Retail & Vending
SnackMate Redesigning the Vending Experience Through Mobile UX
A mobile UX and service design concept for iOS, exploring how real time stock visibility, streamlined mobile checkout and a structured user journey can eliminate the friction points that make traditional vending unreliable and frustrating to use.
A mobile UX and service design concept for iOS, exploring how real time stock visibility, streamlined mobile checkout and a structured user journey can eliminate the friction points that make traditional vending unreliable and frustrating to use.
Company Name
Company Name
Snack Mate
Industry
Industry
Retail & Vending
Retail & Vending
Role
Role
Lead UX/UI Designer
Patform
Patform
iOS & Android
Type
Type
Concept Project
Challenge
Traditional vending machines offer no digital layer, no real time stock visibility and no reliable payment or error recovery path. Users face high task abandonment at the point of purchase, slow decision making at the hardware interface, and zero transparency around product availability, nutritional data or allergen information. With no mobile app connecting users to nearby machines in real time, the entire vending experience suffers from poor discoverability, low conversion and no mechanism for building user retention or loyalty.
Results
SnackMate introduces a companion mobile app that restructures the vending journey across five core UX flows: Discover, Decide, Purchase, Collect and Recover. By shifting key decisions before physical interaction, the app reduces task abandonment, speeds up time to purchase and eliminates the most common drop off points in traditional vending. The UX applies anticipatory design, progressive disclosure, error tolerant interaction patterns and trust centred UI to create a mobile experience with measurably lower cognitive load, higher completion rates and a clear path to user retention through rewards and loyalty mechanics.
5
Journey stages mapped
Journey stages mapped
15+
Screens designed
Screens designed
84%
Friction points resolved
Friction points resolved
Trusted by Professionals
Most of my client work sits behind NDAs, white-label projects and products I can’t fully show publicly. So here are a few words from people I’ve worked with along the way.
Nelu has been part of our product journey for over 4 years now and the impact has been real. He has a genuine talent for taking something complicated and making it feel simple, which sounds easy until you try to find someone who can actually do it.
From early UX thinking through to the final interface, he's been consistent, communicative, and deeply invested in getting things right. He cares about the product, not just the brief.
Neil Ellul
Head of Product, Sway Me Good
Fintech leaves no room for unclear thinking. Nelu understood the compliance constraints, the edge cases, and the users who don't have patience for confusion. He designed around all of it without being asked. He asked the right questions, pushed back when it mattered, and delivered flows that actually worked under real pressure. That combination of product thinking and design craft is genuinely difficult to find.
Product Manager
Macropay
Getting genuinely useful feedback from platform contributors is rarer than you'd think. Nelu was one of the exceptions. He never gave surface impressions, he identified exactly where something broke down and explained why it mattered to the user. Session after session, across very different products, that precision never slipped. The teams on the other side always had something concrete to act on.
Success Team
UserTesting.com
At the point we brought Nelu in, our product had outgrown its UX and we needed someone who could make sense of it quickly. He got up to speed fast, asked smart questions and gave us a clear path forward without overcomplicating things. Collaborative, focused and always user centred even when conversations got technical. Exactly the kind of designer you want when the product needs real clarity.
Victor
CEO, Finovra
Trusted by Professionals
Most of my client work sits behind NDAs, white-label projects and products I can’t fully show publicly. So here are a few words from people I’ve worked with along the way.
Nelu has been part of our product journey for over 4 years now and the impact has been real. He has a genuine talent for taking something complicated and making it feel simple, which sounds easy until you try to find someone who can actually do it.
From early UX thinking through to the final interface, he's been consistent, communicative, and deeply invested in getting things right. He cares about the product, not just the brief.
Neil Ellul
Head of Product, Sway Me Good
Fintech leaves no room for unclear thinking. Nelu understood the compliance constraints, the edge cases, and the users who don't have patience for confusion. He designed around all of it without being asked. He asked the right questions, pushed back when it mattered, and delivered flows that actually worked under real pressure. That combination of product thinking and design craft is genuinely difficult to find.
