Restaurant Reservation Mobile App
Problem
Design a restaurant reservation mobile app where families can book easily
Solution
A restaurant reservation mobile app that facilitates multi-person booking with intriguing meal selections
Responsibility
Conduct competitive audits, interviews, uncover pain points, create affinity maps, personas, problem statements and user journey maps, paper and digital wireframing, lo and hifi prototyping, usability studies and accessibility considerations.
Duration
August 2021
Role
Lead UX Designer
Foundation Research
I conducted interviews to find out what some target users think would be a good experience in a restaurant reservation app and to probe about past experiences with using similar apps. I used story boards to simulate scanarios that would validate the idea. I then created personas and user journeys to empathize more with my target users. And finally a competitive audit to determine what could be a differentiating factor.
Interviews
5 video interviews were conducted as foundational research, they were transcribed and crucial pain points extracted. The interview questions aimed at pulling at previous experiences and personal preferences the users had/have with food ordering apps.
Crucial pain pain points and/or preferences included:
Menu with Pictures
Easy menu scanning and make order right there right through to payment. As obvious as it seems, not all dishes have images in most menus.
Table Selection
Wants to select table in booking in a visual way
Avoid Long lines
Want to avoid lines at restaurant
Meal Customizing
wants option to choose level of spiciness for dishes and customised options message area
Friendly App
app should have personality with feedback when using the app and completing the booking
Order Confirmation
Need confirmation emails
Storyboards
The storyboard activity was used to give a clear use case for the app I was designing – the restaurant reservation app.
Big Picture Storyboard
How and why would a user interact with the product? Well, here is a scenario of a choir director needing to order dinner for his large crew.
Closeup Storyboard
This is the step-by-step in-app process I initially brainstormed.
Competitive Audit
Further investigation was done to determine what could be the unique offering for this app. 4 competing restaurants that offered reservations were analyzed. None had a mobile app but some offered reservations through their website.
From my audit report I gathered some opportunities/gaps for unique offerings where the competition didn’t have the following features:
Meal selections
Non of the restaurants allow reservations that integrate meal selection
Quick Reorder
Provide quick and easy way to reorder past orders
Rewards
Provide rewards or perks for returning users
Meal Plans
Meal plans that offer various themed experiences
Smart Meal Suggestions
Selections or suggestions based on trends or past orders
Ideate
Now it was time to starting designing the screens for the app
Personas
These personas helped me to empathize with users with similar characteristics and lifestyles and pain points. The affinity map I created was useful in creating these personas.
User Story: Kelly is artiste who enjoys the energy of people around her especially when she’s in her creative zone, she needs a restaurant reservation app so that she can save time ordering meals when it’s time to have some down time and have a good meal with her loved ones.
![Copy of Google UX Design Certificate - Persona [Template]](https://i0.wp.com/anthonycha.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Copy-of-Google-UX-Design-Certificate-Persona-Template.jpg?ssl=1 "Copy of Google UX Design Certificate – Persona [Template]")
Paper Wireframe Prototype
Rapid prototyping was done with paper to quickly express creativity.
Each screen in the app was sketched with 5 variations of the same screen and then the best parts kept to make up 1 final screen
Digital Low Fidelity Prototype
Design Research
Reiterating with more research to get the feedback needed to refine the design for the best UX for the MVP of the restaurant reservation app
Usability Study
Study Type
Moderated Usability Study
Location
Jamaica
Participants
5 Participants
Duration
15 minutes
Findings: Usability Study
1
Food menu
There needs to be a better way for users to access the entire menu
2
Person Selector
Improvements can be made to the person selector. It's confusing
3
Food Menu Categories
There needs to be a better way to select different categories from the menu
4
Food menu Design
Meals can be organized to show more at once for quicker scanning
5
Selection Complete for a person
Show clearly once a meal is selected for a person
6
Edit reservation list
Make editing the reservation list easy. Right now it’s not clear
Receipt and Check in Features were appreciated
A receipt and a quick way to check in at the restaurant was a good user experience
Affinity map
Based on the usability study done, with the affinity map gives an overall sentiment of user feedback, grouped into themes.
User Journey Map
The user journey allowed me to dive even deeper to empathize more with the user at every step of the process, so that I could identify more pain points and come up with opportunities to make the app better.
Refining the Design
It is now time to take everything I have learned and apply to to the final mockups
Before Usability Study
After Usability Study
The person selector is more intuitive. The meal selection section is now organized in a grid so that more meals can be browsed quicker with a button for quickly adding meals to the cart
Hi Fidelity Prototype
Empathizing at every step of the journey generated numerous ways I could improve the prototype. The final mockups and prototype was well received by my interviewees.
Accessibility
Headings and Landmarks for screen readers
Headings are properly thought out so that screen readers will be able to make sense of the layout. Landmarks are also considered and will be delivered to developers to include in code.
Contrast
Contrast in color choices take into consideration person with limited or vision sensibility.
Next steps
Capture data
Implementing tools like hotjar to capture data of how users use the app in the wild. This will assist in improving the design by prioritizing the features that users are using most.
Survey
By asking users directly "what would you like to see on the app or where can we improve" they will share critical info we can use.
Problem
Design a restaurant reservation mobile app where families can book easily
Solution
A restaurant reservation mobile app that facilitates multi-person booking with intriguing meal selections
