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Jialing Li

User Experience and Service Design MA

System-thinking UX Designer, turning frontline chaos into structured support. I design tools that connect people, technology, and management — giving employees emotional support and space to grow.

ReShift project logo next to a photo of a customer at a supermarket self-checkout machine.

Project Context

When self-checkout systems fail, frontline retail employees often take the blame — facing emotional stress, and declining job satisfaction.

Finding and Insight

Iceberg model and employee journey map showing how hidden systemic failures transfer responsibility from digital systems to frontline employees, creating emotional stress.
By mapping employee journeys and using the iceberg model, I uncovered the deeper cause: responsibility from systems is being transferred to employees, leading to stress and burnout.
Visual summarizing the problem of system responsibility shifting onto employees, and the opportunity to redesign service infrastructure.
Problem: System responsibility is shifted to employees.
Opportunity: Redesign the service infrastructure so that responsibility stays with the system, not the employee.

UX Vision Statement

There’s an opportunity to design a system that shifts responsibility from frontline employees back to the service infrastructure — enabling staff to thrive instead of merely survive.


Solution Overview


ReShift introduces six key mechanisms: problem identifications, task distribution, task response mechanism, problem log tracking, data collection, and ETA visualisation. Together, they return responsibility to the system.

System map showing interactions between customers, employees, managers, and backend system with six supporting mechanisms.
System Map

Key Scenarios

These scenarios illustrate how the system supports employees in real-time: during technical failures, potential theft, and end-of-day emotional check-ins.

Scenario illustration: At peak hours, multiple self-checkouts fail. System assigns tasks to staff, technicians, and managers automatically.
During peak hours, multiple machines fail. The system automatically distributes tasks: staff assist with receipts, technicians fix hardware, managers handle escalations — preventing overload on a single employee.
Scenario illustration: Employee triggers theft-response system. The system alerts security and the manager, providing backup instead of leaving the employee alone.
When theft is suspected, the employee can trigger a predefined theft-response. The system immediately alerts security and the manager — ensuring staff are not left to handle the risk alone.
Scenario illustration: After shift, employee completes emotional review on mobile device. System logs patterns and suggests support.
At the end of a shift, employees are prompted to review their emotions. The system logs patterns, suggests self-care tips, and provides data for long-term manager support.

Prototype Video

This prototype video demonstrates how the system redistributes responsibility and supports both employees and customers in real-time.

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