Online ordering solution for restaurants
Overview
The primary objective was to create a user-friendly web-based online ordering application for restaurants to elevate the dine-in experience by allowing customers to self-place orders from their phones by scanning a unique QR code placed on each table. This way small restaurants will have their staff free to focus on things that matter most “providing a great dining experience”. Online ordering system will not only improve operation efficiency and elevate the dining experience with dynamic personalized menus and real-time status of food being prepared it will also provide restaurants with huge amounts of customer data to engage and retain customers.
User research
There’s no better way to understand the motivation, behaviour and aspirations of those you are designing for than going out and talking with them directly. Hence I went to a couple of nearby restaurants and did some contextual inquiry with customers and restaurant staff to understand their pain points and areas of improvement across the journey.
I made a customer journey map laying out major steps in the dine-in experience journey of a customer
So what insights do we have
Restaurants face two major problems:
Very high fees charged by food aggregators
- Online food ordering platforms like Swiggy and Zomato charge a huge commission ranging from 25% to 30% per order.
- Small restaurants pay extra upfront fees along with a per-order commission to be visible on the platform as these platforms are the only source of customers for them in the highly competitive food business.
- Unsustainable deep discounting is offered by restaurants because of the very competitive environment on the food ordering platforms.
Inefficiencies in the traditional ordering experience
- Online food ordering platforms like Swiggy and Zomato charge a huge commission ranging from 25% to 30% per order.
- Small restaurants pay extra upfront fees along with a per-order commission to be visible on the platform as these platforms are the only source of customers for them in the highly competitive food business.
- Unsustainable deep discounting is offered by restaurants because of the very competitive environment on the food ordering platforms.
- Inefficiency and Delayed Service: Customers often experience delays in ordering due to waiting for physical menus to be provided by servers, causing inefficiencies and potentially longer wait times.
- Limited Accessibility: Paper menus have space limitations, restricting the number of items that can be displayed and potentially leading to an incomplete representation of the restaurant’s offerings.
- Contact-Based Interaction: Handling physical menus involves direct contact, raising concerns about hygiene and safety, especially during health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Order Errors and Misinterpretations: Handwritten orders can be misinterpreted by staff, leading to inaccuracies in the items ordered and potentially affecting customer satisfaction.
- Static Information: Changes in menu items, prices, or special offerings are challenging to update promptly on paper menus, resulting in outdated and inaccurate information for customers.
- Limited Upselling Opportunities: Traditional menus lack dynamic upselling capabilities, missing out on opportunities to promote specials or recommended items based on customer preferences.
- Lack of Data Insights: Paper-based systems don’t provide data on customer preferences, popular dishes, or ordering trends, hindering the restaurant’s ability to make informed decisions for menu improvements or marketing strategies.
- Environmental Impact: The continual printing and disposal of paper menus contribute to environmental waste and are not sustainable in the long run.
ideation
After a couple of brainstorming sessions with the whole team, we came up with many potential solutions. For inspiration, we also explored solutions in alternate spaces.
After having a direction and solid understanding of the problem and possible solutions I began to produce multiple different designs to put in front of users and internal stakeholders to validate the concept.
from here design phase kicked off
Design
Started with some rough sketches first..
Once I had a clear direction and a good grasp of the problem along with potential solutions, I started creating various designs to present to both users and internal stakeholders to validate the idea.
Customer
Restaurant owner/manager
Dashboard
menu
Feedback
These were just some functionalities to give you an idea of the overall visual design. Would love to show the whole project over a meeting.
Testing
In this project, consistent and early testing played a crucial role. Consequently, usability testing took place once significant progress had been made.
These tests were organized into compact, targeted sessions involving sponsored users, focusing on iterative processes and gradual enhancements.
We measured the first version using attitudinal and behavioural proxies such as Customer satisfaction score, Task completion time, Task success rate and user error rate.
Customer satisfaction score: Extremely satisfied(78%), Satisfied(17%), Neutral(3%), Dissatisfied(2%), Extremely Dissatisfied(0%).
Task success rate: 96%
user error rate: 4%