Ingredient inventory app – Google UX Course Case study

Project background

This is a sharpen prompt project which is a part of the Google ‘s UX course. The assigment was to design an app for a fancy restaurant in Vienna in which the users can check the ingredients. These app was designed for people who like to eat in elegant and fancy restaurants, but they are afraid what they are actually eating. Are they allergic to the food? Don’t they like it? Or can they feed it to the their pets? These were all taken in consideration when I designed the final form of the app based on research and usability studies. In this way the restaurant can give to their customers an experience which makes the time spent there better and the user experience of the whole “restaurant” process will become much more friendly and user focused.

My role

Beacuse this project was auto generated by Sharpen for the Google’s UX course, in the project my role was not only a designer, but in the same time I was a UX Researcher, a Visual Designer (best known as UI designer), Graphic Designer, Copywriter and Wireframe and Prototype designer.

The problem

People with busy life don’t usually have time to cook dinner at home, so they often decide to eat in a restaurant with their whole family, but they want healthy food, food that tastes good, ingredients which doesn’t give them allergic reactions, so they want a way to check it, this is why is this app made.

The goal

We create this app to help people, who are eating in this restaurant to see the ingredients and their inventory, to check every food about the allergens or something they don’t like, and make the whole ordering process faster and easier. We need to find out the best method to see the ingredients for the best user experience, also we need to know, how a user would use the app including the ordering, waiter selecting, rating and paying functions of it.

Project duration

March 2021 to May 2021.

Meet Emma and Peter

The Research

I conducted an unmodaretad usability study with my family members, beacuse this was a fake project. They had to complete several tasks going through the low-fidelity prototype of the app. These studies helped me to have data to make the app better, which I understood by using an affinity diagram, after that I defined themes and patterns which led me to actionable and usable insights. After the changes and the high-fidelity mockups and prototype I asked them the second time, what gave me a more deeper and better understanding of their needs as if they were the end users of the app.

The most important pain points

– Ordering food was not as simple as people would have expected

– It wasn’t obvious where to find the ingredient check methods and when to use them

My problem statements

Emma (user) is a/an busy working adult (user characteristics), who needs easy access to healthy and not allergenic food (user need) because this will make asier the order process in a restaurant for their family (insight).

Peter (user) is a/an freelance web developer (user characteristics), who needs to know the ingredients of the food they eat (user need) because they are going to know what speciality makes them ill or is not feedable to their dog (insight).

Usability study

Study type: unmoderated usability study

Location: Vienna, remote (each participant will complete the study in their own home). In our case my family members.

Participants: Participants are mid-aged people with family, with full-time jobs and little time to cook, but a need to know what they are eating beacuse of their health, allergies and taste. Two males, three females, between 30-50.

Duration: Each session will last 5 to 10 minutes, based on a list of prompts.

Results: Users had a difficult time placing an order, beacuse it wasn’t enough straightforward, this made them upset or they just ordered what they could. On the other hand users also had difficulties finding the app’s main purpose, the ingredient check methods, they felt like it was hidden or they didn’t know when to use it.

Low-fidelity design (wireframes)

Major layour changes

High-fidelity design

Accessibility considerations

For the Ingredient inventory app, the images on each page would use alt text to allow a screen reader to read the content. Also, there would be a possibility to change to a lighter interface.

Conclusion

While designing the app, I realized that we can come across a lot of perspectives that give the beauty of the profession. We don’t just rely on our presuppositions because what we find good may not necessarily be understandable to others, we have to overcome our biases. For this reason, you should always consider as many variables as possible. It can be a person, a user, language, color, etc. It is important that the application is both understandable and easy to use from the smallest to the largest. The aesthetic arrangement of the visual elements is only the door, beyond that is the rest of the house.