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Our goal is to improve the user experience for traditional menus at restaurants for customers at a restaurant. The menu has become a static item, which does not allow many clients to truly understand the dishes or variety of what's on it. We want to understand what clients who are ordering off a menu want.
Customer
The customer Customers will use our app to explore the menu of a restaurant (while present or not present at the restaurant). Some when they arrive at a particular restaurant. We can be presented with a different set of scenarios for each customer. Some customers may be extremely hungry and will want an efficient application. Another group of customers will , and others might be more interested in exploring the menu slowly. This group would also be more likely to review their dishes after finishing their meals.We want to make sure that we address both the use cases.
Here are some of the defining characteristics of the end user:
- Any age or gender
- Hungry
- Can have dietary restrictions or other specific requests
- May or may not speak English
- May want to review food afterwards
- Might or might not be tech-savvy
We interviewed several people ages 20-45 about their frustrations with ordering via paper menu, and what they would look for in a mobile menu.
Jacob the Runner is an athlete and programmer. He often has to deal with restricted food choices because of a string of food allergies. He is also extremely tech-savvy, and is on top of the latest trends on Gizmodo and Hacker News. He is an avid Yelp user, and often wonders why the granularity does not exist for restaurant menus. We asked him what he wanted to change on the menu. This is his direct feedback:
He is One interviewee said he is often frustrated when he doesn’t understand the terms on the menu. He also dislikes not having control over when the waiter comes over to take his order. He complained about the lack of an ingredients list. He wanted to know what the food looks like ahead of time and what other users rated the food. He would also like to be able to filter for gluten free items on the menu.
Manu the Consultant is a businessman on the go. He has often been burned by food that has tasted bad. In his life, he lacks a lot of free time, yet he has a taste for avant-garde cuisine. He would like to understand how good or bad certain items are, and how they would suit his palate. This is his feedback:
Another interviewee was less concerned with how the food looks and more focused on the user reviews. He wanted to know what are the most popular dishes and what dishes go well with each other. He said he would write a review after he ordered his food.
Abby the Doctor is a gynecologist in a prestigious hospital. She is from Bulgaria, and often has a hard time ordering food. She is always on-call and wants her food to come fast. Also, she is a vegetarian, so she has restricted preferences. This is her feedback:
A third interviewee mentioned that she has a problem with her accent when ordering food at restaurants (she said the maitré d can be condescending towards her). She gets frustrated when her food is slow, and she would prefer to know exactly what the vegetarian fare is at a particular restaurant. She said pictures would be very helpful, especially at an expensive restaurant where she wants to be sure she’s spending her money wisely. Even though this interviewee acknowledged that she is 45, she said she would feel comfortable using a mobile application (she considers herself tech savvy).
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