The Continental Bookstore
Continental Bookstore is one of Singapore's primary providers of academic textbooks for primary schools. Each year during November and December, the annual book ordering period creates significant demand, processing thousands of orders in a concentrated timeframe. The existing system was unable to handle this volume reliably, resulting in lost orders, losing customer trust, and operational inefficiencies.
The Problem
During our user interview, we found out that the existing ordering system presented multiple critical issues. Parents found the online ordering process difficult and expressed concerns about payment security. On the operational side, the team faced data integrity issues, lost orders, and a platform that couldn't scale to meet peak demand. Order retrieval and management were inefficient, and response times to customer queries were unacceptably long.
We proposed a redesign the web and mobile ordering system to handle high-volume annual ordering periods, extend order management capabilities across multiple bookstore branches, and build a foundation scalable for future e-commerce expansion and white-label opportunities.
My Role
I led the design process from ideation through delivery, working alongside the project manager and engineering team. My responsibilities included conducting user interviews, developing user flows and information architecture, creating wireframes and prototypes at varying fidelity levels, facilitating user testing sessions, and producing detailed design specifications for engineering handoff.
Understanding the User
We conducted interviews with the operations team at HQ and branch administrators. Due to timeline and access constraints, we gathered customer insights through the admin team, who had extensive direct contact with parents during the ordering periods.
Key findings from research
Data integrity issues resulted in lost orders and incomplete transactions
Peak season volume overwhelmed the existing infrastructure
Parents expressed concerns about online payment security
Communication layers between HQ and branches created bottlenecks in query resolution
HQ lacked visibility into school-specific inventory demands, complicating stock management
User needs identified
Direct communication channels between parents and bookstores
Distributed order management allowing HQ to focus on inventory oversight
Branch-level ownership and transparency for individual orders
Faster, more reliable order processing and query resolution
Given the project scope and delivery timeline, we structured the work in two phases. Phase one addressed the customer-facing book ordering experience, while phase two focused on distributed order management across HQ and branch locations.
Scope of work
Designing the Solution
Mapping the Flow
I began by documenting the existing customer journey to identify pain points and inefficiencies. The current flow was unnecessarily complex, requiring parents to navigate multiple unclear steps. On the administrative side, orders lacked clear ownership as they moved between HQ and branches.
The redesigned flow prioritized simplicity: school selection, book browsing, and checkout. For administrators, the new system established clear order assignment, real-time inventory tracking, and proactive issue flagging.
Customer book ordering process
HQ and bookstores order management
Information Architecture
Based on research insights, I structured the system into two distinct experiences:
a streamlined customer-facing ordering interface and
a comprehensive backend order management system for HQ and branches.
The information architecture accommodated school-specific landing pages, order tracking, and branch-level administrative dashboards.
Site map for Admin’s Order Management
Wireframing and Testing
I developed low-fidelity wireframes to validate critical flows and information hierarchy. We tested these with the HQ operations team using an InVision prototype.
Key insights from testing
Administrators required automated notifications for invoice downloads and order status changes
The system needed automated inventory alerts to flag orders with insufficient stock
School-specific login pages required a lightweight CMS for branch-level customisation
These findings directly informed the next design iteration, transforming the system from a simple order processor into a tool that anticipated operational challenges.
Wireframes for Administration and Book Order Management
Refining the Design
The customer-facing interface design was developed using Continental's existing brand guidelines, maintaining visual consistency with their established colors and typography. The design prioritised clarity and trust, essential for a transaction-based system where parents were initially hesitant about online payments.
Beyond the visual design, significant effort went into engineering handoff documentation. After finalising high-fidelity mockups, I created detailed process flows illustrating system logic, decision points, validation steps, and error states. Each interaction was annotated with specifications for required fields, data formats, and edge cases to ensure implementation accuracy and reduce ambiguity during development.
Impact
At the time of the launch, the redesigned system processes over 8,000 orders for the first year. The streamlined ordering flow allows parents to complete purchases without account creation, reducing friction in the conversion process. For operations and administrative staff, the distributed order management system significantly reduced time spent on error resolution and order tracking.
Reflection
This project reinforced the importance of precision in design communication. Effective design extends beyond visual composition, it requires clear articulation of system behaviour, user interactions, and experiential details to engineering teams.
Working with proxy users rather than direct customer access taught me to extract meaningful insights from indirect feedback channels. While not ideal, administrative staff with regular customer contact provided sufficient signal to make informed design decisions within project constraints.
The experience also highlighted the value of phased delivery. By structuring the project into customer-facing and administrative phases, we maintained focus on distinct user needs while building toward a cohesive system architecture.