Background
Picnic was a transformative 12-week project undertaken for the BAEP 465 Digital Playbook for Entrepreneurs: Creating a Tech Startup class. The task was to pitch an original concept for a high-tech startup, and my team used the design thinking process to come up with our prototype.
Explainer Video
Watch the explainer video below to get a sneak peek of this project.
Empathizing with the Users Through User Interviews
Our team conducted user interviews with 13 members of our product’s target market, Millennials and Gen Z who like to go out to eat with others, to understand industry-specific consumer behavior, gauge which features are the most important for our users, and what features are currently missing in the market.
Using this information, we were able to create a general timeline of users’ food discovery and dining process: discovery, discussion and decision, pre-dining, dining, and posting.
User Personas: The Food Hunter and the Follower
User Stories
Based on our target audience and user personas, I came up with a list of 25 user stories from the perspectives of the "food hunters," "followers," food influencers, and Gen Z/Millenials in general. After gathering information about people's dining and social media habits, my team and I found some problems to tackle:
Defining the Problem: Users face fragmented platforms lacking social-centric approaches for engaging restaurant reviews.
How might we streamline the food discovery, dining, and posting processes?
Based on the results from our user interviews, survey, and user stories, we came up with the core features of our food social media app, Picnic. We brainstormed features and how they can solve specific user needs, focusing on how we could make each step of the process a more enjoyable social experience.
The Solution: Adding a Social Element to the Restaurant Research Experience
Core Features and Wireframes
I referenced the user flows from real apps such as Yelp, Instagram, and TikTok when creating the user flows. It was important for the app to be intuitive to use, so I made Picnic's user flows similar to other apps that our target audience is likely to be familiar with.
Branding and Design System
Picnic has a red/pink and gold gradient for our logo and branding. These colors are not only attention-grabbing, but they evoke a sense of hunger, perfect for our food social media app.
I replaced the "Like" button with our icon: a fork that is shaped like a "thumbs up." This icon is associated with liking a post and saving it to your playlist.
Home Feed of Short-Form Video Posts With Built-In Messaging Features
From our interviews, we noticed that several food hunters and followers post their food outings on social media. If the restaurant looks appealing, a food hunter will often ask their friend about the restaurant and save it for future reference.
In Picnic's app, I streamlined this process so viewers of the post can see their friends who have been to that restaurant and who have saved this restaurant and easily invite them out.
A Food Hunter may engage in the following process in the Picnic app to invite their Follower friends to try a new place:
Messages Feature to Seamlessly Exchange Suggestions, Share Playlists and Albums, and Make Decisions
We found that many users, exchange text messages to engage in the discussion and decision processes. They often go back and forth between several apps such as Google Maps, Yelp, or Instagram, making the process inefficient.
I combined all of those interactions in the Messages feature to streamline the discussion and decision processes within the app.
Search Function with Friends-based Recommendations and Distinct Categories
I integrated a Search feature similar to Yelp that lets the user browse different categories for restaurants and see their locations on the map.
The Friends Map differentiates Picnic from other apps by letting users see the places their friends have gone in the past 7 days. This can help in the overall research and discussion process since people are more likely to go to places their friends have gone.
Prototype
User Testing to Iterate Upon Features
I drafted several user testing questions on Google Forms for both moderated and unmoderated testing. Questions involved asking them to perform certain tasks and explain their thoughts on the prototype. There were two goals of this user testing:
1. Find out how intuitive and user-friendly the prototype was
2. Find out people's impressions of the app
Following usability testing on our prototype, valuable insights emerged from user feedback, as shown above.
These updates aim to significantly improve the user experience, addressing specific pain points and enhancing accessibility and usability across various app functionalities.
Impact and Potential KPIs to Measure Success
When my foodie friends saw this prototype, they were excited by the app and expressed their desire to use it if it became a real app.
Although this was a fictional project, if this became a real app, I would track the following metrics to measure the success of the project:
- average time spent on the app per week: indicates that this app satisfies users' needs/wants
- number of posts per day: since this app uses user-generated content, a high volume of posts is needed to let the platform thrive
- average app store ratings: gauges user satisfaction with the app
Want to elevate your UX design?
Email me at ljlamadr@usc.edu let's explore how I can help achieve your goals.
