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YumWay
Restaurant Discovery Social Media App
Problem:
How can we help people in multicultural cities like Toronto explore diverse food options with the support of a credible review platform.
Solution:
By focusing on trust and personalization, we can create a reliable space where users in multicultural cities can confidently choose restaurants based on credible reviews and tailored recommendations, making it easier to find diverse dining options that meet their preferences.
Project Type:
4-month group project in 2024 for a master's level 'Fundamentals of UX' course
Context:
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Created a research plan and exploratory research
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Conducted usability testing with 2 participants
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Created UI sketches and flow
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Created wireframes and prototypes
Context
Research
Define
Ideate
Design
Research
Research
Understanding Users
After a long day, how much effort would you want to put into finding a great restaurant to eat at?
Based on our user interviews with 12 participants, we learned that:
Users want honest reviews without ads or promotions
Users want a simple and trustworthy app with personalized recommendations
Users want to see reviews from people who are similar to them or who share the cuisine background
Users want an easy way to share their honest reviews
Users want clear details about the restaurant and to get good deals
1 participant stated:
“I usually spend some time browsing on Instagram to find a good restaurant about my destination.”
With major competitors online like Google Reviews and Instagram, what will make us different?
Through research, we realized that competitors like Google Reviews have vast information but lack the reliability and community aspect that users trust. Social media has friend reviews, but it is not a restaurant review app with quick-to-find restaurants.
We want to fill the gap in the review space and on social media to create a reliable, trustworthy restaurant community app.
1 participant stated:
“I don’t fully trust Google reviews because a lot of the time restaurants will offer free food or discounts to the people who leave a good review.”
Define
Define
Framing the Problem
The user journey map exposed critical moments where users lose trust and confidence, helping us prioritize features that reduce decision fatigue and improve review credibility.
Key insights from journey map:
1) Users aren't struggling from a lack of options, but rather having trust in them.
2) Reviews can feel biased or fake, especially with paid influencers.
3) People want more personalized filters to narrow down personal taste.
Design opportunity
Help users trust and narrow options by surfacing verified reviews and personalized filters.
Ideate
Ideate
Exploring Solutions
We mapped potential features by impact and effort with a priority grid.
The green items' notes were selected because they were solutions that directly addressed reliability, personalization, and helped build a community.
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Visual Direction
To support our vision, we established a style tile with a warm, inviting visual direction.
The style tile was a group effort and helped align the team before moving into higher-fidelity designs, and ensured consistency during iteration.
Build
Build
Final Design & Iterations
High-fidelity mock-ups were created based on our usability testing results.
Search filter for focused discovery
The search filter narrows options quickly and reduce decision fatigue with clear, flexible filtering.
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The biggest change from the wireframe to the final prototype is how the user interacts with the filters to improve usability on mobile.
Restaurant details to build confidence at the moment of choice
Includes verified reviews, photos, and breakdowns to support informed decisions.
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The biggest change from the wireframe to the final prototype is the way the content's information hierarchy is presented, so users can scan the restaurant details efficiently.
Reviews that provide clarity without overwhleming
Balances quick scanning with access to detailed reviews when users need reassurance.
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The biggest change from the wireframe to the final prototype is the inclusion of the reviewer's identity and taste preferences in their review to build credibility.
Our final design allows users to confidently choose restaurants based on credible reviews and tailored recommendations, making finding diverse dining options that meet their preferences easier.
What I learned
Through this class, I learned how important storytelling is. Without telling a story, the user wouldn't fully grasp why our work is important.
I also practiced leadership skills within our group, delegating tasks and guiding them in the right direction.
What I would do next
For this project, we were limited in scope and time and were instructed to limit the number of screens we created. I would have liked to showcase additional flows of writing a review and the map functionality.
We had initial user tests. However, our final prototypes could benefit from additional user testing to provide us with more insight into how to improve them.
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