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Project Overview
Challenge
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.
One day I was using Bumble BFF, a friends meeting platform. I absolutely loved the idea, but wanted something more geared towards foodies like me. I decided to challenge myself to create an app designed for foodies to meet other foodies.
Objective
Project Type
Conceptual Design Project
Role
UX Designer, UX Researcher
Duration
3 weeks (April 2021 - May 2021)
Design a fun and interactive experience that allows foodies to connect with other foodies over food!
Understanding the Problem Space
Hypothesis
There is quite a substantial amount of articles and reddit posts about the social stigma associated with solo-dining. Given that it appears that there is a good population of individuals that find solo-dining uncomfortable, there would likely be a good market for an app allows foodies to connect with one another - thereby giving company to solo-diners.
Surveying
Responses from a total of 47 participants were gathered. The survey consisted of a total of 10 qualitative & quantitative questions. Among the survey questions consisted of ones that gauged:
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How comfortable people are with the idea of dining out alone.
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Why people might find solo-dining uncomfortable.
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Whether or not people prefer dining out alone or with other people.
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Whether or not people are open to meeting new people with similar interests.
"I would only dine out with others, not alone. It not only makes a difference; it completely defines the experience."
"Dining with others is a fun social experience. Also you get to experience and be introduced to new authentic foods."
Survey Insights
Some feel that dining alone is uncomfortable due to the social stigma associated with it.
Survey participants report that they'd avoid dining alone since they feel they might be judged by other diners or restaurant staff. Rather than dining alone, they'd prefer to get take out instead.
Dining with company is much more fun than dining alone!
The general consensus is that dining with others is much more enjoyable since you're able to chat and laugh over good food. How great does that sound?
When you dine with company, you're more likely to try new cuisines and experiences.
Some survey participants report that they enjoy dining with company since they're more likely to try something new that may have been recommended by friends or family. All in all, they feel braver to stray from their usual order!
Interview Highlights
I interviewed 2 survey participants to get a better understanding on their solo-dining experience and dining habits.
"I think it'd be nice if it was easier to make plans with others to eat out"
"I work night shifts, so it's difficult to find people that are free when I am. Everyone's at work when I'm off"
A.O.
A 27-year old busy nurse
J.L.
A 24-year old foodie & coder
"It can be difficult at times to plan hangouts now that everyone works full time and is busy"
"I wouldn't eat out myself since others are all eating with company. It just seems a bit strange"
Persona Development
A persona was developed by analyzing behaviors patterns captured from the interviews and survey responses.
Designing
User Flow Mapping
Using Whimsical, I mapped out the user flow for the following user scenario.
Nina wants to sign into Relish to browse for foodie friends and wants to find someone to eat with.
Rapid Sketches
Medium Fidelity Prototype
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High Fidelity Prototype v1
Testing Highlights
The first round of usability testing was conducted with through Maze with 12 users. Additionally, I two moderated sessions with 2 individuals who participated in the earlier survey.
P1
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I like the idea of the app.
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The interest tags for people like 'vegan' or 'free tonight' is a good messaging system.
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My main dislike is that you have to press the small info button to get more information.
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The menu bar seems a bit crowded on the bottom. I think it can be hard to click on my phone.
P2
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I think this would be a cool social app if you were a foodie.
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I like that the checkout only asks for necessary information.
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I think the small 'i' icon is hard to find. Can I click on the picture instead?
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The words on the profile picture are a bit hard to see because it's on a light background.
Iterations
For Relish v2, I made some changes on the interface design. I also made some edits based on user feedback. I made many edits, but here are some of them!
before
after
Updated Profile Cards
The revised profile cards allows users to click on the image itself to go directly to the person's profile. I also decided add a separate spot below the profile image to put additional details to make the words easier on the eyes to see.
Revised Menu Bar
The new menu bar features less items and is overall less crowded. I reduced the items to only what was most necessary. I also added labels to each menu item to reduce ambiguity.
Scrollable Food Gallery
In the v1 prototype, the food gallery images and info button were a too small. For the new iteration, I decided to make each image larger and include some fun details below the image!
Revised Calendar
The initial calendar appeared a bit cramped. The revised calendar to make it more spaced out. I also edited the color schemes of the unavailable dates and greyed out the numbers to make it more apparent that those days were not available to schedule.
Reflection
Next Steps
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Additional Testing: Design work is never finished. I would love to test my Relish v2 with additional users to gain feedback on what could be improved this time around.
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Bringing Relish to Life: Relish is of course a conceptual app. Seeing that so many of test participants were excited about this app, I'd love if it could become a reality one day!
Learnings
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Building an App from Scratch: In this project, I learned what it truly means to build a new idea from scratch! I wanted to hone my design and research skills by working on a passion project and decided to work on a conceptual project where I could have the creative freedom to design something with little constraint.
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Checking my Own Biases: Because this project arose from my own challenges, I challenged myself to check my biases and to utilize user research to truly understand the problem space from my users' point of view.