CHLOE WU
Eat Buddy Case Study
Eat Buddy UX Case Study
THE CHALLENGE
Food lovers who do not have family or friends in the city they currently live in often have no dining companion when they want to eat in a public restaurant. And they are often reluctant to eat out alone.
THE SOLUTION
An app helps food lovers meet other food lovers over a meal seems a great solution.
MY ROLE
Secondary Research, Interview, Ideation, Prototyping, Usability Testing and Iteration.
THE APPROACH
The project is developed through a User-Centered Design approach.
Research
SECONDARY RESEARCH
There were 28% of the U.S. population are single household, according to Census 2018. The single household group will become a major consumption group because more and more youngsters exchange relationships for career and education. Solo dining had also been increasing based on the OpenTable report. However, other reports indicate that nearly half of Americans report sometimes or always feeling alone (46%) or left out 47%).
When it comes to dining, researches show that social dining has been reported to provide social and emotional support. People who eat socially are more likely to feel better about themselves, especially evening meals, at which laughter and reminiscences occur are likely to enhance the feeling of closeness.
Apart from the individuals who enjoy eating alone, a certain percentage of solo diners are probably dining alone not by choice. Therefore, I am going to find out whether people are interested in finding a dining companion in primary research.
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USER INTERVIEW
Research Goals:
Whether sharing a meal with strangers is a viable solution for food lovers
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Why people avoid dining out alone?
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Would they prefer to dine out with other people?
If yes, what elements would encourage their meal sharing behaviour to happen
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Discover their current way of meeting new people
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Understand what encourages them to engage with people they just met
Key Insights:
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Great food needs to be shared. Dining out is also perceived as a social activity. People tend to avoid dining out alone because it would bring them social discomfort, especially when others are in group gatherings.
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Food works great as an icebreaker for first time meeting, especially for introverted users.
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Respondents enjoy conversation and company the most with people who share similar interests
EMPATHY MAP
The interview results yield two significant patterns in terms of behaviours illustrated in the empathy map.
Personality differences - introversion VS extroversion - plays a role in making new acquaintance or meeting new people:
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Extrovert and Ambivert: take the initiative to seek an opportunity of meeting new people.
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Introvert: tend to “passively” accept opportunities, which are possibly given by others)
The Extrovert and Ambivert
Nicole’s personality is in between introversion and extroversion.
She enjoys meeting new people and also would seek an opportunity to meet them.
The Introvert
Alex’s behaviour pattern shows that it’s hard for him to actively approach new people. Thus not knowing enough people and also prefer to not dine out alone prevents him from enjoying new food in town.
PERSONA
Based on the empathy maps, 2 different personas are developed based on the users' behavioural patterns.
For Nicole the Extrovert, the design is focused on what Nicole needs from the app to invite someone to have a meal together.
For Alex the Introvert, the app should be able to show him that other people's invitations are available for him to respond, as he is not someone who usually takes the initiative.
Nicole the Extrovert
Nicole works alone in the city she just moved in, and she works from home. As a person more towards extroversion, she enjoys spending time with people and love to make new friends. As a natural food lover, she definitely wants to try out new restaurants in town.
Alex the Introvert
It is relatively harder for Alex to actively approach new people. Thus not knowing enough people and also prefer to not dine out alone prevents him from enjoying new food in town.
Solution
DESIGN
After synthesizing research results and consolidating personas understanding users' need. The user story is created and the app's main features will be developed based on it.
RED ROUTES
The 3 red routes illustrate how one user find the other users and invite them to dine together and how user reply and confirm that they are attending the event, which are the core features of this app.
Another important part of the app is the restaurant side which offers users to book their seats through the app. However, due to time limitation, this case study only covers the users' side. Restaurant side features will be explored in the future.
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COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
In the current market, there is no active service available that combines dining out and meeting people. Therefore I selected three indirect competitors.
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Design
WIREFRAME
The wire flow shows how a user creates a public or send a private invitation to others. The second part shows how a user responds to a received invitation.
For full version of hi-fi wireframes, please click here .
PROTOTYPING
Create a public event/invitation
The home page offers
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Restaurant for you
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People that the user might be interested in
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Current ongoing public invitation/dining event
The current user flow is to arrive at the restaurant screen and then invite someone
Pick a restaurant and send/create a private invitation/event
Users can see detailed information about the invitation:
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Time
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Location
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Numbers of people who are invited
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Who is going to attend
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Event cancellation condition
Users are also allowed to reply with an alternative time suggestion.
Reply to an invitation
Users can see detailed information about the invitation:
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Time
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Location
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Numbers of people who are invited
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Who is going to attend
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Event cancellation condition
Users are also allowed to reply with an alternative time suggestion.
Evaluation
USABILITY TESTING
A usability testing was implemented to make sure the prototype helps the users achieve their goals.
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Task 1: Post a public invitation
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Task 2: Create and send individuals a private invitation
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Task 3: Reply one private invitation
RESULTS AND SOLUTIONS
A subsequent usability test was implemented. The users did not report experience any issues that were blocking their tasks. However, one user mentioned that "create" from the tab bar should be changed to "invite" which is clearer to him.
CONCLUSION
The main challenge I encountered when creating the Eat Buddy wireframe is to decide on the information needed that create an invitation and effectively present them to the users, such as numbers of people who are going to attend; how the event is going to be cancelled; and what information updates users need to know in the process.
Usability testing greatly helped me in overcoming these challenges. Users would give feedback on something as a designer I never thought of. The feedback also sparked some great ideas about solving the problems.
The further design will be mainly focused on the restaurant side, a whole new set of a structure operating similar to a booking experience.
If you would like to work with me, please drop me an email or send a message via LinkedIn.