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SNG Watch Companion
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Confidential — Sam's Club Internal Project
NDA · Password Protected AI Interaction Design Wearable UX Ambient Computing Retail

Companion Watch
Designing confidence
for autonomous retail

As computer vision replaces manual scanning, shoppers lose the tactile feedback of checkout. I led the UX for a smartwatch companion that restores that confidence — through haptics, glanceable status, and AI that knows when to stay silent.

My Role
UX Lead
Team
Solo UX + 4 Engineers
Focus
AI · Wearables · Calm Technology
Outcome
Top 50 · Presented to Leadership
Challenge

When scanning disappears, so does confidence.

AI is removing the beep, the receipt preview, the constant scan-check loop. That's a win for convenience — but a new problem for members: Did that register? Is my cart right? Will I get flagged at the exit?

Family struggling with phone while scanning items in Sam's Club — the problem SNG Watch Companion solves

Scan & Go today — phone in hand, cart in the other, kid demanding attention

"So what if reassurance didn't live in your hand…
but moved with you?"

The design question that shaped this project

Design Opportunity 01
Reduce distraction, restore flow
Shopping is motion-first — pushing a cart, managing kids, navigating a large space. Constant phone checks break that flow. A wrist signal doesn't.
Design Opportunity 02
Build trust through ambient feedback
Members approach exits with uncertainty. A quiet "you're good" signal before they reach the gate eliminates hesitation — without making them feel watched.
My Role · Solo UX Designer

I was the only designer on the team — partnered with four engineers who brought the same energy and curiosity I did. We teamed up to brainstorm, had a lot of fun doing it, and ended up building something we were genuinely proud of. I led the UX vision, designed the interactions, and shaped the story we told to leadership.

Josephine Wong · UX Design Hongfei Xu · Engineering Jose Joseph · Engineering Niharika Gandhari · Engineering Anjali Deshpande · Engineering
Design Principles

Five principles that shaped every interaction decision

Wearables for AI-powered environments are easy to design badly — a watch that constantly buzzes is worse than no watch at all. These principles kept every design decision grounded in calm, trustworthy, ambient experience.

01
Stay ambient
Confidence should arrive without demanding attention. Haptics and glanceable UI — not alerts.
02
Notify only when needed
The phone comes out once — if the watch flags something that needs action. Otherwise it stays in your pocket.
03
Build trust gradually
Each correct signal reinforces confidence. Trust is earned through consistency, not a single moment.
04
Minimize interruption
Shopping is motion-first. Every notification competes with the real world. Keep the bar high.
05
Keep AI invisible
Members shouldn't need to understand the AI. They should just feel confident. The intelligence stays behind the scenes.
Smart Sync in action — senior member glances at watch as Cheez-It is added to cart

Designed for all members — a glance confirms the scan without stopping or reaching for a phone

The Concept

Three features. One rule: phone out only when it matters.

SNG Watch Companion works alongside the Scan & Go app. The watch delivers quiet, glanceable confidence at the three moments members need it most — while scanning, while navigating the club, and at the exit. The phone app remains the source of truth; the watch is the layer that keeps members informed without demanding their attention.

Feature 01
Smart Sync
A quiet status layer on the wrist: item-added haptic, cart count, and running total at a glance. The Scan & Go app stays in your pocket — the watch confirms each scan so you don't have to check.
Haptic · Cart confidence
Feature 02
Glanceable Wayfinding
Direction + distance on the watch face, with optional haptics for turns. "Next best item" guidance based on cart contents and shopping history — no map to stare at.
AI-powered · Hands-free navigation
Feature 03
Frictionless Exit
One glance before you reach the gate: "Exit Confirmed." No app check, no hesitation — just walk straight through.
Exit confidence · Fewer stops
AI Design Strategy

Silence is the feature. Good AI knows when not to speak.

The failure mode for AI wearables is notification fatigue — a watch that buzzes constantly creates more anxiety than it resolves. We designed AI's role as a filter, not a broadcaster. High-confidence events pass silently. The watch only speaks when a member genuinely needs to act.

Confidence scoring
Evaluates each scan for accuracy and detects anomalies. High-confidence scans pass silently. Only uncertain ones surface to the member.
Intent inference
Determines if the member is browsing or mission-driven. Adjusts wayfinding suggestions and notification cadence based on pace and behavior.
Smart suppression
Filters out noise for high-confidence scans. Prevents alert fatigue by staying silent when everything is working — and only speaking up when it matters.
Outcome

Top 50 company-wide. Presented to senior leadership.

The concept placed in the Top 50 and was selected for a leadership presentation. It was recognized for addressing a genuine UX gap in AI-powered retail — how to maintain member trust and confidence as autonomous systems replace visible feedback loops — without requiring members to understand or manage the AI themselves.

Top 50
Company-wide placement across all internal design submissions
5-person
Cross-functional team — product, engineering, data science, and UX
Leadership
Selected to present concept to senior executive panel
Member impact
Confidence as a feature — not a screen
Trust
Confidence without attention
Members feel informed throughout the trip without ever needing to open the app or interpret a notification.
Focus
Shopping stays motion-first
Cart in hand, kid in seat, phone in pocket. The wrist layer fits into the physical journey instead of interrupting it.
Exit experience
No more hesitation at the gate
Members who've done everything right shouldn't feel like they might be stopped. The watch resolves that uncertainty before they arrive.
My Contributions

What I brought to this project

UX Vision & Strategy
Framed the core design question, defined the companion model, and drove the concept from insight to interaction.
Interaction Model
Designed the three core wrist interactions — Smart Sync, Wayfinding, and Frictionless Exit — and defined when each surfaces to the member.
AI Confidence Model
Defined how AI should decide when to notify, when to stay silent, and when to escalate — translating confidence scoring into UX behavior.
Team Collaboration
Partnered with four engineers who brought equal energy and curiosity. We brainstormed together, built fast, and had fun — then shaped it into something leadership wanted to hear.
Prototype & Storytelling
Built interactive prototypes and crafted the presentation narrative — translating a complex system into a story that resonated with executives.
Design Principles
Authored the five interaction principles — Stay ambient, Notify only when needed, Build trust gradually, Minimize interruption, Keep AI invisible — that grounded every decision.
What I Learned

The hard design problems in AI interaction

This project pushed me into territory that doesn't have established patterns yet — designing for AI systems where the member never directly interacts with the AI, only with its outputs. A few things stuck with me.

Trust in AI
Trust is built in the quiet moments
Members don't trust a system because of a single success. They trust it because it's consistently right, without demanding anything from them. Designing that consistency is harder than designing any single interaction.
Calm Technology
The best notification is the one you didn't send
Every unnecessary alert erodes confidence faster than a missed one. The design question isn't "how do we notify" — it's "how do we earn the right to stay silent most of the time."
AI Transparency
Members don't need to understand the AI
They need to feel confident. Transparency in AI UX isn't about explaining the model — it's about making the outcomes feel fair, consistent, and human.
Multimodal Interaction
Haptics are underused as a design medium
A well-designed haptic can communicate more than a screen notification — without pulling attention. This project made me think seriously about vibration as vocabulary.