Background
We are all familiar with going to restaurants to celebrate an occasion, family lunches/dinners or just hanging out with friends. I personally enjoy trying different restaurants and sharing my experience with others. In a conversation, a friend of mine shared his recent experience of visiting the restaurant ‘Chilli's’ with his friends.
He mentioned about a kiosk located on the table and how he was really excited to use it to order food, however he found it really difficult to maneuver. He also complained how difficult it was for all the people on the table to view the tablet (Kiosk) at the same time.
We could see potential in improving In-Restaurant Experience leveraging available technologies.
TImeline
The Challenge
We can do some much here. How could we focus on things that matter the most?
After conducting a preliminary research online and with our personal experiences of dining at restaurants, we identified the project to be very extensive as appose to the time duration provided to create an MVP Thus, it was imperative to identify relevant research areas which may directly impact the overall dining experience. We collectively brainstormed on our project scope and derived the following research goals to achieved from our user research process.
Research Goals
understanding user needs
Online Survey
To collect demographic data and broad needs/opinions from users, we conducted an online survey that was shared through social media. The survey was created using google forms that included open ended and close ended questions relevant to our research goals. 54 people responded.
Semi-Structured Interview
After getting a general idea of the problem space, we wanted to get a deeper understanding on specific user pain points through their unique experiences of dining at restaurants. To achieve this, we had a semi-structured format interview process which helped us with covering all the pre-decided questions and simultaneously provided the freedom to ask counter questions depending on people's experiences, abilities and thoughts. To select participants for interviewing, we reached out to survey participants who agreed to be a part of further study. We interviewed 8 participants in-person.
We performed Affinity Mapping using Miro/Realtimeboard(an online service) to analyze the research data in hand.
What did we learn?
problem discovery
We converted our research findings into perceivable user stories with the intention to focus more towards goals and scenarios instead of just incorporating ‘features’ to the product.
At this point of the process, we prioritized User Stories based on the relevance to our scope and in accordance to general pain points exhibited by users through surveys and interviews.
Ideation
After setting the Focus Areas for the project, it was now time to accelerate and move forward with our design process. We kicked off our design phase by following a short ideation routine where each member was allocated 15 mins to illustrate or communicate Ideas corresponding to the derived User Stories. Each member explained their ideas/thoughts and we collectively improvised and amalgamated all those ideas into a single design concept. We also processed are concepts through technical constraints, brainstorming ways all the ideas could be developed and managed.
Competitive Analysis
Based on our Ideation and Brainstorming session, we calibrated a set of facets to analyze existing applications (Mobile based or Kiosk based ) with interactions/flows relevant to our project scope. The intention was to understand current design patterns used to communicate specific information relevant to restaurant experience.
User Flows
Users get connected to the restaurants menu by scanning the QR code present on the allocated table. This QR Code helps user access the restaurants menu and function as a unique identifier for the restaurant staff, thereby making the process smoother.
After QR scanning, there is an option to select everyone the user would be dining with. After confirmation, a push notification would be sent to the respective selected people which is a two factor authentication system to eliminate any error or mistake.
Thus, if one person adds a food item to the cart, that item would be visible to all the other people as an added item as well.
From our research, it was found that majority of the participants would like to receive recommendations on food items, especially if they are visiting the restaurant for the first time. Additionally, they also liked to be informed about any discounts/deals for that day before they place an order. So we incorporated the Top recommendations, Dishes and Deals/discounts on the home page, so users could access all this information before they proceed with looking through the menu.
Users can access the menu by selecting the ‘Menu’ icon on the navigation bar. On the menu, we added an ingredient symbol on the items, acting as an allergy alert based on the allergy ingredients selected by the user during on-boarding.
Also, we increased the accessibility of the food cart by making it available on all the pages once an item is added/ordered. After placing an order, users can either browse through other menu items to order later or they can pay the bill.
Users can pay the bill by clicking on ‘generate bill’. This needs to be performed by only one person in a group. They can review the order and select a tip amount or add a custom amount as per their discretion. Later, user can select the way they would like to split the bill ‘Equally’ , ’Share’ or ‘Percentage’.
Most of the users either spilt the bill by share or equally, so we kept those options first, making ‘Equally’ as a default. For splitting by share, user selects each person and then selects the dish they had. This makes splitting less complex (No complex mathematics) and easy to comprehend. After confirming the splitting, all other people in the group receive a push notification to let them confirm their respective split amount. Once the request is accepted by all, the user can hit the ‘Pay’ button to proceed with the payment process.
Testing with Users
We conducted a short usability test with 5 participants. Each participant had to perform 6 tasks which were curated to identify any possible usability issues existing in any of the flows.
As it was a prototype and users needed to follow a happy path, it was important to conduct in-person usability test and guide participants if they were interested to explore other links not mapped within the happy path. Additionally, Think out Loud was followed for all the participants to understand their behavior and thoughts.
Brand and Experience
Hi-Fidelity Prototyping
1. Restaurant Identification
The system identifies the QR code on the table and maps it to the respective restaurant experience (in this case its ‘Olive Garden).
2. Add Dining Companions
It allows user to add other dining companions to application, making ordering a collective process.
3. Collective Ordering
The system keeps a track of all the food ordered by each individual in the respective group. In addition, it allows each person to view and edit food items added or ordered.
4. Splitting Check at the Restaurant
Reduces the mental load of calculating shares or using another application to track it.
Reflection
Can't have it all: Looking at a specific experience in detail and ideating on it. This helps focus on a specific problem in hand and provides an opportunity to deep dive and innovate.
Show, not just say: When you are collaborating with a number of professionals, it is important to communicate your thoughts/ideas, give and receive feedback on your approach/design decisions. But sometimes, saying isn't enough. Representing your thoughts through illustrations or relatable examples works better.
If you don't know, ask- If you don't know about a certain process/design/tool/framework, it is important to ask your peers or research about it. For instance, I asked my peers to help me out with Adobe XD as it was first experience with XD.
Holistic Approach: It was really important that we understand perspective and mental model of both the sides of the party to create a logical experience. By the end of the project, i really understood the importance of knowing restaurant's managers or servers to better comprehend the overall picture.
Service Design- Online and offline presence of an institution/body can't be considered as separate experiences. Conducting on-field observations could have been very useful.
