Restaurant finder apps such as Yelp and Foursquare offer too many options, placing the burden of decision making on the user. My goal with this project was to create a mobile app in the style of Material Design that limits restaurant suggestions by basing them off of the user’s priorities and ratings.
The main challenges for this project included: (1) creating a novel app that does not repeat what others have done, and (2) designing an intuitive interface based on ubiquitous interactions.
Before designing, I considered the end users by creating a persona named Jane, who is a woman in her late 20s. To ensure that I was not repeating what other apps are already doing, I did a thorough competitive analysis.
The end users of the app are young adults in their 20s and 30s who are not "foodies" but do enjoy trying new restaurants occasionally. They are people who do not eat out often. When they do choose a restaurant, they default to their two or three favorite spots because they are unsure of where else to go.
While conducting a competitive analysis, I found that though there are multiple restaurant apps already available, very few of them provide personalized recommendations. The apps closest to what I wanted to create are Foursquare and Hoppit. Both, however, did not have the degree of customization I was looking for. The market analysis diagram below shows the gap in restaurant apps when measured across two axes, personalized recommendations vs. general search and many filters vs. few filters.
The biggest challenge when designing the app revolved around which features to include and which to exclude. The following sections show my process for the product I arrived at in the end.
For this project I wanted to solve an issue I often come across when it comes to restaurant finder apps, which is paralysis of indecision. Oftentimes other restaurant apps provide too many choices. What I really want is an app like my trendy friend, someone who can make an informed suggestion and recommend a good place to eat. While there are many features to restaurant apps, such as ordering and reservations, I wanted to keep the overall function of the app simple so it would be easy to navigate.
A storyboard was created to put the app's use in context. From there, early sketches and an app map were used to develop the initial wireframes illustrating the app's features and interactions.
I tested the first prototype (link to InVision) with seven users. Based on their feedback, I made several changes which resulted in the second prototype (link to InVision). The following lists the various problems with the first prototype and their respective solutions in the second prototype.
Users were confused that there was no real homepage, i.e. they wanted a view which they could always return to when needed.
I changed the Search view to show general restaurant suggestions. This view was meant to anchor users as a jumping off point. From here they could do a search and adjust the filters.
In the original design of the filters, the Search page showed the filters immediately and the users were meant to rearrange them according to their preferences. The six dots on the left, however, which were meant to indicate that they can be reordered, did not register with any of the seven users. None of them knew what they were meant to do.
In light of creating a homepage from the Search view, I moved the filters behind a button. When users tap the filters icon on the right of the search bar, a pop up appears where users can reorder the traits. To resolve the issue of not knowing the filters are movable, I changed the design to two dashes, something frequently seen on music playlists.
The original design featured five buttons in the main navigation. History was intended as a list of places the users had gone and reviewed. Bookmarks was intended to be a list of places the users want to go to in the future. This distinction, however, confused most users.
To resolve this, I simplified the main navigation to only three buttons and I renamed History to My Reviews. In line with the idea of a homepage, I combined the Search and Browse buttons. This significantly streamlined the design and made the main navigation appear less cluttered.
As mentioned at the beginning, I wanted an app like my trendy friend who is always in the know when it comes to restaurants. For this reason, I decided to go with a very soft and welcoming visual design.
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