity of the design. The research laid the groundwork for further work on micro-entrepreneur enablement.
This project became a springboard for my interest in designing for inclusion, small businesses, and underserved user groups.
