This case study delves into the journey of redesigning the delivery food ordering experience for individuals adhering to specific dietary requirements or preferences. Focused on users navigating diets or preferences, the goal of this app redesign is clear: to seamlessly integrate accessibility and visual simplicity, facilitating swift decision-making in selecting suitable food options, ensuring that everyone can order their favorite meals with total ease and confidence.

The challenge

Extensive research and user testing revealed a significant challenge faced by users with dietary restrictions, such as vegans or paleo attempting to order delivery food. Many encountered discouragement and confusion while trying to identify options on popular platforms like Uber Eats and Seamless. This case study aims to tackle this issue by designing a user-friendly flow tailored to the needs of individuals on specific diets or with dietary preferences. The goal is to enable them to confidently order food that aligns with their nutritional requirements.

The design process

The design process, as I define it, is a methodical and iterative journey towards problem-solving or solution creation. It involves a structured series of steps that I follow to comprehend, conceptualize, develop, and implement a design solution. These steps typically encompass problem definition, user research, ideation and prototyping, validating and refinement. My approach to the design process emphasizes creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration to achieve successful outcomes.

Define

The goal

• Define the problem or challenge that needs addressing.

• Understand the pain points and challenges faced by users.

The problem

People who are on a diet or have a dietary preference often have a hard time searching for food that fits their needs on most food delivery apps.

Why is it a problem?

Users who follow specific diets often find it hard to search for foods that meets their needs, such as vegan, vegetarian, kosher, keto among others. As a vegetarian myself, it’s frustrating when I need to order food delivery, as the results I often get don't meet my needs. For example, when I want to order a salad for lunch I'll get suggestions from side salads, to smoothie shops, and even fast food establishments  —  it takes too long to filter the options I don't want, and I end up leaving the delivery app and finding other ways of getting lunch.

Description of the kinds of users expected

The primary focus of the target audience encompasses urban, educated, and health-conscious consumers, primarily consisting of young and mid-level professionals with an age range spanning from 18 to 45. the users live busy lives in mid-size to large cities around the u.s. some users want to stay fit, but not always have the time to meal prep, but don’t want to feel as they can’t order delivery foods. Others are committed to a diet to lose weight or keep it off and not always can or know how to meal prep. Based on observation, ordering healthy food is not always easy. As seen in research, i expect to have a slight majority of women using the diet app. based on the data released by The NPD Group in 2013, “about 20 percent of adults report they are on a diet, down from a peak of 31 percent in 1991 according to NPD’s National Eating Trends® food and beverage market research. In 1992, 34 percent of women told NPD they were on a diet, and in 2012, 23 percent of women reported being on a diet.” According to U.S. Census Bureau, it can be calculated that in 2012, there were 23% of women (36,260,190) in America reported that they were on a diet, while about 16.7% of men (25,505,210) reported. Hungry for Change.

Why it’s useful and what problems it solves

Most food apps display food results based on location and type of food, not dietary preference. For people who want to stay healthy or are following a specific diet, this is a big problem. First, by showing unhealthy foods, users will second-guess themselves and feel guilty by wanting to order food not accepted by their diet. Second, some users will even get tempted and end up ordering food not included in their regime. Finally, by developing an app that will cater to user needs, they can spend less time ordering and more time enjoying their healthy food. As more people live busy, urban lives, cooking, or meal prepping is not always the right solution. “UBS Investment Bank forecast delivery sales could rise an annual average of more than 20% to $365 billion worldwide by 2030, from $35 billion.” Cheng, Andria. “Millennials are ordering more food delivery, but are they killing the kitchen, too?” forbes, Forbes Magazine, 26 June 2018. The app will also help people stay on track by only giving them options based on their preferred diet. By narrowing the food choices, but still providing the same ordering experience users will not feel left out when ordering delivery at the office or family gathering. “Applications in which emotional impact is important, include social interaction.” “Social and cultural interactions entail aspects, such as trustworthiness and credibility.” The UX Book: Agile UX Design for a Quality User Experience 2nd Edition, p. 12.

Why do users care?

Staying fit and healthy is hard nowadays. There are too many food options, and the serving sizes only get bigger. Thus, keeping weight off or following a diet is hard. My target audience will care about this app because they often feel left out by not being able to order food with their friends and family. Causing them to feel annoyed and sometimes hopeless. 

What users can do with the app

Users can order food from nearby restaurants while ensuring the options provided will follow their diet requirements. The app will have a simple and intuitive display that will help users feel comfortable ordering specific food choices. The interface will resemble some of the other food ordering systems, such as uber eats or seamless, giving the users a familiar ordering experience. Users will search for foods based on their diet selection and will be given food options based on that selection. The interface design of the app will encourage users to keep on track by providing a simple and straightforward ordering experience.

Empathize

I interviewed a few people who usually order food at work. The goal was to explore the entire ordering process from deciding what to eat to adding a meal to the cart and check out process.

