Origin

In 2023, Wolt’s Support Design team tackled its first big challenge: replacing third-party helpdesk tools with an in-house chat. This move streamlined support, cut costs, and laid the foundation for Converse—a flexible chat SDK built by engineering. Seeing its potential beyond support, we explored how Converse could connect more parts of Wolt.

The most impactful opportunity to utilize our chat SDK in our ecosystem was Customer–Courier Chat: a direct, real-time channel during deliveries. By letting customers share details and couriers clarify issues instantly, we aimed to reduce friction, save time, and make the delivery experience smoother for both sides.

Research

Interviews
We spoke with Support Associates and Leads across six countries (Germany, Poland, Slovenia, Denmark, Estonia, Norway). While they saw clear benefits in direct Customer–Courier chat, they raised concerns around harassment, privacy, language barriers, and the need for monitoring.

Courier Focus Groups
We ran focus groups with couriers from different backgrounds and levels of experience, capturing a broad set of perspectives on how chat could support them in daily deliveries.

Legal Alignment
Partnering with DoorDash’s legal team was critical. Their guidance shaped guardrails such as limiting chat availability (150m from delivery location until drop-off), reporting functionality, and data retention for compliance.

Data Analysis
Together with Data Science, we found that 54% of courier-related support cases came from the “can’t find customer” tag. This confirmed that enabling direct chat could remove a major pain point and reduce reliance on our customer support team as a middleman.

Competitive Review
We audited food and ride-hailing apps to benchmark how others approach peer-to-peer chat, noting safety features, flows, and best practices to inform our design decisions.

Ideation

Building on our research insights, I mapped the end-to-end Customer–Courier chat experience, collaborating closely with the Order team’s UX designers. Since this feature sits within Wolt’s core order flow, our focus was on integrating it seamlessly—enhancing the experience without adding friction.



Flow maps and blueprints created in FigJam were key in aligning stakeholders and securing buy-in from engineering and product leads.

Feedback & Iteration

Flows went through multiple iterations with Legal and the Ordering team to address emerging caveats before design.

Quick Messages
Follow-up sessions with couriers revealed a key pain point: typing in cold or snowy conditions is difficult. To streamline communication, we introduced a Quick Message system powered by our language model. Couriers can now send common messages—like “I’m outside” or “What’s the door code?”—with a single tap, ensuring faster, frictionless interactions and resolving frequent delivery issues efficiently.

Design Process

The Courier App

Wolt has two core user groups—customers and couriers—each with their own app: the public-facing Wolt app for ordering, and the Wolt Partner app for couriers managing deliveries. We began with the Partner app, collaborating closely with the Courier design team (8 designers) to explore how Customer–Courier chat could be integrated seamlessly into the existing UI.


The Courier Experience

When on an active order, couriers see a screen with all key delivery details, updated across each stage. After accepting an order, they’re guided to the venue with a breakdown of items to collect. Once picked up, they enter the delivery phase, where they can view the customer’s address, mapped route, and access courier support if needed.

To align with legal guidance and ensure safety, we surfaced the Customer–Courier chat only within a 150-meter radius of the delivery location. This is the critical moment when couriers are most likely to need quick contact for access details or delivery questions.

Couriers delivery screen and communication methods Couriers native notifications

Below you can find a fully comprehensive flow mapping, used in engineer handoff for this project.

The Consumer App

The Consumer app is Wolt’s core product—the place where all orders are made, revenue is generated, and the brand is most recognized.


The Consumer Experience

A Wolt order begins with the customer browsing restaurants, selecting items, and checking out through the app. Once placed, the order status is visible in real time—from confirmation at the restaurant, to a courier being assigned, to pickup. During delivery, customers see the courier’s live location on the map, along with an estimated arrival time.

This is the place where they can contact support, and where we decided to introduce our Customer–Courier Chat. Consumer app flow

Below you can find a fully comprehensive flow mapping, used in engineer handoff for this project.