For this project in my UX certification, I was challenged to create any app to support an experience. My focus of course was on the food industry. I made an app for a create your own sushi joint called "Seashi".
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With so many options at a create your own sushi restaurant, it can be hard to place a group order and keep everyone’s order accurate while having the bill paid for in a flexible way.

The why

Improve small business customer retention and revenue capabilities

Independent restaurants are bogged down in delivery service fees from traditional delivery app competitors. Having their own delivery app with branding elements can improve customer retention and revenue.

The aim of this project was to create a mobile application to support customer pickup and delivery ordering from the create-your-own sushi restaurant "Seashi" by addressing group ordering barriers and increasing ordering efficiency.

Design Goals

Promote Order Efficiency & Convenience

Easy Collaborative Group Ordering

Conducting User Research

Research Goals

Establish Use Cases for a Group Order Setting

Who are the types of users we are targeting and what are their challenges when ordering for delivery?

Understand User Priorities When Ordering

What offerings are most important to users? What will make someone order via one app versus another competitor?

Determine Product Market Fit

Who is the app for? I asked questions to understand more about expectations when ordering and to understand competitor preference.

Interviewee Demographics

50%

College Educated

18-40

Years Old

50%

People of Color

Types of Questions Asked

Q: Tell me about the last time you ordered food from a mobile app. What was that experience like?

Q: When you’re about to order food from a mobile app, how do you decide what food to order? Do you get inspiration from the app itself, or do you normally know what you want to order?

Q: What main factors come into play when deciding to order from a particular restaurant?

Q: Walk me through the last time you ordered food through a mobile app. If you need to reference the app you used and walk me through that, I’d love to get an idea of how you order

Organizing Research Findings

I created an affinity diagram to highlight my key findings.

Highlights : Research Insights

Users want simplified path to purchase

Users don't want to have to wait a long time because this causes them anxiety. They don't want to have issues with putting in addresses, getting the wrong order, or issues paying. They want good deals.

Convenience is a key factor

Users care about how long it'll take for the order to arrive. Multiple said they would choose one restaurant over another if it meant getting their food faster. They care about navigation ease to find the food they're craving.

They already know what they'll order

How do we make an app that has retention and keeps the users coming back who do regularly want sushi? Capturing a user's interest is going to be key, before the user even opens the app.

They want flexibility while ordering

Users want the ability to easily make group orders without passing the phone around a room, waiting for their loved one to get home, or risk ordering on someone's behalf.

Define

Establishing a business case

I wanted to understand what other products were on the market, and compare their strengths and weaknesses. Innovating on these existing competitor features will make the new app worthwhile.

Competitive audit insights

01. Branding will set product apart in a crowded market

Other competitors had more users. Sweetgreen captures users to order through their app over UberEats with a highly branded experience that inspires brand loyalty.

02. Group ordering features: invite link, delivery address, & who will pay functionality

UberEats and Doordash offer these features for users. Create-your-own style orders have a higher order error potential. Group ordering will scale back on large group errors and allow flexibility in the order experience.

03. Simple and clean design will promote efficiency & navigation

For users with such high expectations for independence in ordering, efficiency and easy of navigation will prevent dropoff.

Once upon a time...

I empathized further with users after establishing a business case by storyboarding

Who is this app for?

My research made two types of users stand out; the young gen-z customer and the established millennial.

I developed user personas and a user journey to represent these two types of users to make sure I am addressing the diverse needs of both user groups.

Gen-Z Gastronome

Millenial Gourmand

User Journey

Since the overall goal was to emphasize group ordering, the gen-z use case became my focus.

Since some gen-zers are still dependent on parental figures, I created a doing-thinking-feeling user journey for Letty’s persona to track her past food delivery app experience to define areas of improvement.

Core User Hypotheses

To summarize the research above, I focused on these core user hypotheses.

01. Group ordering function will decrease anxiety and group order error.

02. Group ordering will give users self determination and flexibility.

03. Branded visual design will drive loyalty and retention.

Conceptualization

Sketching

✔ Inspired by the Sweetgreen app, I iterated on the key features (menu and ordering).

Low Fidelity Wireframes

✔ Group order feature to send an invite to those in your party. Control where the order is delivered, scheduling, and payment amongst group members.

✔ Limited menu options due to the create your own nature. Menu scrolls horizontal since there aren't many options within a given category. Cuts back on never ending scrolling and choice fatigue.

Usability Testing

I conducted 5 usability tests where users interacted with the lo fi prototype in person and via zoom.

On average, users completed the tasks in less than 5 minutes. 100% of users were able to complete the tasks. Everyone said completing the tasks was "easy".

Usability test Insights

Positive User Feedback

Loved group ordering feature and felt it was seamless

Straightforward customization process, and easy to carry out the task of adding their order to cart

Some liked that they could remove people form a group order on the delivery details page

Pain Points Revealed

Didn't understand that the tip screen had buttons

Horizontal scroll on prototype was not fully created so users were confused on how to access more menu items

Didn't understand why they had to find a nearby location if they were getting delivery

The Solution

Branded delivery experience with group ordering to increase customer retention via linear app design solution

Design Iteration

01. Simplistic linear app navigation

Sketch 1 allowed users to navigate between tabs. But that design works best for apps with multiple navigation paths. The final design instead promotes one way navigation on the Seashi app by simplifying the path to purchase to prevent drop-off.

02. Group order button is directly under Menu

Group order button has to be a highlighted feature in terms of information architecture. The low-fi design has the group order button at a lower hierachy, whereas the final design makes it a highlighted feature directly under the word 'Menu'.

03. App flexibility, aesthetic, and ease of use

Users are allowed to search the menu and reorder previous orders. Branding elements throughout make the app fun and approachable to inspire retention.

Final Designs

Order create your own sushi rolls made with love by Seashi.

Don’t pass the phone around the table when you can instead send a link to a friend with the click of a button. That’s right, easily get the order for that friend who is always late to the sleepover or a parent who is stuck in traffic.

Don't forget the tip! This one is pretty self explanatory. Just don't forget.

Does anyone actually eat those fortune cookies, or are they more focused on what’s on the inside? Check out your virtual fortune cookie reading each day you open your app.

Project reflection

01. Design Limitation: Deferred Payment Feature

There are probably some limitations on how this can function, but I think this feature is great for young users who don’t have a debt card or rely on their parents. There needs to be a warning that someone has not paid to ensure order payment.

02. Design Limitation: Horizontal Scroll Menu Feature

I should conduct another usability test on the horizontal scroll for this menu to make sure it doesn’t break with the user's expectations. I think this feature would work well with custom menus like this one that relies on create-your-own ordering, but not necessarily for other restaurants that utilize a traditional vertical scroll menu because they have a lot of designated menu options.

03. Brand identity is a great way to add some fun

With custom logos that I designed, I think the app really does have a strong and fun presence that could drive loyalty.