The goal

• Conduct interviews, surveys, or observations to gather insights into user experiences.

• Develop a deep understanding of the users' needs, emotions, and motivations.

I conducted interviews with individuals who regularly order food at work to delve into the entire ordering process, encompassing decision-making, adding items to the cart, and the checkout process. The aim was to identify pain points in the user experience of popular food delivery apps. The interviewees, aged between 20s and 30s, utilized Uber Eats and Seamless and had dietary restrictions. I assigned tasks related to finding a healthy meal for delivery and searching for vegan options within their favorite apps, observing their interactions and noting their behavior.

TASK SCENARIO 1 — Look for a healthy meal that offers delivery in each of your favorite delivery apps. Describe the steps that you see and the choices you are making.

TASK SCENARIO 2 — If you were following a stricter diet such as vegan, can you find any options that appeal to you? Describe the process you see while looking for options.

For analysis, I listened to their responses, observed gestures and body language, and created sketches to capture critical moments. The findings were revealing; all interviewees struggled to locate meals aligning with their diets. The app filters were ineffective, and the visual design proved confusing, presenting numerous options that did not meet their specific dietary requirements.

Work activity notes

A work activity note is a data note that refers to or relates to exactly one concept, idea, fact, or topic.

WAAD — Work affinity activity diagram

WAAD is an affinity diagram used to sort and organize work activity notes in contextual analysis, pulling together work activity notes with similarities and common themes to highlight common work patterns and shared strategies across all users.

User persona

I created a user persona to help me understand and communicate who i wanted my app design to target. Based on research and interviews, i added their motivations, goals, and behaviors.

Insights

• Needs
  An easy and convenient way to eat healthy at work when she doesn’t have time to meal prep.

• Wants
  She would love to be able to order delivery food without having to worry about the calories or being tempted with greasy, unhealthy food.

• Pain points
  At work, she’s swamped and often doesn’t have time to eat or grabs whatever she finds in between meetings. Many of her coworkers order delivery food, but it’s usually not a healthy option. 

Synthesize

• Analyze and refine the ideas generated during the ideation phase.

• Identify common themes or patterns among the proposed solutions.

• Consolidate and distill the concepts into a coherent and feasible design strategy.

Synthesis — Two main themes:

1. Users need an easy and convenient way to order food when they don’t meal prep and still be able to stick to their diet or dietary preference.

2. Most food delivery apps don’t have the functionality to filter by dietary restriction, giving these types of users an overwhelming amount of information making it hard to pick a meal.

Initial information architecture

Low-fidelity wireframes

Ideate

• Generate a wide range of creative solutions without initial judgment.

• Encourage brainstorming sessions and collaboration to foster diverse ideas.

• Explore different concepts and approaches to solving the identified problem.

User experience ecosystem

• Ecological
  Similar look and feel as many of the popular food delivery apps. Emphasis on allowing users to pick and order foods that follow their dietary needs.

• Interaction
  Similar usability features to other food delivery apps such as scrolling and swiping as well as iconography and imagery usage. Simple layout clear labeling of items and buttons.

• Emotional
  Bright and colorful images that make the user hungry and eager to order these types of foods. Same experience for ordering as any other food delivery app, but cater to my users’ group, they won’t feel as they are missing out. Users will develop brand (app) loyalty as a result. 

UX storyboard

1. User opens the food delivery app

2. The user goes to the top of the screen and clicks on the dietary button

3. A screen slides from the bottom with dietary options

4. The user picks the Vegan option by tapping on the text

5. The user also sets Vegan as her preferred filter option as she won’t order anything out of this diet

6. By clicking the apply button, the dietary screen slides down

7. The user then scrolls down to the recommended section 

8. The user swipes left through the options to see if there’s anything she likes

9. The user finds a food option that she likes and clicks on it

10. A new screen slides right with the food description

11. The user then looks a the whole description and adds it to her cart

12. The user orders the food for delivery

High-fidelity wireframes

T-high-fidelity wireframes

Validate

• Test and validate the synthesized design concepts with real users.

• Gather feedback through prototypes, usability testing, or pilot studies.

• Assess whether the proposed solutions effectively address the identified problem and align with users' needs.

Once I created a set of low and high-fidelity wireframes, I tested them with real users. To test the prototype, I focused on the three main themes gathered from research and the user persona.

• Needs
  An easy and convenient way to eat healthy at work when she doesn’t have time to meal prep.

• Wants
  She would love to be able to order delivery food without having to worry about the calories or being tempted with greasy, unhealthy food.

• Pain points
  At work, she’s swamped and often doesn’t have time to eat or grabs whatever she finds in between meetings. Many of her coworkers order delivery food, but it’s usually not a healthy option. 

Questionnaire for user interface satisfaction (quis)

The result

With the new food delivery app design, people who are on a diet or have a dietary preference can order food successfully and while having the same convenient experience as anyone else.