Föda Restaurant Booking System

Living through a pandemic has made us aware of the need to take care of ourselves and the people around us while still enjoying the experience of going outside, and enjoying lunch or dinner in small groups.  People can feel stressed when visiting crowded places and even decide to leave or not to enter at all. 

Föda is an app that wants to help restaurants to have customers' trust by providing help, reducing customer anxiety, and improving their experience. Customers can take a look at the restaurant map, menu, and security protocols, in order to keep a safe environment in these complicated times. Our design challenge is to create an efficient app in which users feel that their safety is taken into account.

As a UI/UX Designer, I led the entire project on all aspects including Föda visual design and investigating the customers’ needs using tools such as tools Figma and Miro. 

Problem Statement

To provide a better experience by reducing customer anxiety through the communication of COVID protocols and reservations.

How Might We

  • How might we provide a painless waiting experience for customers?

  • How might we provide a safer and more relaxed experience for customers?

  • How might we use technology to help customers to spend less time in a restaurant?

The Process

Discovery

Secondary Research

I kicked off the research process by understanding the situation of restaurants and how customers changed their behaviors during the pandemic. Understanding the new health measures that each restaurant applies such as “screen guests before they enter, either with temperature checks or questions about symptoms and their close contacts with anyone recently diagnosed with COVID-19.” As well as knowing the user's feelings such as anxiety “more than 60% of people are uncomfortable with the prospect of returning to bars and restaurants”.

I later followed the research by creating a survey in which the main purpose was to filter and focus on people who enjoy eating outside with their friends and family. We then move on to choose 5 people and interview them in order to understand their behavior before and during COVID, as well as to understand their needs.

Primary Research

  • Men (60%) and women (40%)

  • Age between 20 and 50

  • People who enjoy eating food outside

  • Primarily use the phone to make a reservation or search for a restaurant

With the research and survey, I learned that people between the age of 20 to 50 are willing to go back and eat in restaurants but somehow they feel uncomfortable with the current situation.

Affinity Map

During the interview, there were some interesting findings that I organized to see more clearly and see some opportunity areas. In the following Affinity Map, we can find our main findings.

Empathy Map

That same information we decided to translate it into an Empathy Map in order to understand what users think, say, do, and feel.

Who I’m Designing For

With all the information collected, I was able to create two personas with different characteristics. Patrick Johnson is an introvert who always prioritizes security, service, and quality when going to a restaurant. The second persona is Emma Smith who is an extrovert and creative persona, she usually likes to go with friends to a restaurant and usually gets frustrated that the tables in a restaurant usually don't follow the security protocols.

Ideating

Red Routes

Understanding the users through their interviews and later creating personas is necessary to create user stories based on our findings. That’s how the MVP has the following main steps: 

  • Account Creation 

  • Selection of Restaurants

  • Place Reservation 

  • Order in Advance.

User Flows

In the following information, we can see the user flows for the Föda app, we have three user scenarios which are the login/Sign up process, reservation, and account settings.

The First Concepts

With the information that surveys provided, I started to create sketches that helped focus on details and all the information that I wanted to communicate, as well to define concepts and ideas for the app. The sketches were tested and I found some minor problems like the selection of “Reserve” and “Take out”, where testers got the feeling they were working on Excel.

Sketches of the first ideas for Föda

Wireframes

Once the sketches were finished and checked that there were no issues with them, the next step to follow was to create wireframes in Figma.

Moodboard

UI Kit

Prototyping

In order to create the Föda it used the tool Figma. Figma helped create an efficient prototype that could be tested by users.

Methodology

There were two rounds of testing in which each round had five participants in which:

  • For the test, each person got the link to the prototype and thought out loud about the things they like and dislike about the app.

  • Every feedback given on each test was very effective and helped improve the prototype to its final look.

  • Each participant was asked their permission to record the session. This would help to understand people’s feelings and expressions on the app and see how everything could improve for the better.

The main findings of the usability test are:

  • Users feel more eased showing the map of the restaurant and let them choose their preference to be seated. 

  • To be reminded of the health security protocols that the restaurant is following.

  • Most users like to see the main ingredients of each dish. 

  • The opportunity to give the user an order in advance gives them some peace as well as to know how long the dish takes to cook. This gadget gives them some peace that their service will be good and will be ready when they get to the table. Even some users would like to have these gadgets even earlier to take a look at the menu or even to order immediately after a reservation.

Results

Most users were impressed by the app created giving some good feedback about the simplicity and usage of the app. Most of them liked the colors chosen and how the information is shown. But and the same time there were some areas to improve in the app such as the iconography in some scenarios or even the use of white spaces on the main page.

I have learned that there are different ways to decrease customer anxiety and provide them with a better customer experience as well the importance of. The main key that Föda brought and differentiates from other restaurant apps is the knowledge and understanding of users in these complicated times. 

What People Said

“I love the color palette, I want to spend more time looking around.”

“It's really a good app, it gives you recommendations and gives you options based on your reservations. This will be an app that I will utilize.”

“The flow feels really nice”

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