In this 10 week project, I had to design and develop a new feature for Postmates, a food delivery app based on user research. The goal of this project was integrating the new features I developed into the current app.
Research
UX / UI Strategy
Prototype
Feature development
10 weeks
Dec - Sep 2019
Adobe XD
Photoshop CC
Illustrator CC
Invision
Procreate
Mobile redesign challenge
"Consumers both have and use multiple apps, with no single one among the top three dominating."
The restaurant food delivery business has been growing and has fierce competition, with more than half of consumers that use these services using multiple apps at the same time, according to a Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) report. Therefore, food delivery companies should improve their competitiveness by improving their services and user experience continuously, and Postmates is not an exception. The development of new features and enhancing the branding value is one good way to achieve this.
I conducted an online survey that included demographic information, experience of Postmates and other food delivery experience to look for answers to the following main questions:
01. What are the main difficulties when using this app?
02. What are the most prioritized elements that let users decide to use the delivery app?
03. How much do first impressions affect users' revisit of websites or apps?
The survey was taken by both Postmates users and non-users to collect unbiased information.
Based on the user research, I created four personas with different experience and perspective on Postmates. During this step, I also identified three common pain points: lack of customizability, cost transparency, and needs of visual improvement on the mobile app.
Based on the survey result, I've mapped the journey to provide a big picture of the current experience along with the main pain points. The main outcome here is the opportunities section that gathers ideas that can possibly solve user's pain points once turned into features of the system.
After building the personas, I created two scenarios to tell a complete story about the ideal user experience. I explored the context of user interactions without losing sight of the broader user goal through this step.
Sketches and lo-fi wireframes for the new features
To improve the function of both cost transparency, and customizability, I decided to create “Virtual Calculation" functionality, and to add the page "Nutrition & Allergens Info". Currently, users can only see the final cost at checkout, and sometimes they have to cancel / adjust their order because the final price is more than they imagined. Then users feel uncomfortable wasting their time and effort on something they would not actually order.
The "Virtual Calculation" provides the estimated final cost so that users can decide whether to add or give up a new item without leaving the current order page. The Virtual Calculation shows 3 different types of cost: the final cost of the current cart, the final cost of the future cart with the new item, and the difference of the final cost between current and future cart.
Also I decided to add nutrition & allergens info to item page to help users choose what they want without any allergen problem, and then created lo-fi wireframes to clarify the concepts.
Color is very important in branding and marketing because it is where first impressions of users are based. Also, it gives a good identity for a product and company so I decided to use the symbolic colors that reminded users of its logo, a boy spreading stars into the sky. Since stars are seen during the night time, I choose black and yellow for the primary colors and focused on adding these tones to more components.
Addition of the new features and improved branding design
The use of yellow and black improves the first impressions of users, and at the same time it create a good identity of Postmates itself by unifying with its logo
Users can be aware of the nutrition and allergen information on each food item page. It helps users customize their order without worry, and also helps restaurants take responsibility of running their business.
Before adding new food items to the cart, users can check the estimated final cost after the service, delivery fee and tax. Since all food item page have this calculation, users can save time by not leaving the current item page.
Users can check the difference between the estimated cost after adding the new item and the actual cost of the current cart.
During this project, I focused on on users and their top needs that were found through researches.
A redesign challenge was not easy since it required a big investment of time to find the quickest way to understand the problem, redesign and bring a solution. However through defining the problem statement, I could understand the user emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service better.
