Tru Wine + Deli

People love tru . . .

... but hate ordering there. The combination of impersonal tablet-ordering and face-to-face ordering has created a confusing process for customers who don't know if they are supposed to order their food digitally or with a waitress. The organization of the tablet interface has led to many mistakes in ordering, confused stares, and long lines. Instead of focusing on preparing food or managing payments, workers had to spend a lot of time answering questions about how to use the interface or reassuring customers that their order has been received. I worked closely with many Tru-lovers and the owner of Tru to find a way to help customers order their food quickly and confidently.

mY PROCESS

Google form used for usability interviews

STEP 1: RESEARCH

The pandemic changed the way I conducted my user research. Instead of the usual face-to-face interviews, I had to rely on phone calls and Google forms to get the information I needed from customers. Here are a few of my key findings:

MANY people have accidentally ordered salads when they meant to order sandwiches (and vice versa)
the organization of the toppings and condiments is not intuitive
the process for ordering is slow (mainly because people are confused if they are ordering correctly), leading to long lines
employees don't have time to help every customer use the interface
employees find it easier if large groups pick one table number (so all of the orders can come out together)

STEP 2: IDEATION

By creating user personas and storyboards, I made note of a few significant things I needed to keep in mind:

keep the language simple for customers who don’t speak English very well
make the fonts legible/create contrast for those who have poor eyesight
make an option to add more items to your cart before paying for families or large groups paying together
make the progression from ordering to payment to finding a seat more clear

STEP 3: PROTOTYPE

I created the low-fidelity prototype seen to the left based on all of my previous findings. Then, I turned this into a high-fidelity prototype using bright colors, legible fonts, and simple design concepts. Once I made my prototype interactive, I sent it out to a few people to get feedback and made changes accordingly. Here are a few strategic decisions I made during this process:

the list of toppings should look different depending on what the customer is ordering, so they don't accidentally order the wrong item
the toppings should all be found on one page, so the customer does not have to click through a bunch of screens
there should be an option to add another item at the end, so the customer can make larger orders at once
there should be a clear "To-Go" option, so employees know how to prepare/package the order

View my Interactive Design Here

Krupa Patel