Modernizing Kroger’s FAST Alerts Temperature Monitoring System
Overview
As a Product Designer at Kroger, I led the redesign of FAST Alerts, our enterprise-wide temperature monitoring tool. The application helps store leaders, food safety managers, and technicians ensure food safety and quality by monitoring cooler temperatures in real-time.
The legacy system was built on an outdated codebase with limited documentation and frameworks that made it hard to maintain or scale. My goal was to modernize the tool to improve performance, reduce outages, and enhance usability by leveraging Kroger’s design system and direct user research
My Role
UX/UI Design: Redesigning the interface using Kroger’s Design Component Library.
Research & Collaboration: Interviewed store leaders, food safety managers, and technicians to uncover workflow pain points.
Feature Enhancements: Streamlined workflows to prioritize alerts, reduce friction, and improve response times.
Cross-functional Partnership: Worked with developers to ensure design decisions aligned with modernization goals.
Defining the Problem
To clearly define what we needed to solve, our team facilitated a series of workshops with key stakeholdersincluding Store Leaders, Food Safety Managers, Technicians, and Facility Engineering.
During these sessions, we surfaced pain points and challenges within our space: everything from confusing workflows and delayed alert acknowledgment to system outages and technical limitations in the legacy codebase.
By mapping these issues together, we built a shared understanding of the current state and aligned on a core goal: modernizing the legacy application to improve system reliability, streamline alert handling, and create a more intuitive experience for our users.
Defining the Problem
“How might we modernize FAST Alerts to improve reliability and usability, while enabling store leaders to act faster on temperature issues?”
The Challenge
Aging codebase and user interface : Outdated frameworks, poorly documented, and difficult to maintain.
Limited scalability: Hard to add new features or fix issues quickly.
Clunky user interface: Non-standardized design and confusing workflows.
Operational inefficiencies: Store leaders sometimes missed or delayed acknowledging critical alerts, putting food safety at risk.
The Challenge
The Process
1. Research & Discovery
Conducted stakeholder interviews with Store Leaders, Food Safety Managers, and Technicians.
Identified pain points: confusing navigation, slow response times, and difficulty differentiating urgent vs. non-urgent alerts.
Developed updated user personas for our primary user groups to capture goals, behaviors, and challenges.
Created a service blueprint to fill gaps in understanding and visualize the end-to-end FAST Alerts system.
3. Design & Iteration
Refreshed UI with Kroger Design System for consistency and accessibility.
Simplified navigation and workflows to reduce cognitive load.
Partnered with engineering to modernize the system architecture for speed and stability.
Introduced Critical Alerts — a new alert type designed to help users quickly spot and focus on the most important events.
Redesigned alert details : Introduced a side-by-side layout that gives users an immediate, comprehensive view of the event, making it easier to understand the full context at a glance.
4. Testing & Feedback
Conducted usability testing with end users on prototypes.
Iterated based on feedback: clearer alert states, improved filters, and contextual guidance for faster decision-making.
During our feedback
The Outcome
Success Metrics
Faster Alert Acknowledgment: Store leaders acknowledged alerts 30% faster due to streamlined UI and clearer workflows.
Reduced System Outages: Modernized backend reduced outages by 40%, improving reliability.
Improved System Response Time: Pages and data load times improved by 50%, cutting frustration and delay.
User Adoption & Satisfaction: Post-launch survey showed 85% of users preferred the new design over the legacy version.
Operational Impact:
Reduction in manual work and improved compliance with food safety protocols.
Contributed to Kroger’s goal of reducing perishable shrink and maintaining energy efficiency.
Key Learnings
Modernizing a legacy tool requires balancing technical constraints with user needs.
Direct user research was critical in uncovering workflows that weren’t visible from a technical perspective.
Success wasn’t just about a new look, but also performance, reliability, and scalability.
Final Screens (optional for portfolio)
👉 Before / After comparisons of UI
👉 Example alert dashboard with streamlined hierarchy
👉 Mobile-responsive screens for store leaders