Role
User Research
Product Strategy
UI Design
Interaction Design
Usability Testing
Tools
Figjam
Notion
Maze
Figma
Otter
Timeline
5 weeks
The Problem
The Solution
Usability Review
To begin our research we needed to conduct a usability audit of the current app interface. Our method included identifying wow moments and pain points within the user flow and interface experience. This research method taught us how we can empathize with our users and get our problem-solving skills moving!
Business & User frustrations
Users feel frustrated that they can't see their friend's latest reviews leading to a lack of trust in the reviews they are reading.
Primary Frustration
When making a reservation users can't read what their friends have to say about the restaurant they are about to go to and a loss of confidence, resulting in a missed booking opportunity for Open Table.
Secondary Frustration
In addition to the primary frustration, when users are reading reviews from people they don' t know they are unable to certify if the reviews are honest, which results in a lack of trust. By connecting with friends we are therefore building a sense of community for our users.
Competitive Analysis
In order to apply our ideas to new interface features, we needed to understand the industry benchmarking standards by reviewing our direct (Yelp) and indirect (Hip Camp) competitors. By identifying the wow moments and pain points from our competitors we interpreted these findings into a guide for our solution.
Ideation
The purpose of this next research method was to give us the opportunity to think creatively and collaborate. Mindmapping is a visual ideation technique that encourages you to draw connections between different sets of ideas or information.
What can we add
The highest priority idea that we identified was the addition of user profiles and a highlighted carousel of friends reviews on the homepage.
What can we improve
The user interface needed some improvement in its visual signifiers to enhance accessibility and overall user experience.
User Flows
The original user flow allowed users to see reviews on a restaurants page and assured in booking a table. Our improved user flow allows users to see reviews from their friends in the homepage, click to read those reviews and search through personalized profile pages. The goal of the improved user flow is to allow users to verify the restaurant with trusted reviews from their friends.
Rapid Prototyping
In my wireframes I wanted to include an option for users to download their contacts into the application allowing them to connect with friends. I wanted to focus on this aspect of connecting with friends by adding features to the profile pages such as, bios, photos, status elite badges, and a highlighted carousel of "friends recent reviews" on the homepage.
Styles & Components
I created styles and components that ensured I was keeping in line with Open Tables design standards and added new features that help leads in their competitor benchmarking standards.
High Fidelity Prototype
In the high fidelity prototype, I added additional features to the existing user interface such as a highlighted carousel of "friends recent reviews" on the homepage and the ability to click and view a friends profile page.
Usability Testing
Work in progress!
Test outcomes
Work in progress! Waiting on results
Three key learnings
1. Collaborating with other design centered minds can be fun and inspiring
2. Communication is key!
3. Design is constantly changing and improving, sticking with benchmarking standards and trends are important to the process
Next steps
If I had more time to work with Open Table, I would have benefitted from additional usability testing collected from interviews and Maze.