Peg Baldassari - Curbside

BACKGROUND

Where there is a big city, there are lots of options for food trucks. A lot of food trucks are heavily present on social media to connect with their customers, posting their next moves or specials and such. This project will create a platform where customers can rate food trucks and suggest food items, discover new food trucks in their area, see upcoming locations for the trucks, and search for food trucks based on specific food preferences. Existing food truck apps focus on real time location of the food trucks and often times these maps are faulty or inaccurate. This app will differ because in addition to getting food truck locations, there is also information on customers' experiences through reviews.

Create an end to end app
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This app is for searching food trucks, finding information about them for example their social media or health score, leaving reviews, and for the ability order for pickup or delivery.
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CHALLENGE

OUTCOME

timeline

80+ hours in two weeks.

The research process gave me a good understanding of how food trucks fit into the food industry and how customers interact with them. The challenges and trends helped me see what would be the potential structure of the CURBSIDE app and the user demographic.

GOAL:
To understand the food truck industry and its customers and potential app users.

DELIVERABLES:
Competitive Analysis | Market Research | Survey | 1:1 Interviews

research findings

Competitive Analysis
I researched direct and indirect competitors to find the strengths and weaknesses of their apps. Based on this information, I knew that the CURBSIDE app needed to have an accurate schedule, customer reviews, and an online ordering feature in addition to the common features of the competitors like menu, vibrant branding, and a live map.

Market Research
I found information online about the food truck industry including statistics, demographics, challenges, and trends.
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FOOD TRUCK INDUSTRY STATISTICS

In 2020 there are 23,873 active food truck businesses in the United States.
The mobile food truck industry earns over $2 Billion in revenue per year in the United States.
The growth of the food truck industry is outgrowing the overall commercial restaurant industry, at 5.4% vs. 4.3%.
The food truck industry has experienced an overall revenue increase of 300% from 2014 to 2017.

Statistics on Food Truck Demographics

The most likely demographic to order from a food truck are people aged 18 to 34, followed by those aged 35 to 44 at 54%.
47% of Millenials has eaten from a food truck.
Over 90% of food truck diners rated their quality of experience as either excellent or good.
Food truck lovers cited the fast serving times, convenience, high-quality and low price of the food truck service experience as reasons for loving them.

CHALLENGES

Difficulties on locating food trucks around the city.
A majority of food trucks' online presence are poor.
The competitiveness between food trucks is high.
Food trucks schedules are sometimes not accessible.

TRENDS

Focus on healthy consumer preferences.
Food transparency.
Use of social media to share food truck locations, menu specials, and other important news.
Use of online ordering platforms and tools.
Use of social media to share food truck locations, menu specials, and other important news.
Engaging with customers on online review sites such as Yelp and Google.

*Site Credit: www.2ndkitchen.com/restaurants/food-truck-statistics/

SURVEY RESULTS

100% responded ‘yes’ they would use an app to help find new food trucks

PRIMARY RESEARCH - 1:1 Interviews
I wanted to find out about how people ended up eating at food trucks, did they seek them out or just happen to walk by them and how they viewed them. I also wanted to know if food truck customers thought an app would be helpful and if so, what feature they would like to see. I asked open-ended questions to get feedback based on their personal experiences.

> View full interview guide here.

POSITIVE EXPERIENCES

It's a communal experience
Spending money on food from food trucks is less expensive than going to a restaurant

NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES

Wait time to receive food can be long
Missing out when food trucks are nearby because they didn't know

FEATURES

Pickup and delivery
Having access to food trucks' Social Media
Having access to menus

VALUES

Convenience
Good food and quality
Health score
Customer ratings

GATHERING INSIGHTS

Insight #1: Users like to read reviews online before going to restaurants and food trucks

Insight #2: Users would like menus and ordering on an app

"Whenever we try a new place to eat, I always check out what the ratings and reviews are."
"I think that an app would be helpful to see customer reviews ."
"I like to read comments to get suggestions about what to order."

"I had an issue when my food took a lot longer than my coworker’s food from a different truck and they had already finished eating when I got my food."
"It would be nice to be able to order for pickup. Especially on busy days at the office."

"I've noticed on some of the food truck's website that their city location was wrong."
"It is hard to know what food trucks will be in the area and when."
"It would be helpful to have access to the food truck's scheduling. That way I can plan my meals when traveling."

Insight #3: Schedule and location information is important

POTENTIAL CURBSIDE USERS ARE...

Budget conscious
Want convenience
Want to have new experiences
Like to travel

Now I have some understanding of the behaviors that these users have, and I can begin to think what personas can be created based on these insights.

After synthesizing the research data, I created personas to more specifically understand food truck customers. Once I better understood the wants, needs and frustrations of the user, I could define their problems and questions to be solved in the ideate processs.

GOAL:
To define the wants, needs, and problems related to customer experience at food trucks.

DELIVERABLES:
Personas | Empathy Maps | HMW Questions

PERSONAS

From the research, I created two personas that are potential CURBSIDE users. I brainstormed Wants and Needs, and Frustrations that they experience in their lives to arise any solutions.

EMPATHY MAPS

I was able to dig deeper into the personas' personalities by creating an empathy map expressing their pains, gains, thoughts, and feelings.

How might we...

Taking the insight and needs from primary research, I was able to come up with a POV statement that lead to HOW MIGHT WE questions. This will generate ideas for brainstorming to identify what's needed moving forward.

During the IDEATE process, I generated solutions for the users' wants, needs, and frustrations. At this point I wanted to come up with a lot of different solutions so that I could choose which ones would be effective for the CURBSIDE app. Once I prioritized features for the app, I was able to imagine the app as a whole and build the frame and flow.

