Project
Google: Molly’s Baked Goods
Role
Year
UX/UI Design
UX Research
Concepting
Visual Identity
2021 - 2022
Timeline
4 Weeks
The challenge
To build an easy-to-use, intuitive, and accessible food delivery app that allows users to quickly order their favorite food. I wanted a clean and visually appealing experience that conveys a minimal and delightful feeling for the users, every time they open the app.
The vision
My idea for this app was to make a practical and easy-to-use app for people to order their food. Since this is a bakery, the app should have certain differences in comparison to traditional multi-restaurant apps.
As a fan of minimalist designs, my idea was to make a clean interface, with beautiful imagery, a pleasant color palette, and seamless progression for the ordering process.
The research
First of all, I wanted to understand and empathize with the people I was designing for. Psychology really came in handy in this phase! For this, I asked myself the following questions:
1. Who am I designing for?
2. What do the primary users value the most?
3. What challenges do users face when ordering?
4. What are the competitors doing or not doing?
5. What motivates people to order food?
The core insights
Time is valuable
Convenience has a positive impact on intention to use. People value time and effort spent when buying a product. In other words, the app should be easy to use.
Keep it simple
Option overload can have a negative impact on people’s decision-making process and can make the user give up on the purchase.
Information is key
Lack of information about the order is a common complaint among users, as they would like to see order status updates in real-time.
Music to the eyes
The visual appeal, as well as the variety of information on the menu, has a positive influence on people’s desire for food, and ultimately on their purchase intention.
Don't overcomplicate
One of the reasons users give up on a purchase is the increased number of steps in the checkout process.
I need help
Appropriate communication from the establishment is key for good customer support. Users must be able to easily get in contact with the restaurant.
Meet the users
Having compiled a list of insights about the users, i was able to build personas in order to have a clear picture of their needs, and identify potential problems.
Competitive analysis
I looked at a couple hypothetical direct and indirect competitors for Molly’s Baked Goods. Currently, the most popular delivery apps in Brazil are multi-restaurant apps, and there are few competitors for a delivery app for an individual bakery business in the region. The analysis focused on the features of the most commonly used delivery apps, and the main things I noticed that could be improved were:
1. Too many options to choose from
2. Visually busy interfaces
3. Accessibility
4. Menu navigation
Ideation
After my time researching the users and the market, i used those insights and began with the ideation process, trying to generate a wide breadth of potential solutions.
Preparing the journey
Following the research process, I was able to construct the user flow and the low-fidelity prototypes, and start to demonstrate a basic idea of how the interaction is gonna happen through the app, from the moment of the user’s entry point, all the way through the checkout process and other essential features. This way, i could start testing and analyzing what was necessary, unnecessary and what needed improvement in the experience.
Preparing a user-centric experience
Testing allowed me to better understand how users expected to complete the tasks I was building. By studying their behavior through the user flow — and more importantly, having a dialogue with them about their expectations — I knew which adjustments needed to be made to lay the foundation for a high-fidelity prototype. Small details such as actionable and consistent iconography, and consistent paths to get back and forth through the app would become important elements of the design system.
The identity
With the most important insights in mind, I started establishing the final design process. This involved articulating all of the aspects of the brand through a design system, so I could define the visual vocabulary. The prominent color choice was orange, which is often associated with hunger and food.
The solution
Based on all the insights I had gathered so far into the process, I developed high-fidelity prototypes.
A warm welcome
One major component of the experience is the onboarding process. With this app, I wanted to simplify the information the user has to submit — prioritizing name, email, and password fields.
A well-known view
I wanted to make the browsing experience as simple as possible. With a straightforward color scheme composed of orange and black-and-white, recognizable gestures and clean navigation cues, the user can focus on the items and have a familiar experience.
Quick and simple
The checkout process is linear and easy to follow, without slowing down the user by cluttered interfaces and providing accessibility with a non-intimidating selection method.
What I've learned
This project was an amazing experience for me. As a part of Google's course, I was able to learn a lot while developing this app, and I wanted to go a lot further than what was expected from me in the course.
The key learnings that I want to emphasize from this project are:
1. The importance of Psychology. I was able to get a truly delightful experience when going through my research and design process by combining what I know about psychology with my knowledge in design, and it fomented my love for the creative process even more.
2. This was a project that I've developed all by myself while learning about the field of UX. Needless to say it was a challenge, and one that I was very happy to take on. I also had the opportunity to ask for feedback from people that I know in the field, and to connect to some really nice people that were doing the same course.