Powering Wawa’s Digital Transformation at Scale
Overview
Wawa is a leading convenience retailer and food service brand with hundreds of stores serving millions of customers each year. As digital ordering and in-store technology became central to the customer experience, Wawa invested in building a scalable design system to unify and accelerate innovation across its growing ecosystem.
Client: Wawa
Industry: Retail/CPG
Role: Product Design Lead
Designing the System Behind a Multi-Channel Digital Transformation
Wawa’s digital ecosystem was growing rapidly. Mobile ordering, web ordering, catering, internal tools, and in-store kiosks were evolving in parallel. What was missing was a unifying foundation.
I led the creation of the Wawa Go design system, partnering closely with engineering to establish a scalable framework that could support digital transformation across every touchpoint.
This was not a redesign of a single product. It was the construction of a shared platform
The Opportunity
Wawa needed to modernize and unify its digital experiences while maintaining brand consistency, operational efficiency, and speed to market.
Multiple teams.
Multiple product owners.
Multiple channels.
Without a shared system, each initiative risked fragmentation.
The opportunity was to create a scalable design foundation that would allow innovation without divergence.
Building the Wawa Go Design System
I led the design effort to stand up Wawa Go as a robust, extensible system that could operate across environments.
Working closely with developers, we established:
• A modular component library
• Clear interaction and navigation patterns
• Shared visual language and brand alignment
• Documentation and governance structures
• Scalable design tokens and implementation standards
The goal was not only visual consistency. It was operational clarity.
We built the system to support reuse, accelerate delivery, and reduce redundancy across teams.
Scaling Across the Ecosystem
Once established, the Wawa Go design system became the backbone of multiple initiatives across the organization.
We used the system to design and deploy:
• Online catering experiences
• Web ordering platforms
• Internal operational tools
• In-store kiosk interfaces
Because the system was modular and well-governed, new products could be implemented in a fraction of the time.
Teams did not need to reinvent patterns.
Product owners could align more easily.
Engineering could build against consistent standards.
The result was cohesion across a growing digital ecosystem.
Kiosk as a System Expression
The kiosk redesign came later.
Rather than treating it as an isolated effort, we leveraged the existing design system to bring consistency and speed to the in-store experience.
This allowed us to:
• Modernize the interface while maintaining brand continuity
• Improve ordering clarity and customization flows
• Integrate recommendation logic
• Implement real-time product availability
• Deploy efficiently across stores
Because the design system was already in place, implementation was significantly faster and aligned with existing digital touchpoints.
Kiosk was not a one-off solution. It was a scaled application of a shared platform.
Organizational Impact
The implications extended beyond interface improvements.
By creating a unified system:
• Teams operated with shared patterns and language
• Cross-product alignment improved
• Delivery timelines shortened
• Development redundancy decreased
• Governance strengthened
• Brand consistency increased
The system enabled Wawa to evolve confidently across channels without sacrificing cohesion.
Design became infrastructure.
Reflection
This work reinforced a belief that guides my work.
Transformation does not begin with a screen. It begins with a system.
By leading the Wawa Go design system and scaling it across web, catering, internal tools, and kiosk, we created a foundation that allowed digital innovation to move faster, stay aligned, and operate at scale.
The visible experiences changed.
The structural backbone strengthened.
And the ecosystem became unified.
Let’s Work Together!
Looking for a passionate designer to bring your project to life? Part of a team that shares my love for design? Let's explore the possibilities of working together!