The only competitor within restaurant delivery service that allows multi-restaurant ordering is Delivery Dudes, which is a service local to Florida. Deliveroo, which was an up-and-coming restaurant delivery service in San Francisco, never got off the ground. Instacart is a non-restaurant delivery service that offers the ability to order from multiple venues under one transaction. I did a comparison chart of well-known delivery services that illustrated the user experience when one attempts to add another item from a different restaurant:
Error message pops up when user tries to add an item from a different restaurant to an existing order. User is prompted to empty cart.
Automatically empties cart when user navigates away from current restaurant's page.
No error message provided.
Automatically deletes current item and replaces it with new item from different restaurant.
No error message provided.
Message informs user to check out or clear cart before adding item from a different restaurant.
I'd normally conduct user interviews to explore assumptions and hypotheses but the time constraint did not enable me to do so. I bridged this gap by developing a Customer Value Map and Empathy Map in order to build a foundation, reduce blind spots and turn unknown-unknowns into known-unknowns. These methods helped me make better decisions as I moved into the Design phase.
In order to gain a better understanding of the new feature's value proposition, I created a customer value map. The Customer Profile illustrates potential positive and negative experiences a customer might have during the process of ordering food online. The Value Proposition section offers upsides to elevating the customer experience by enabling orders from multiple restaurants in one transaction.
Developing an empathy map provided a visual representation and better understanding of users' needs and pain points as I moved on to the Design phase.
The task flow for how users currently navigate ordering revealed the best time to alert them of the ability to order from multiple restaurants before getting too far in the process. This approach will help users better plan their meals and avoid getting frustrated if they find out about the new feature after adding items for a complete meal from one restaurant.
I initially wanted to use a pop-up modal for the notification, but decided to settle on a sticky banner as it would be less disruptive to the user experience.
Once the new screens that needed to be added were clear, it was time to create low-fi wireframes.
Questions I kept in mind:
• How should the new feature notification look?
• Does the user need to be reminded of the new feature once they've added something to their cart?
• Should there be recommendations of what to add to their cart?
• Are there any layout adjustments that can be made on the order summary screen to simplify understanding?
For the hi-fi wireframes, I followed Seamless' brand guideline and used existing components. The only new components that were introduced for this feature add-on were the recommendation cards on the order summary screen and the feature notification banner.
Are users able to find the notification banner alerting them of Seamless' new feature and retain the information?
Can users easily add an item from a different restaurant to the same order?
Can users smoothly check out without errors?
Task Description
Seamless just added a new feature to their app! Find the announcement, read it and then close it.
Testing notes
All 12 users were able to locate the notification banner and close it. 6 out of 12 users could recall the new feature from Seamless after closing the notification. 4 users abandoned the test after being asked if they could recall Seamless' new feature.
Task Completion
100%
Task Description
Not only are you craving Pan-fried Dumplings, but you also want Chicken Fingers. You'll need to add an item from another restaurant.
Testing notes
All users were able to complete the task, but there was a misclick rate of 15%. Instead of clicking the "Add item from another restaurant" button, a few users attempted to collapse the screen in order to return to the list of restaurants. This is a viable path but I did not include it in my setup.
Task Completion
100%
Task Description
Great! Now it's time to place your order. Navigate to the order page and place your order.
Testing notes
All users were able to complete the checkout process without any issues and rated the difficulty of the task to be "very easy" on the opinion scale.
Task Completion
100%
One of the challenges I faced while designing the new feature was how to notify users of the addition without disrupting their flow. How does the experience differ for a novice versus an experienced user? How do we treat these different sets of users in notifying them of the new feature and helping them along the process? Striking a balance was important, and I discovered that sometimes a "notification" comes in the form of a secondary button.
If this were an actual feature being launched, I would do a beta on a small sample of users. A beta would provide data on how often the feature is used, and the effect it has on revenue for restaurants as well as for Seamless while limiting repercussions.
