Food Finder

Scavenger-hunt restaurant finder app that is curated by locals.

Duration

December - March 2020

Team

Solo Project

My Role

UX & UI Design

Explorian is a mobile scavenger hunt app that allows users to find unique restaurants and bars while traveling to new cities all curated by locals. When users select and complete a scavenger-hunt they get rewarded with discounts and coupons to new restaurants.

Project Overview

Problem

Our adventurist travel users need a way to find the best local cuisine because they want to experience different cities and places they are visiting as a local instead a tourist.

Solution

A mobile app that allows users to enter in the city that they are traveling to and create a scavenger hunt. They can adjust their preferences and have a one of a kind scavenger hunt created for them with the help of local guides. With each stop they will receive a discount making the hunt fun and incentivized.

Approach

01. Discovery

Understanding the Problem
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews

02. Concepting

User Personas
Journey Maps
User Flow Diagram

03. Prototyping & User Testing

Wireframes
Usability Testing
Iterations
Final Design
Style Guide

Competitive Analysis

PROS

Allows you to have favorites and save them to different trips
Reservations in app
Large filter selections
Shows you restaurant locations on a map

CONS

It sorts its restaurants based on ratings so "top" restaurants have few reviews.
The reservation button very distracting
Lots of sponsored restaurants
You cant favorite something while looking without going to the restaurant page
Lots of results can be overwhelming

PROS

Allows you to have collections of your favorite restaurants
Lets you know wait times
Shows you the popular menu items
Reservations in the app
Shows you restaurant location on a map
Easy to navigate

CONS

It sorts its restaurants based on ratings so "top" restaurants have few reviews.
Lots of sponsored restaurants
You cant favorite something while looking without going to the restaurant page
Lots of results can be overwhelming

User Research

I interviewed 5 participants, some fit the target audience better than others. From what I gathered after synthesizing all the responses, there were some commonalities in those that appreciate finding the best restaurants in new cities they visit.

5 Participants

15 Questions

In Person

10-15 Minutes

Interview Goals

Interview Findings

01. To better understand user behavior and attitudes around finding restaurants while traveling.

02. To determine which tasks users would like to complete in a restaurant challenge app.

03. To discover user pain points and triggers with existing apps in the market.

04. To discover when, where, and how a user might use a restaurant challenge app.

01. Most participants used the app Yelp to find food while traveling.

02. Regardless of their price points they were all willing to splurge towards a unique experience.

03. All participants remembered the food that they tried while traveling.

04. Some participants are nervous of getting lost during travel, so adding navigation to the scavenger hunt is a good idea.

05. Participants agreed that having photos of the food they will be eating is important to them when looking for Restaurants.

06. Participants don’t like how time consuming it can be to find a good restaurant on existing apps.

Personas

Research insights above enabled me to create personas to summarize and illustrate the needs and pain points of restaurant apps. Personas acted like a compass and helped enormously with user-centered decision making.

User Journey Maps

Personas allowed me to create the different paths people would take through the app and what they would be looking for. User Journeys gave evidence on feelings and comments users might have while completing steps in Food Finder.

User Flow Diagram

Having understood user needs, I was able to make predictions for how people would use the application and what they would want, expect, and find frustrating. Having a set of journeys and flows enabled me to ideate on a sitemap, laying the foundation for Food Finder.

Wireframes

Low Fidelity Wireframes

Low Fidelity Wireframes were created to outline the basic layout of the app and to layout the actions needed to complete each task.

Mid Fidelity Wireframes

Mid Fidelity Wireframes were given more detail and UI elements were added.

Low Fidelity Wireframes

Low Fidelity Wireframes were created to outline the basic layout of the app and to layout the actions needed to complete each task.

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Usability Testing

The goal of this usability test was to assess the learnability and ease of use for new users interacting with the app and to complete two designated tasks.

1. You’re going on a trip to Denver and would like to look through the scavenger hunts and save one so that when you’re there you are able to access it.

2. You’re now in Denver and want to find a new scavenger hunt with restaurants to go to. Create a new scavenger hunt and begin going to the first restaurant.

6 Participants

2 Tasks

In Person

25-30 Minutes

Test Results

Go to link

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Based on the notes and recordings of the tests, affinity mapping was used to sort the data of the test result and map out the patterns and the related information. A rainbow spreadsheet was created based on this analysis to identify and rank usability issues. Revisions were implemented based on severity and priority of the usability error.

Iterations & Revised Design

The following iterations have been made based off of usability testing, peer-reviewed feedback, visual design principles, and accessibility guidelines.

Issue

The plus sign in the middle of the menu confused all of the test participants. It was previously meant to be used as a way for users to add or start a new scavenger hunt.

Solution

The plus sign in the middle of the menu confused all of the test participants. It was previously meant to be used as a way for users to add or start a new scavenger hunt.

Calendar

Issue

Several participants were confused on how to move forward after selecting their dates. The previous design was for users to select their dates then slide the pop-up back down.

Solution

I added a section for users to review their dates and select done that would then slide the pop up back down for them.