ChopChop is a restaurant mobile app that provides a better dining experience in new ways. Users can verify the restaurant’s ambience, reserve the table location, and see the food details through the AR(Augmented Reality) menu.
The goal of this case study is to improve upon restaurant apps to meet Millennials' needs and have upgraded restaurant experiences.
Many restaurants offer more outdoor seating and parklets after Covid-19. However, it’s hard to check their changed ambience until we visit.
Furthermore, even though we use food services apps, we still search for more information we need such as food and restaurant details. These extra steps make it more inconvenient to have a good restaurant experience.
Provide a fun and improved dining experience that users can explore a restaurant's ambience and make a reservation for a nice table.
Find a restaurant by filters. Users can choose the table environment.
Check detailed restaurant ambience through a 360 degree picture before visiting the restaurant.
Fill out the reservation form, then select the table location a user wants.
Check details by tapping the reserved table after making a reservation.
Accurate menu to explore food details.
Check realistic AR food presentation on the user's table in a playful way without time consuming questions about unknown foods.
First, I started with market research to understand users' needs towards their current restaurant experiences.
From the research, I realized Millennials emphasize eating out more than other generations since they use meals as a way to socialize with others.
51 % of Millennials said they wished that restaurants would allow them to choose their own tables from a seating chart located on the restaurant’s website during the reservation process.
60% of Millennials also indicated they wanted restaurant technology to provide more detailed food information such as nutrition, allergens and sourcing.
To further understand the restaurant app industry, I organized a S.W.O.T. analysis. I chose Yelp and OpenTable apps as my competitors.
Before I started user research, I created learning goals to define the users. This aimed at discovering their behaviors and needs towards food services apps.
For the user research, I received 32 responses from my online survey and had 8 interviews for quantitative and qualitative analysis.
First, I sent an online survey. This survey was limited to people who are living in San Francisco and use restaurant apps such as Yelp, Doordash, Opentable and any other food services apps.
Secondly, I completed 8 user interviews to better understand their pain points, needs, and what they want to improve most from current food services apps.
I narrowed down the interview participants from the online survey to those who visited a restaurant within a few weeks.
I compared my assumptions with learnings and findings from the user interviews. It helped me focus on what problems I will solve.
Searching restaurant information from social media or apps is enough to figure it out
People use multiple apps and Google to find restaurant info such as ambience, outdoor seating, available menus and ingredients. However, they couldn't find the information they were expecting.
Check ambience for special occasions
After Covid-19, people prefer outside seating such as parklets. However, many of them are not in a good location. They don’t want to sit next to the road with friends or family, but it’s hard to check before getting there.
Making a reservation will give you a nice table
Even though people make a reservation ahead of time to get nice seats for an occasion, the restaurant often gives bad seats. Some people who have been to the restaurant, call to get exact seats they want.
Current food apps provide enough food information
People want to know detailed information about food such as portion, allergies, and ingredients. Especially when they try new cuisine, they want to know what’s in the food.
Food taste is the most
important factor when choosing a restaurant
Millennials value not only food taste but also presentation and experiences. However, still many food apps use Google generic and customer uploaded pictures. Most users asked why food apps don't involve new tech like AR and VR. Meanwhile, other apps use it and make it convenient for users.
People want to check restaurant’s ambience and outdoor seating availability before visiting the restaurant.
People want to reserve a specific table location.
People want to check detailed food information such as, food portion, ingredients, and allergy risks.
I took all my learnings from research and created an empathy map
I decided to combine 3 concepts from the learning
I had 4 different concepts for the features. First, I sketched them and created 3-4 screens that convey the concepts. After concept testing, I chose to combine 3 concepts from the testing feedback.
People can check a restaurant’s ambience such as outdoor and indoor seating by viewing the 360 degree picture. When they tap outdoor seat, it will zoom into the picture at a different angle.
On the menu page, when people tap AR button, it shows augmented reality food so people can check the portions, how it looks, and the ingredients.
I completed 6 user tests through online zoom meetings and in person meetings. Also, for the in person meetings, I checked the AR food menu feature via an AR tool.
I limited the usability testing to the under 40 age group. The aim was to know how fast this group could understand and use new tech such as AR and 360 degree picture.
Through usability testing, I could validate my design problems.
I observed which steps made users confused and found what I should improve.
To evaluate the better user experience and design, I conducted some rounds of usability testing.
People can check restaurant ambience by 360 degree picture. It helps people check outdoor and parklet ambience before visiting the restaurant.
Select nearby and outdoor table environment filter
Tap "Ambience" button.
Swipe and see parklet and outdoor ambience.
Tap "parklet" and then see a detailed 360 degree picture by swiping the screen.
It enhances the dining experience by selecting the table location. After filling out the reservation info, it shows available seats and users can select the table by swiping the picture.
Fill out the reservation form requiring date, party size, available time.
Reserve the available table that users want. Confirmation pop up screen will appear.
By tapping the reserved table flashing icon, the reservation information will pop up and users can modify requests.
Users can check food portions, ingredients, allergy and wine information. It not only reduces time consuming questions, but also shows realistic food on their table in a playful way.
Tap "Menu"
Menu page.
First-time user explanation pops up when they're in the menu page.
Tap "AR Menu" button and follow the animated explanation. Then AR food appears.
Users can interact with the AR food. They can see visual details close up and tap "ingredients" button to see ingredients labeled on the dish.
Learning about Millennials' consumer needs for current food service apps and then creating an enhanced restaurant experience app was exciting and challenging.
I was unsure about using new tech features to solve a lack of food information. However, after user testing, I realized people easily adopted and loved seeing realistic AR food. I believe this app will enhance user's dining experiences and help over 4,000 restaurant businesses in San Francisco.
I'm looking forward to talk more details about this project! Please contact me if you want to know more about this project or have any questions.
