Case Study: American Restaurant
Mexican Food Chain
Taqueria Jalisco
Role: Product Designer
Taqueria Jalisco is an American Restaurant - Mexican Food Chain. Taqueria Jalisco was founded by Mr. Flores, an entrepreneur who first opened Danny’s Drive In in 1988.
Flores watched long lines of customers at a Mexican restaurant located across the street, which became famous among residents for its tasty tacos.
Flores attempted to reverse-engineer the recipe, and eventually the owners allowed him to see how the tacos were made. He took what he had learned and opened an American Restaurant Mexican Food Chain in 1995.
Challenge:
The client wanted to find a solution to improve the quality for an affective customer experience to maximize profits using modern day technology. The client wants to make sure the customers can pay through the mobile app.
We know that time is of the essence, and our backend system uses emerging restaurant POS technology to provide information tailored to the restaurant so they can cater more to toward their customer needs.
Objective:
Research, strategize, and design a newly developed Mobile Web Application solely dedicated to the restaurant to achieve their goals.
Offer customers a highly valuable tool with a modern look and feel and intuitive navigation that makes self-service easy to find, use and understand.
Lacked understanding in customer wants, needs, and expectations.
• Current frustrations and pain points?
• What did they really want?
• What did they really need?
• Who was I designing for?
Dived into an intensive 2-week
research sprint.
• User interviews
• Investigate forums, reviews, and Social Media groups
• Map out competitor and SWOT analysis
• Create Persona
• Create Journey Map
• Interview customers, neighbors & other foot traffic
around the restaurant area.
Random interview/survey questions that was asked.
(not matched in any order)
Data Analysis
• Our research process included both quantitative
data, through surveys, and qualitative data,
through interviews.
• We received a lot of responses from our surveys
and found that roughly 85% of respondents
preferred to use their mobile phones to place
orders. Additionally, another roughly 70% were
unsatisfied with wait times.
Persona
User Journey
Overwhelmed with insights, I needed to start prioritizing to form a strategy.
• Understand key pain points, wants and needs
• Classify all insights gathered
• Present my synthesis to stakeholders
Jumped into secondary research to form
our product strategy and experience.
• Created affinity maps
• Prioritized customer pain points, wants and needs
• Presented the insights to stakeholders
I was on a deadline and the developer needed to start building soon.
• Should I design mobile first?
• Do we need wireframes?
• What was our visual design language?
• Do we need an inspirational moodboard?
Once the burning questions were answered,
I commenced the design right away.
• Move forward with a Mobile Application
approach for both Android & IOS
• Provide an inspirational moodboard,
user flows, wireframes, and high fidelity
mockups
• Focus on payment options during checkout
Inspirational
Moodboard
User Flow
Wireframes
Wireframes
High Fidelity Mockups
High Fidelity Mockups
High Fidelity Mockups
High Fidelity Mockups
High Fidelity Mockups
High Fidelity Mockups
Testing
• For usability testing I used Lookback.io and in-person observation.
• Through Lookback.io I observed how long it took users to find the
“add” items to their shopping cart feature.
• It took users only a few seconds to locate their refill items and add it
to their “Shopping Cart” page. From in-person observation I observed the overall flow
and usability of the app.
• I found that the users liked the ease of switching from one page to another using
navigation arrow at the top of the screen. It made the flow from page to page seamless.
• I witnessed customers effortlessly create new accounts on the mobile app without
experiencing any delays, problems, or issues.
Impact:
• The number of visitors for pick-up orders increased by 70%
• Customers are more than happy to see daily specials and menu by using the app.
• No more waiting in line to order food.
• Reserved parking available for placing pick-up order through app.
• Business for the fiscal year tripled after launching Mobile app.
Key Findings & Lessons Learned:
Emphasize Convenience and Speed: The primary driver for users of a restaurant pickup app is the desire for a quick, seamless ordering experience. My research highlighted the importance of reducing friction throughout the ordering process, from menu browsing to payment and pickup scheduling. Streamlining these workflows was crucial to meeting customer expectations and driving adoption.
Leverage Personalization and Order History: Providing personalized recommendations and access to past orders emerged as a powerful way to enhance the user experience. By tapping into data about each customer's preferences and ordering habits, I was able to surface tailored menu items, simplified reordering, and other features that improved efficiency and customer loyalty.
Optimize for Mobile-First Usability: Given the on-the-go nature of restaurant pickup, it was essential that the app be designed with a mobile-first approach. This meant prioritizing touch-friendly UI elements, intuitive navigation, and a responsive layout that adapted seamlessly to smaller screens. Iterative usability testing on diverse mobile devices helped me identify and address any friction points.
Integrate Seamless Payment and Pickup Options: Incorporate a selection of secure payment processing and flexible pickup choices, such as curbside service and order tracking.
Encourage Customer Engagement and Loyalty: Implement features like digital loyalty programs and customer feedback to foster ongoing brand engagement.
Maintain Transparency and Trust: Ensure high standards of data privacy and security to build customer confidence in the app.
The restaurant's order app highlighted the importance of prioritizing convenience, personalization, and mobile-first design in the food service industry. By deeply understanding the target users' needs and pain points, I was able to create a more streamlined, engaging, and trustworthy ordering experience that drove increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. The lessons learned from this project will continue to inform my approach to designing innovative solutions for the restaurant and hospitality sector.
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