Culinary Classics

My Role

User Experience Designer responsible for the app’s design from concept to delivery.

Timeline

June ’23 - July ’23

Responsibilities

User research, wireframing, prototype, usability testing, iteration, and the creation of the final high-fidelity prototype.

Introduction

After a long day at the office, commutes, workouts, and social obligations, cooking a meal at home might be the furthest thing from our minds. Between grocery shopping, chopping vegetables, and the dreaded cleanup, cooking seems tedious, time-consuming and just not fun.

This case study describes my process of creating a food delivery app for a restaurant culinary classics from concept to the final design.

Discover ✍️

Problem

Life can be a whirlwind of activity, with work, interest, and endless responsibilities. Amid this chaos, while juggling a busy lifestyle, individuals often struggle to make out time to cook or sit down for a nice meal at a restaurant. As a User Experience designer, the challenge here was to find a unique solution that helps these people get their meals quickly and easily at their own convenience.

Solution

I designed Culinary Classics , a mobile app that empowers users by providing personalized side dish recommendations and reviews to them based on their own ethnicity and the cuisine of the restaurant.

Define 📝

User Research

I conducted interviews to understand the users I’m designing for and their needs. So, I interviewed five (5) working adults aged between 18 and 65 years, who have some experience with ordering food online. A primary user group identified through research was working adults who don’t have time to cook meals. Problems included or challenges that make it difficult to cook and get grocery are time, work schedule and the covid pandemic.

I interviewed users to learn about the following:

Findings from interview

• 5 out of the 5 participants said they are most likely to use a food ordering platform when they don’t have time as, ordering food online saves time, especially during work so that they can use the same time on some important work.

• 4 out of 5 participants said they do not like platforms that are difficult to use.

• 3 out of 5 participants prefer to pay for their food after delivery.

• 1 participant, who is not fluent in English, said they dislike apps that are text-heavy.

📝 Participants prefer online food ordering for time-saving, but dislike difficult platforms, after-delivery payment, and text-heavy apps, especially for non-fluent English speakers.

Competitive analysis

Before jumping into the process of creating my solution, I checked out some popular food delivery apps, interacted with the platforms and read their customer reviews. This helped me identify some drawbacks in the existing solutions and opportunities for a better experience.

Pain points

Three major pain points were identified from the foundational research phase:

User Personas

Based on the information obtained from the foundational research, I created personas whose demographics, motivations, goals and frustrations represent the needs of the users.

Meet kimi and Hrishi

User Journey Map

Mapping kimi’s user journey revealed areas where we can make improvements in her journey for a better user experience.

Now we know the exact problems faced by our users. So, what next?

A goal statement was created to ensure a problem-solution fit.

User flow

To achieve my goal of creating an intuitive design, I mapped a user flow that prioritized recognition over recall. This was done by creating a path that is familiar to the users.

Design ✨

Paper Wireframes

With the user flow mapped out, I then proceeded to sketch wireframes. Several iterations of each screen were drafted on paper to ensure that the elements that made it to the digital wireframes effectively addressed the user pain points.

For the home screen, I prioritized ease of use and a quick ordering process, to make the experience quick and stress-free for the users

Going digital

As the design proceeded to digital, I ensured that my designs were based on the feedback from my research. I created a digital version of the wireframes in Figma.

Usability Study (Round 1)

To get an early insight into the app’s usability before the introduction of visual elements, I recruited 5 participants to test the low-fidelity prototype.

By watching the participants interact with the app and hearing their thoughts, I was able to identify problem areas in the app’s design. The results were noted down.

Based on the insights obtained from the usability and with the initial usability issues fixed, I proceeded to create mockups and a high fidelity prototype of the design.

Here comes the exciting part

I was excited to finally start working on the UI. From color palettes to type scales and bringing designs to life. Color has an essential role in the visual experience. It is a powerful information medium for human cognitive ability.

Red stands for many things, all of them potent. From compassion and destruction to rage and strength, this dazzling hue stirs up a variety of complex emotions. With each meaning being more interesting than the last, we stay perpetually in awe of the color red so I choose #COOOOO (A striking, bold, and captivating hue) As Red is the symbol of attention, strength, urgency, power.

Usability Study (Round 2)

Another round of usability testing was conducted using the high fidelity prototype. By testing the design at this stage, I could observe an interaction that most closely resembles a real-life interaction with the final product.

Changes made based on findings

A “ Remember me” feature was added to make the onboarding process even quicker for returning users, by helping them skip the sign-in step.

Final Design

Develop 💻