GPHD 135 Journal #2: Case Study
Beep: Group Ordering for Food UX
After learning about case studies this week, I researched some interesting UX case studies on some rather unique designs. One article that stood out to me was “Beep: Group Ordering for Food UX” written by author Weiee Ying from https://uxdesign.cc/group-ordering-ux-for-food-delivery-2d37b39b7aaf
This article stood out to me because author explains that there is a real world problem when groups of people want to order from a place or places. Generally if a group of people form together it is difficult to get everyones order correct, and in attempting to do so everyone is on their phones trying to search the menu. The author explains the main problems:
- Manual group process of determining which restaurant/food
- One person is assigned to do the ordering for everyone
- One person is assigned to check on the delivery time
- One person receives manual payment from everyone
- One person receives all reward points and gives restaurant ratings
I have personally been in all of these roles when order with a group of people, and I consider all of these to be a big hassle, which is why I chose this as a great example of a case study for this weeks journal.
This case study is successful because the author provided a lot of information/research that helped to progress into solving this problem:
-Users: mapping needs & priorities
-Key priorities and principles
The case study provided some great imagery examples of why it is difficult ordering in groups, this really helped me reflect on myself being in these situations.
After identifying the issues, the case study moves into the solutions and goals which the author identifies that:
To create a seamless group ordering experience in an existing food delivery app service — easy!
Solution: create a Venmo-like experience! 🤳
Before jumping into some ideation magic, I only had a specific problem with no particular app in mind. I decided to select Beep — a new food delivery service from StoreHub that takes a smaller commission % from local restaurants than the established players in the market.
This is a great solution, something that I would use if I worked in big teams as a designer where many coworkers wanted to eat together for lunch.
The case study demonstrates even more success by providing a lot of images through the research/sketching and wire-framing phases.
This image allowed me to visually understand how you can get the orders in and navigate the app.
Below are just some more examples of what the author provided/presented for us to understand the mission/goal:
The case study even has project insights and key takeaways which was a great way of ending the article/case study.
- Leverage in-app features: complex problems do not always need complex solutions. By utilising what exists like users’ contacts to invite, basic payment and menus — this helps eradicate 80% of the issue at hand.
- Urgency can be exciting: group orders is a social activity so implementing a timer and voting mechanism creates a fun, collective experience.
- Inform when it’s a group/individual process: inform users when the entire group is required to progress the next step, e.g. voting for a restaurant, ordering and paying before delivery etc.
The case study has so many more visuals and information that really helps you see how to fix the problem as an users perspective. This proposition creates an positive experience, resinates with me in many ways as great design.
The author did a great job at thinking outside of the box, especially coming up with this real world problem. Overall I believe that this was solved, created a better way for society to order with groups in an existing app, even provides a pathway for future apps to build off of this idea. This is a very successful case study and it really helped me understand how I can create my own successful design case study for this class and the future.
Personally it would have been cool if maybe we could have seen it on the top 3 food service apps, but thats all that I can think of how to maybe make this better, because its pretty cool.
