RONA is one of Canada's biggest home improvement retailers, selling to homeowners and to PRO contractors. Big orders like drywall, lumber and appliances arrive by truck, and once a delivery is booked, customers hear very little until the day.

Most people end up phoning the store to ask when the truck is coming, then wait at home all day. When nobody is ready on site, the first attempt fails and the truck has to come back.

How might we give every RONA customer, retail or PRO, the answer before they think to call?

Answer "when?" before anything else. It gets the biggest type on the screen.

Promise how the window narrows, then keep it. Four hours when booked, two hours by 7:00 on the day, 30 minutes when the truck is close.

Tell people what to do, not just where the truck is. The prep checklist comes from the items in the order.

No call needed for anything. Rescheduling, problems and help all happen on the screen.

I explored a retail direction and three PRO directions: a Jobsite Board, a Week Planner and a Text Concierge. I took the retail Companion and the Jobsite Board forward, because the Companion reaches every delivery and the Board builds on its data for contractors with several sites.

I treated this project as an experiment in how far AI can speed up a design process without taking the design decisions away from me. Instead of drawing static frames, I prototyped in working code from day one, so every idea could be tapped through on a real phone screen within minutes.

Claude

Synthesized the delivery research into pain points, pressure-tested my principles and helped tighten the writing.

Claude Design

Explored visual directions quickly and matched the look to rona.ca from my own screenshots.

Claude Code

Turned each direction into a clickable prototype with real motion, then rebuilt it after every round of critique.

Iterating in hours, not weeks. Because changes were cheap, I could compare options side by side in the same prototype: 4 versions of the progress card, 5 formats for the booking message (SMS, rich card, push, Live Activity, email) and 3 directions for PRO contractors. I picked the "What's next" progress card and the Jobsite Board by using them, not by imagining them.

What stayed with me. AI made versions fast, but the judgement was mine: which problems mattered, what promise the delivery window should make, what to cut, and when a screen felt right. Every AI output was reviewed against the research and my own experience as a RONA dispatcher.

Each feature is tied to one change in customer behaviour and one number the business already tracks.

Keeping the promise matters more than the promise. A narrowed window that gets missed hurts trust more than a wide one, so a first pilot should measure on-time rate inside the 2-hour window.

Make it easy to reach. A simple text message link that opens without an app or login works for everyone, including people who bought in store and would never download an app.

PRO adoption lives in text messages. Crews rarely install supplier apps, which is why the share link and the Text Concierge direction exist.

Next, I'd usability test the tracker with 5 homeowners and 5 contractors in Toronto, confirm what dispatch data exists today, and swap in RONA's official design tokens.

Get the details right at checkout, not at the curb. Today drivers and the dispatch team piece together access notes, site contacts and unloading needs on the day of delivery. I'm exploring how to ask the customer for accurate information while they order, in store or online, without making checkout longer.

Better reports for damaged and missing items. I'm designing a reporting flow where customers can flag exactly which item is damaged or missing, add photos, and see what happens next, instead of a phone call with a vague description.