Why Yum Yum?
Food! Although food itself has not changed much, the way we obtain our food has. Food trucks allow them to try new and exciting cuisine that they may have not had the opportunity to try before.
Role: UX Designer
Scope of Work: User Research, Usability Testing , User Interviews, User Interfacing, Visual Design, Logo Design, Sketching and Wire framing
Duration: 80 hours
Challenge
Create a food truck app that allows the user the ability to search for food trucks based on their zip code.
Solution
Create a fun, interactive, and user friendly app that allows users see what food trucks will be in their area and then order that food for delivery or pickup.
The Process
A little background
Like many Hufflepuffs, food is something that is very important to me. It has the power to bring people together, food is one of the main pillars to help humans feel connected to each other and create new, lasting memories.
Understanding the Food Truck Market
In order to understand how I would be able to competitively position my food truck app, I decided it would be important to look at the current market trends and to analyze it’s usability and UI of existing pet apps.
Market Trends
Millennials make up the majority of food truck connoisseurs - 47%, and many of them are returning customers.
— “20+ Food Truck Industry Statistics: What's Cooking in 2022?” SmallBizGenius, www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/food-truck-industry-stats/.
43% of monthly food truck spending is attributed to people between the ages of 25 and 44, and an additional 20% is attributed to people under the age of 25.
— “21 Important Food Truck Statistics [2022]: Analysis, Trends, and Projections.” Zippia, www.zippia.com/advice/food-truck-statistics/.
The food truck industry has an estimated annual revenue of $2.7 billion.
— “21 Important Food Truck Statistics [2022]: Analysis, Trends, and Projections.” Zippia, www.zippia.com/advice/food-truck-statistics/.
Over 80% of food truck diners choose to eat there because of the exciting, new, and unique experience.
— “20+ Food Truck Industry Statistics: What's Cooking in 2022?” SmallBizGenius, www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/food-truck-industry-stats/.
After researching current market treads, I wanted to conduct a competitive analysis. During my analysis, I found:
There is no mainstream food truck focused apps
Many of the food delivery apps only work in some type of partnership with restaurants
Users were unable to verify if reviews, experiences, or prices were true for restaurants
Real World Test
To better be able to understand how people order food from food trucks, I decided to conduct field research at my brother- in- laws food truck on a trip back to Arkansas. I wanted to know:
How do people order food?
How can food truck owners use this platform to help engage more customers?
How long was the wait time from standing in line to when you have your food?
How can having an app be able to shorten that wait time and increase your overall dining experience?
User Interviews
After reviewing my insights and research, I created a guided conversation script for me to understand my users perspectives, needs, and pain points. For this round, I conducted 6 interviews (2 in-person and 4 remote) to understand how people viewed their relationship to food trucks, how people ordered their food, and what they would want from this app.
My Findings
All of my users have been to a food truck more than 5 times within the last 3 years. 5 out of 6 of my users viewed food trucks as a way to try new food and support local businesses. One of the most common pain points that came up from users when ask about food truck wait time were the lines. Users felt that food truck lines had the tendency to be too long which often deterred the users from even attempting to order food.
Persona
After I finished conducting my research and interviews, I shifted my focus to create a persona that was able to encapsulate my findings. With this persona, I used it to help guide my work so I would be able to stay focused on my target user and find creative solutions to keeping food in people stomachs.
Game changing moment
Instead of having an app that people would be only able to view food, many users and food truck owners would find it useful to have their food set for a quick pickup or delivery to their home.
Addressing frustrations by providing solutions
To help guide my work, I revisited my users frustrations to create needed solutions by:
Creating an app that will allow users the ability to order their food for either pick up or delivery.
Understanding what will be needed to be able to build trust in my app for my users. (ie verified reviews, matching pricing from food trucks, etc)
Redefining how people view food trucks and their space in the market.
How will this happen?
During my interviews, participants wanted to be able to trust the app and an easy process to be able to find food. In this, I created two separate users flows for users and guest to both be able to order food.
Bringing it to life
When I was sketching my designs, I made a priority for users to be able to find yummy food.
Feedback: The Unspoken Hero
My work and solutions are only make sense if the user finds value in them. In this stage, I created mid-fidelity wireframes to conduct a usability test with participants from my user interviews. During my testing i noticed:
Users enjoyed the logo design and the small design touches added to the app
Functionality and ease of use for the app was noted from all users
Users felt that the screens were too bright and wanted a dark mode version to match with night time food truck life style.
Going from idea to reality
I became interested in creating this app because of my brother-in-law. Since coming to America, it has been his dream to open a food truck and share his food with others. For him, sharing food helps keeps the memories of how he grew up cooking with his mom and grandma alive while also making him feel connected to his homeland.
Understanding my target audience
For this round of feedback and usability testing, I decided to bring together 5 new users who either frequented food trucks or seldom visit food trucks to be able to understand both markets. During the testing, I provided each participant with my high fidelity prototype and prompt in hopes of creating a real world experience for my users and to gather feedback on what they liked or disliked. During the usability testing, participants shared:
Many of the users enjoyed the concept of the app and how the design itself felt modern with some fun, quirky touches added. IE the background being little cats heads
Users loved how fun, playful and interactive the feature felt for them
Learning Lesson
During my usability testing, I realized that not everyone views food in the same light. For some users, food is nothing more than fuel to get them through the day while other users view food as a connection to others. Working with this app and users perceptions, my goal is to be able to bridge the gap between both extremes.
Using feedback to create iterations
Using the feedback that was provided to me during my latest round of usability testing, the following were the priority revision I made for my app
Problem
Users felt that the coloring for the card and address screen felt a bit off.
Solution
Change the background color to freshen up the look while also using different UI elements to create a interesting checkout process.
High- Fidelity Solutions
Understanding how to make food look sexy
Just like there is more than one type of cuisine, there is more than one way that people like to learn about their food. In order to be able to appeal to both sides of the market, I decided to have both food pictures and descriptions provided by the food truck owner. I also found that this helped to bridge the gap in helping the food trucks be able to build trust between themselves and the customers.
Checking out the food
When you’re hungry, the last thing you want to do is figure out how to use an app. Users will be able to use pre-saved data to help speed up the check out process and update their information if needed.
Tracking how soon they can eat cake
One of the most important aspect of ordering your food, is being able to know how soon it would get to you. With this screen, I wanted to help users know where their food was and be able to easily contact their delivery driver if needed.
Final Design
What is Yum Yum?
A trusted app that works to help create memories and shorten wait times for food truck enthusiast and alike.
Reflections
For this project , I found myself struggling to add more features that would help to bring in users that don’t eat at food trucks on a normal basis.
If I had more time, I would like to have more interviews with users that normally don’t go to food trucks. I would also like to add additional features (ie, partnerships with bars, events page, etc) to make the app more interactive for all users.