Product Manager
Macropay
Getting genuinely useful feedback from platform contributors is rarer than you'd think. Nelu was one of the exceptions. He never gave surface impressions, he identified exactly where something broke down and explained why it mattered to the user. Session after session, across very different products, that precision never slipped. The teams on the other side always had something concrete to act on.
Success Team
UserTesting.com
At the point we brought Nelu in, our product had outgrown its UX and we needed someone who could make sense of it quickly. He got up to speed fast, asked smart questions and gave us a clear path forward without overcomplicating things. Collaborative, focused and always user centred even when conversations got technical. Exactly the kind of designer you want when the product needs real clarity.
Victor
CEO, Finovra
Trusted by Professionals
Most of my client work sits behind NDAs, white-label projects and products I can’t fully show publicly. So here are a few words from people I’ve worked with along the way.
Nelu has been part of our product journey for over 4 years now and the impact has been real. He has a genuine talent for taking something complicated and making it feel simple, which sounds easy until you try to find someone who can actually do it.
From early UX thinking through to the final interface, he's been consistent, communicative, and deeply invested in getting things right. He cares about the product, not just the brief.
Neil Ellul
Head of Product, Sway Me Good
Fintech leaves no room for unclear thinking. Nelu understood the compliance constraints, the edge cases, and the users who don't have patience for confusion. He designed around all of it without being asked. He asked the right questions, pushed back when it mattered, and delivered flows that actually worked under real pressure. That combination of product thinking and design craft is genuinely difficult to find.
Product Manager
Macropay
Getting genuinely useful feedback from platform contributors is rarer than you'd think. Nelu was one of the exceptions. He never gave surface impressions, he identified exactly where something broke down and explained why it mattered to the user. Session after session, across very different products, that precision never slipped. The teams on the other side always had something concrete to act on.
Success Team
UserTesting.com
At the point we brought Nelu in, our product had outgrown its UX and we needed someone who could make sense of it quickly. He got up to speed fast, asked smart questions and gave us a clear path forward without overcomplicating things. Collaborative, focused and always user centred even when conversations got technical. Exactly the kind of designer you want when the product needs real clarity.
Victor
CEO, Finovra
Trusted by Professionals
Trusted by Professionals
Most of my client work sits behind NDAs, white-label projects and products I can’t fully show publicly. So here are a few words from people I’ve worked with along the way.
Nelu has been part of our product journey for over 4 years now and the impact has been real. He has a genuine talent for taking something complicated and making it feel simple, which sounds easy until you try to find someone who can actually do it.
From early UX thinking through to the final interface, he's been consistent, communicative, and deeply invested in getting things right. He cares about the product, not just the brief.
Neil Ellul
Head of Product, Sway Me Good
Fintech leaves no room for unclear thinking. Nelu understood the compliance constraints, the edge cases, and the users who don't have patience for confusion. He designed around all of it without being asked. He asked the right questions, pushed back when it mattered, and delivered flows that actually worked under real pressure. That combination of product thinking and design craft is genuinely difficult to find.
Product Manager
Macropay
Getting genuinely useful feedback from platform contributors is rarer than you'd think. Nelu was one of the exceptions. He never gave surface impressions, he identified exactly where something broke down and explained why it mattered to the user. Session after session, across very different products, that precision never slipped. The teams on the other side always had something concrete to act on.
Success Team
UserTesting.com
At the point we brought Nelu in, our product had outgrown its UX and we needed someone who could make sense of it quickly. He got up to speed fast, asked smart questions and gave us a clear path forward without overcomplicating things. Collaborative, focused and always user centred even when conversations got technical. Exactly the kind of designer you want when the product needs real clarity.
Victor
CEO, Finovra
Nelu Cretu - UX/UI Product Designer
Your users deserve a better experience.
Let's fix that.
Nelu Cretu © 2025. All rights reserved.
Nelu Cretu - UX/UI Product Designer
Your users deserve a better experience.
Let's fix that.
Nelu Cretu © 2025. All rights reserved.
Nelu Cretu - UX/UI Product Designer
Your users deserve a better experience.
Let's fix that.
Nelu Cretu © 2025. All rights reserved.