THE PRODUCT
The Japanese Restaurant is a Chicago-based restaurant that focuses on quality food & quality experience. Their target customers are locals in the area that appreciate authentic Japanese cuisine and are looking for a good environment for groups. They are looking to create an a restaurant reservation app that suits all the needs of their customers.
PROJECT DURATION
3 months
3 months
THE CHALLENGE
Create a restaurant reservation app that allows users to easily make large group reservations that can be made/changed last minute.
THE GOAL
Make the restaurant reservation easy to schedule, simple to edit/change, and have the option group of pre-ordering food items beforehand.
MY ROLES
UX Designer designing an app for Japanese Restaurant from conception to delivery
UX Designer designing an app for Japanese Restaurant from conception to delivery
UNDERSTANDING THE USER
RESEARCH SUMMARY
I conducted interviews & created empathy maps to understand the users I’m designing for and their needs. A primary user group identified through research was young adults in their 20s that are looking for a fast and efficient way to book a reservation at a Japanese restaurant relatively last minute.
This user group confirmed initial assumptions about Japanese restaurant customers, but research also revealed that not only reliability of the reservation system was a limiting factor for them while using the reservation app, but overall navigation issues and reliability of information were big factors in limiting the use of the reservation app.
USER PAIN POINTS
USER PERSONA
Problem Statement: Aida is a 2nd year university student who needs an app to easily & quickly make last minute, on-the-go reservations to the restaurant for a group because she and her friends all have different and packed schedules.
USER JOURNEY MAP
STARTING THE DESIGN
PAPER WIREFRAMES
The style elements that were approved and carried over to the wireframes are marked with stars.
WIREFRAMES + TESTING
The first set of wireframes were developed during the interview process. As you can see below, the initial design focused solely on the application’s reservation function. After conducting interviews, I realized that there was a need for a “food pre-order” option.
Initial wireframes
LOW-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
Many of the users that would use such an app would use it to schedule a lunch meeting with a group of co-workers who would have a strict timeline to adhere to. It would be helpful to the user and all co-eaters to be able to browse the menu and pre-order their food items to speed up the ordering process and allow the group to focus on the discussion at hand.
Low-Fidelity Prototype. Restaurant Reservation App with Food Pre-order Option
Early designs required the user to type in their requested date & number of people in their party, but after the usability studies, I added a date picker & quantity drop down to make the process easier and faster for the user to schedule the reservation.
After testing our sketches and wireframes, we learned that the users that are used to technology had an easy time navigating the website and found the process intuitive, but new technology users had a difficult time figuring out “what to do next” during some of the pre-ordering process. To fix this, I added icons with high contrast and eye-catching visual cues to help them along.
USABILITY TEST FINDINGS
STYLING
I wanted to incorporate the classic Japanese color palette, with a bit of a punch. The deep reds keep the user intrigued and excited about the experience. The Montserrat font family gave the typography a modern and clean look. The regular text does not overwhelm the user, but the typography in all caps and bold has a very strong presence and attracts attention.
Japanese Restaurant Style Guide
ACCESSIBILITY CONSIDERATIONS
Color Contrasting tests were used on the app.
HIGH-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE + TESTING
We received a lot of positive testing feedback, but users want more contrast in the buttons on the cart page and low-vision users want a little more contrast in the colored text.
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
IMPACT
The app makes users feel like the Japanese Restaurant really thinks about how to meet their needs and makes the reservation process more enjoyable.
“Very easy to operate. It’s in line with a lot of other apps, so it’s almost like just using muscle memory.”
WHAT I LEARNED
While designing this app app, I was reminded of how much I could miss if I only base the designs off of my own opinions, assumptions and intuition. Usability studies and peer feedback greatly influenced and strengthened each iteration of the app’s designs.
