More than just gas.

If you’re not from the East Coast, you’re probably not familiar with SHEETz. Similar to other major regional gas station chains, like Buc Ee's or Wawa, SHEETz is a gas station turned fast food chain with fierce brand loyalty. A family owned business founded in Pennsylvania nearly 70 years ago, SHEETz locations span across Pennsylvania, North Eastern Ohio, North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland with a growing market.

Over the years, SHEETz has become known in the region for its food and made-to-order items.

In the 1990s, SHEETz launched some of the first touch screens for made-to-order items in select stores. Their launch was such a success, touch screens and made-to-order items became infamous with SHEETz and other competitors soon followed suit. More recently, SHEETz has committed to serving quality food products at their locations – investing $7.5 million in their coffee and has plans of removing gas station pumps from it’s locations in an effort to be a food destination, rather than “gas station food.”

The problem

According to a study conducted by GasBuddy, 88% of consumers choose their gas by prices. However, the same study found that millennials are more likely to be on their phone while refueling, show brand loyalty towards specific stations and join rewards programs.

How can we target younger consumers and create a rewards program that both saves consumers money and grow brand loyalty?

Wireframing and Rapid User Testing

In an effort to make the user experience as intuitive as possible, I tested two sets of wireframes with 10 participants to see which user flow they preferred when redeeming free items. Below illustrates those user flows. For each wireframe, I prompted participants to redeem a free item using their SHEETz points. While all participants were able to complete the user flow, seven out of ten participants preferred the second user flow. After a 2 more rounds of edits and user testing, I moved onto prototyping.

High Fidelity Prototypes

Based on research I had gathered in the previous stage, I created this high fidelity prototype. I then tested it with the same ten participants. Users felt that the user flow was simple and easy to navigate, but had questions about how they would interact with the QR to earn and redeem points.

“The second version feels cleaner. There’s less steps to get exactly what I want. It reminds me of other apps I use regularly.”

Next steps

In an effort to better understand the QR code feature and how it lives in the app, more user testing needs to be done to find the best solution. Once a solution has been pinpointed, company stakeholders would review before sending to development.