iOS App Feature Design
BACKGROUND
Fresh Direct is a popular store-to-door grocery shopping app, that lets users skip grocery shopping in favor of deliveries that come straight to your home.
DESIGN CHALLENGE
As part of General Assembly's UXDI course, my team and I were asked to design a feature for Fresh Direct that would allow customers to hire a personal chef or purchase chef-cooked meals through the app.
THE SQUAD
For this project, I had the pleasure of collaborating with fellow UX designers Lindsey Jellig and Vanessa Khoury.
Design Process
TOOLS
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10 user interviews with current Fresh Direct users and young parents
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Affinity mapping to synthesize research findings
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Persona development
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Design Studio
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Lo-Fidelity Wireframes and inVision Prototype
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Multiple rounds of user testing
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High-fidelity mockup and prototype
KEY FINDINGS
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Fresh Direct Users
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Fresh Direct users prize convenience over all else
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Important secondary considerations are food quality and delivery reliability
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Fresh Direct users have enough disposable income that they are willing to pay extra for convenience and quality
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New Parents
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Are incredibly busy, and have to balance work life, home life and social life
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Prize opportunities for social engagement
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Engage with networks of fellow new parents
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Rely on fellow parents for help with kids, and get together for social time
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Many experience some degree of stress regarding meal preparation for family
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DESIGN DECISIONS
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Research suggested that people were far more interested in getting chef-cooked meals delivered than having a chef come to their home. This informed our decision to design a feature that primarily facilitates gourmet meal delivery.
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Convenience and ease-of-use are critical, so busy users can order dinner quickly and painlessly, and choose the time that their meal arrives.
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Tastes are wide-ranging and varied, so it's important to provide users with multiple cuisine options and simple filters for dietary restriction.
DESIGN PROCESS
During the early stages of design, Vanessa and I debated over the ideal course for the project. We had disparate visions, and initially couldn't come to an agreement as to who's ideas would work better. To solve our debate, we decided to test both as paper prototypes.
As it turned out, our users really liked specific aspects of both versions—and had trouble with different parts of each. After this first round of testing, we combined the best parts of each idea, and ended up with a unified vision that neatly dealt with our users' issues.
From then on, our team became really good at creating and testing multiple ideas, and then incorporating the best aspects of each.
Deliverables
PERSONA
Using our research, we developed a persona that captures the needs and lifestyle of a user who would benefit from Chef Direct: The Robinson Family.
The Robinson's primary pain point revolves around their need to provide healthy meals for their family (and friends in social situations) in a way that is convenient for their hectic juggling-act lifestyle.
HIGH-FIDELITY SCREENS
The parents and professionals who make up Fresh Direct's core user base are busy and discerning customers. In order to fit their lifestyle, we knew we would have to make the Chef Direct feature quick and easy to use, but also easy to control to their exact specifications.
To make the feature easy to use, we developed a menu builder tool that allows users to simply drag the dishes they want into the "selected" bar. Once selected, the item is automatically added to the cart, and users are provided with a stepper to choose the number of people the dish will feed. If users want to learn more about the dish, tapping that dish's icon will bring up a recipe card that provides a description, ingredients and nutrition facts. Dishes can also be added to the menu from this page. After choosing a menu, checkout is as simple as reviewing your delivery preferences and pressing a single button.
To give users the control that they desire, we provide a menu that lets users choose delivery date and time, the number of dinner guests (which will auto-populate the dishes you choose on the menu page) and include any dietary restrictions that need to be acknowledged. The app will acknowledge any dietary restrictions added, and will only show food items that respect those restrictions.
Reflection
WHERE WE EXCELLED
While working on Chef Direct, we payed particularly close attention to the way testers interacted with our design— taking explicit note of pain points and where people enjoyed using the prototype. We were able to address every concern that users had, and developed a strong final product. One busy parent we tested with said, "I honestly wish I could use this for dinner tonight."
HOW WE GREW
Over the course of this project, I learned a valuable lesson in team communication and saw first-hand the importance of user testing. In our earliest design phase, we spent a fair amount of time debating the merits of our individual ideas. Had we decided to test both versions earlier on, we would have saved ourselves a lot of time and energy. Testing and discussing the results allowed us to see the upsides and downsides of each of our ideas, and unify the best aspects of each into a product that ended up working very well.
