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Relish: An App to Connect Foodies

A passion project to bring companionship to solo-diners.
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Tools Used: Figma, Miro, Google Forms, Maze, Whimsical, Procreate, Visme, Xtensio, unDraw
Role: UX Researcher, UX Designer
Timeline: 3 Weeks (April 2021 - May 2021)

Overview

A little about me - I'm an avid foodie who loves dining out with family and friends. At times, I find it difficult to find other people to dine out with mainly due to schedule conflicts. Although I love dining out, I sometimes decide against it because I find it a bit awkward to eat out alone at a restaurant. Until recently, I started to ponder upon this problem which led me to question:

  • Do other people find solo dining awkward?

  • Do other people have trouble finding people to dine with at times?

Problem

Through extensive research I discovered that:

  • Some individuals view solo dining as socially unacceptable, awkward, lonely, or boring. People often prefer company when dining out at restaurants.

  • Some individuals may avoid dining out altogether if they have no one to dine with.

  • People have had trouble finding other people to dine with in the past.

How Might We

How might we allow uncomfortable solo-diners to find companions to dine out with in an easy and convenient way?

Goal

Design a platform that allows users to connect with other foodies & invite them out to eat in an easy & convenient way. 

Research Phase

During the research phase, I set out to utilize empathy to gain more insight into my users' needs & problems. I created a survey with Google Forms that consisted of qualitative and quantitative questions.

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Anonymous survey responses

Survey Insights:

Responses from a total of 47 participants were gathered on a Google Forms survey. The survey consisted of qualitative & quantitative questions. Among the 10 survey questions consisted of ones that gauged:

  • How comfortable people are with the idea of dining out alone.

  • Why people might find solo-dining uncomfortable.

  • Whether or not people prefer dining out alone or with other people.

  • Whether or not people are open to meeting new people with similar interests.

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More than a quarter of survey participants find it either uncomfortable/very uncomfortable to dine out alone.

Some key insights gathered were:​

  • More than a quarter of the 47 participants (28%) found it either very uncomfortable or uncomfortable dining out alone.

  • A majority, 45 out of the 47 participants (~96%), reported that they preferred dining out with other people.

  • 39 participants (83%) of the participants reported that they usually enjoy meeting new people with similar interests.

  • Some participants commented that the dining setting (self-service vs. full-service restaurants) played a role in influencing their decision to solo dine. Some stated they were more likely to dine out alone in a self-service restaurant with no waiter/waitress services.

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Most survey participants are open to meeting new people with similar interests.

After gathering insights through the google survey, I realized I had forgotten to ask a very important question - have you ever had trouble finding someone to dine out with? I turned to social media for help. I decided to ask my community of foodie friends on Instagram for their thoughts!

  • Out of 102 participants, 56 participants (54%) voted yes to having experienced trouble finding someone to dine out with.

Affinity Mapping

Affinity mapping was used to organize the responses gathered from the qualitative survey questions.

Affinity Map for Responses to Survey Question 7

Affinity Map for Responses to Survey Question 9

In-depth Interviews:

I reached out to two of my survey participants and asked if they would be willing to participate in an IDI! Some key quotes I gathered were:

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User Persona:

Based on research findings, I developed a user persona to refer to throughout the whole design process. Nina Roberts is a realistic representation of potential users of the Relish App.

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User Persona for Relish App

Design Phase

Ultimately, I decided to design a product to help users find foodie friends with similar food preferences. The product will also allow foodies to invite one another out for foodie hangouts. Relish was designed as a mobile app so that users can more easily use it on the go. 

User Flow Map

I decided to map out the path that the user takes through the app using the following user story:

  • Nina wants to sign into Relish to browse for foodie friends and wants to find someone to eat with.

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User Flow Map for Relish App

Competitive Research

I decided to look at other apps to get an idea of how I wanted mine to look. I was surprised that I couldn't find any apps dedicated solely to connecting foodies with one another. I ended up looking at some friend matching apps like Bumble BFF instead.

Low Fidelity Sketches

Using Procreate, I sketched rough drafts of the visions I had of some screens.

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Low Fidelity Sketches on Procreate

Medium Fidelity Wireframes

I decided to make a more sophisticated prototype with Whimsical while following the user story I originally created.

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Medium Fidelity Wireframes on Whimsical

Building Phase

Using Figma, I designed the app I envisioned. Meet Relish!

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Relish's Welcome Page & Sign In Page

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Once logged in, users can view their foodies feed while filtering according to their preferences. Clicking on the info button brings them to the foodie profile.

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One of the main features of this app is the ability for users to invite others out to eat. Using the invite feature, users can view available times to invite others and send an invite request. 

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On their own profile, users can view and edit their invites. There is also a chat feature that allows users to reach out to confirm plans! Users can easily return to the home page with the menu bar.

Testing Phase

Usability Testing

I sent out a usability test created on Maze featuring my Figma Prototype to 5 users to gain user insights. 

 

Some Positive Feedback:

  • "I think the Relish app is great. I can definitely see myself using it."

  • "What I liked the most was how easy it was to use, the interest tags on each person such as Vegan and Free Tonight, as well as the nice messaging system."

Some Constructive Feedback:

  • "I'm curious if maybe it would be nice to add a review system later on to prevent catfishing and abuse?"

  • "At the end, when I was told to go back to the home screen, both times I was going to hit the button top left but I was supposed to hit the house button bottom left."

  • "I would think that clicking on Lana's name would lead me to her profile as well."

Next Steps:

For the next iteration of the Relish App, I will like to focus on revising my prototype to reflect the suggestions users had. For example:

  • Adding a review system.

  • Designing the 'my invites' page to show dates & times on notifications.

  • Prototyping more features of the app.

  • Adding a feature for a foodie to view their connections on their profile page.

Takeaway:

  • The whole UX process is a long one but allows us to truly design a product that users need & want to use.

  • Research is fundamental in gathering more insight on user needs & preferences. 

  • Empathy is super important throughout the whole process in allowing us to design the product for the user and not just for myself.

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