GOAL:
Generate solutions for the defined problems and build the information architecture and flows.

DELIVERABLES:
Brainstorm | Feature Roadmap | Sitemap | Task Flows | User Flow

Brainstorm

After writing HMW questions, I brainstormed for two minutes to come up with solutions for each question. The purpose of this process was to produce as many solutions possible to discover the quality ones.

FEATURE ROADMAP

Based on my brainstorms, interviews and personas' wants and needs, I listed and prioritized potential app features.

SITEMAP

Then, I created a sitemap visualizing what the navigation interface could look like, what the categories and sub-categories would be, and adding the features from the roadmap.

TASK FLOW

Task flows were created based off of the insight map. They help to put into perspective what a user might view and click on in the app.

Task 1

Naomi is at work and for lunch she orders ahead for pickup through the Curbside app.

Task 2

Sierra is in Los Angeles and has begun her journey traveling cross country. While in Los Angeles, she has noticed a lot of food trucks and wants to experience them, so she wants to find one and see its schedule.

USER FLOW

The user flow was created to capture the different flow possibilities of tasks based on the users' decisions.

Scenario 1

Naomi has now discovered the CURBSIDE app and wants to order from her favorite food truck and have it delivered to her work.

Scenario 2

Sierra is in Los Angeles and has begun her journey to travel cross country. While in Los Angeles, she has noticed a lot of food trucks and wants to experience them. She wants to choose a food truck for breakfast and find out where it will be.

Once I established the information architecture and flow of the app, it was time for the DESIGN process. I created the layout, visual hierarchy and built wireframes to see how everything would interact.

GOAL:
Sketch and build wireframes to put into perspective the structure of the app. Next, apply the branding elements to enhance the overall look.

Low-Fi wireframe Sketches

I roughly sketched out low-fidelity wireframes to get an idea of how features and other design elements can be laid out.

MID-FI WIREFRAMES

Building out mid-fidelity wireframes allowed me to structure the app's interface based on my wireframe sketches, task flows, user flows, and research.

LOGO

When coming up with logo ideas for Curbside, I wanted something playful and clever. Sketching the food truck, I realized I could play with negative space in the serving window and tried the outlines different items, finally settling on utensils.

BRANDING

When creating the CURBSIDE's style tile, how I imagined the color palette was having the greens symbolize food and the light orange/yellow being friendly and approachable. I think the combination makes it a nice contrast, and it gives a trusting, cheerful, and tasteful feel. I chose a san serif font because it's more legible, and the type is less difficult to process, especially in apps.

HIGH-FIDELITY DESIGN

Next, I applied the color palette, font, icons and input imagery to the wireframes, to get a visual of the representation of the look and style of the app.

UI KIT

The UI kit is a manual of all design elements that are included in the CURBSIDE app to pass on to developers or other designers in the event of a handoff.

Using a prototype, I conducted usability testing using Marvel and collected data. During testing, I got feedback about how to improve the app for optimization and also what worked for the users.

GOAL:
To conduct usability testing on a prototype in order to find out successes, problems and wins to discover new solutions for iteration.

DELIVERABLES:
Prototype | Usability Testing

ProtoType

I prototyped the high-fidelity wireframes because it gives a sense of what the experience could be as the final product. The prototype was created in Marvel to see the frames interact, and to see if any UI elements needed changing before testing.

USABILITY TESTING

Next, it was time to test the app. I recruited five users and used MAZE to track and record their actions while doing the task. The tasks given were:

Create an account and find a food truck that serves burgers.
View Lettuce Feast's menu.
Order ahead two Short Rib Tacos with kimchi from the Kogi food truck using Apple Pay.

TEST OBJECTIVES

Observe and identify how users search for burgers
Observe the users on creating an account
Observe the users locating the menu in Lettuce Feast's profile
Observe the users understanding the ordering and checkout process
Observe errors made and how participants recover
Observe if they can identify all four navigation buttons: HOME, SEARCH, ORDER, and ACCOUNT

TEST GOALS

Understand how users interacts with the app
Identify pain points and pleasant experiences when navigating through the app
Collect feedback to make improvements on specific areas

the results

Overall, the testing of CURBSIDE was informative and helpful. All users completed the first two tasks with ease, but with some confusion around the "SIGN UP" button. As for the third task, four out of five users struggled to identify the “ORDER” button in the main navigation, where you would find delivery/pickup services. Most of them wanted to search the Kogi truck instead - which would work, but it wasn’t the path I had chosen to use.

Using the data from the usability testing, I identified more areas of imporovement and made revisions for the next iteration of the high-fidelity wireframes.

GOAL:
To identify areas of improvement and create solutions for iteration of a high fidelity prototype.

DELIVERABLES:
Affinity Map | Revisions and Final Hi-Fi Wireframes

AFFINITY MAP

To create the affinity map, I took the results from the usability testing, combining and organizing each testers’ successes, problems, and wins based on how they did and felt. This helped me determine which areas of the app needed improving and guided me in finding solutions.

Revisions and Final wireframes

I applied solutions and improved the high-fidelity frames by making the home navigation button say "DELIVERY" instead of "ORDER", changing "SIGN UP" button to say "CREATE AN ACCOUNT", and lower the opacity of the unavailable buttons.
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CURBSIDE is an app that bridges the needs of both food trucks and their customers by providing food truck details, locations, customer reviews, and ordering capabilities all on one platform. CURBSIDE stands out from its competition because of its customer review feature and ordering capabilities. If I had more time, I would have added a push notification feature to alert users when their favorite food truck is in their area.
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Final takeaways

Next Steps...

Build out the rest of the CURBSIDE app
Add a push notification feature
Continue further usability testings and iterations
Handoff to developers