The more complex follow-up to FieldAssist: one app for stocktaking, picking, packing, and printing, built while a major client co-funded and shaped it.
Same necessity, a bigger job
The same technical necessity as FieldAssist: outdated hardware that could no longer be updated. StoreAssist followed FieldAssist — with considerably more complexity under the hood.
One app for four kinds of work
Rebuild StoreAssist into the tool for warehouse and store staff: stocktaking, picking, packing, and printing — four flow families that need to work both on their own and seamlessly into one another.
One client funded it, everyone had to benefit
StoreAssist was already on the roadmap, but along the way it also became a paid client project: a major client bought hours and had their own stakes in how the app would work. At the same time, a broad rollout to all customers was always the goal. That tension — one paying client versus a broad customer base — runs like a thread through the obstacles, principles, and reflection below.
The Packaging step: pallet with height, next to loose boxes — the client-specific request that made the tension concrete
Four flow families, each with its own entry points
Checking and correcting have been merged into one flow — stocktaking — with two very different entry points. Together with picking, packing, and printing, that makes four flow families.
Checking and correcting stock, through two very different entry points.
Collecting products for an order — organization-dependent.
From a refined checklist to full materials registration.
Labels and stickers, for store and warehouse.
Every flow must be able to run on its own and be part of a larger chain — without the app feeling like a different product per organization configuration.
Counting in practice: item, location, and stock at a glance, with a simple plus/minus counter
The obstacles along the way
Stocktaking has two very different entry points: guided via tally lists, or ad hoc for a single item.
Picking works differently per organization: with or without warehouse locations, directly at the truck or via a packing station.
Where FieldAssist was a largely linear system, StoreAssist branches into four flow families that still need to feel like one whole.
StoreAssist touches not one, but several modules in the wider system.
After picking or delivering, the process can flow into FieldAssist — the two apps had to connect seamlessly.
The interests of the paying client and those of the broader customer base didn't automatically align.
The same guiding principle as FieldAssist, but not the same solution
Translated to StoreAssist's own reality, not blindly copied from FieldAssist.
Four flows are too different for one list — choose first, then enter the flow.
Via device camera, PDA scanner, or external scanner — scanning is needed everywhere, so it gets its own place.
An administrator or consultant turns flows like packing on or off; everything is on by default.
Pre-selection in practice: four tiles, no overcrowded list
From beta to final version
Four flows, one app that holds together
WORK
FAMILIES
COLLABORATION
What I take from this
The extensive packing flow with pallet height wasn't a strange or odd request, but a very specific business flow relevant to only a small part of the customer base. The real tension was in the risk that such a specific flow, made too prominent, would make the app feel unnecessarily complicated for the "average" client. Solved by keeping the extensive flow while adding a quick variant ("quick pack") in the pick flow, and by making flows configurable per organization — instead of choosing between "the client" and "everyone else".
The "quick pack" toggle: straight from the pick flow, without needing to enter the extensive packing flow