I worked as a waitress after restaurants opened back up during the pandemic. When Tupelo Honey switched from physical menus to online menus, I found myself having to help nearly every table navigate the new online menu.
I witnessed first-hand how the menu’s drawbacks negatively affected guests’ dining experience. This also slowed down the speed at which servers could turn tables, thus decreasing the restaurant's revenue potential.
I used each table I served as an opportunity to gather data through surveys, observations and interviews. I distributed 30 surveys to which 12 people responded and also conducted 18 interviews.
The goals of my research were to:
I identified 3 main user pain points from my research:
I compared the online menus of three restaurants for my competitive analysis to familiarize myself with online menus and explore possible solutions.
I mapped out the user journey of a guest navigating the current online menu to help me identify additional pain points and opportunities for improvement.
Using my research insights and user journey, I came up with possible solutions and opportunities for improvement. I used a feature prioritization chart to help me plan the order of which features to design were most important to users.
If I was working on a team, I would have collaborated with developers and used this chart to decided which features were feasible.
From my competitive analysis I found that most online menus use drop-down navigation, but this was essentially the pain point that I was trying to solve: making all menus visible. I had to find a solution that didn’t obscure other content or require excessive scrolling.
The goals for my first round of testing were to answer:
For my wireframes, I used inspiration from websites I analyzed in my competitive analysis. There were no constraints for this project so I was able to come up with creative solutions to test and validate with users.
Assumptions I made:
Since a majority of users didn't use geolocation, I opted for a list of locations which requires less thought and fewer steps in the user flow.
Although photos were viewed as helpful to some users, I decided that including them didn't align with the restaurant's brand identity.
Instead of using the filter button, people with dietary restrictions went straight to the salad section. My first solution was to take out the feature and label each item.
For the UI of the website, I repurposed the company’s brand colors. Originally, the CTA buttons were orange and yellow, so I changed them to blue and white to be accessible. I chose fonts that were welcoming and fun, like the restaurant’s mission statement illustrates: “... Bring friends and family around the table.”
What I learned
My biggest struggle during this project was stepping out of my comfort zone. I was afraid of inconveniencing guests or showing people a design that wasn’t perfect. Completing this project taught me that in order to create a human-centered design, I have to take leadership to get the research and results I need.
What I would do differently
I would have looked at more upscale casual restaurants that resembled Tupelo Honey’s brand for inspiration and in my competitive analysis. That would have saved me time ideating the right solutions instead of creating a design that wasn't relevant for my audience demographic.
If I had more time
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