ICE CREAM APP UX DESIGN

Conducted research, developed wireframing and prototypes for a local customizable ice cream app concept. This project focused on creating an efficient and meaningful experience in a saturated dessert-ordering market.

CLIENT Student Case Study / ROLE UX Designer / Spring 2020 / DURATION 2 weeks

Problem Space & POV

This project started with our team being given a rough written persona, and a POV. We were tasked with designing an app experience for a new local ice cream shop that offered delivery.

PROBLEM SPACE: A new ice cream store is about to launch a service that allows users to create their favorite ice cream flavor as a pint or half gallon to pick up or have it delivered.

POV: A busy and distracted mom realizes she forgot dessert, and needs to order something that everybody in the family will enjoy.

Our team got to work focusing on how can we create an ice cream delivery app in the saturated market that both simplifies ordering and caters to multiple family members at once. We explored what was currently available, and sought to create a memorable experience that catered to busy schedules and yet still felt personalized for each user.

User Needs & Empathy Mapping

After tightening up the persona, we wanted to be sure that we were addressing the full experience of the user in this POV. To do this, we developed an assumption-based empathy map to further explore what our user may say, think, do and feel. This allowed us to further understand the experience from their point of view. We were also able to build out some things that may have otherwise gotten lost, like not being able to remember if her daughter likes strawberry which later led to a feature idea solving for this.

Mental Model

After doing freeform ideating around the user’s needs and experience, we grouped things that felt generally similar and gave them category names. There were multiple questions or needs around satisfying a large group and family, or things being kid-friendly. From there we categorized even further into stages which helped frame key stages of our journey map. From here we were able to build out a preliminary content model, which allowed us to brainstorm features or ways to solve for the user’s concerns. These were then grouped and categorized by topic, and from there labeled as a potential menu item for the app.

Customer Journey

Diving deeper into the user experience, we created a future-state customer journey, walking through the user’s experience and expectations, and noting where we could increase ease and solve for pain points.

User Research & Competitive Analysis

This project was kicked off with our team receiving a brief written description of a persona to reflect our target audience, along with our POV. From here we made some assumptions based on persona traits and the perspective given to us.

We had to operate off of these key assumptions due to time, but if we were to expand this we would want to further explore and validate the following areas with more thorough research:
1. Observe shopping within existing ice cream stores, especially those that offer “create your own” items
2. Dig deeper what demographic is typically ordering ice cream, and whether moms are using delivery apps
3. What level of variables in customization feels empowering and exciting vs overwhelming
4. Look into how kids order from menus - is it typically through a parent, choosing via pictures, is mom choosing for you, etc.
5. What are current pain points around ordering delivery, including the duration between placing an order and receiving it

In order to get an idea of existing offerings and where we could address a white space, we did a thorough competitive analysis. Browsing existing apps, we looked to see what worked well and what didn’t. We were sure to look at both direct and indirect competitors including existing ice cream apps, food delivery services, apps specifically aimed at kids, as well as customizable experiences.

We also conducted some self-ethnographic research by ordering ice cream through existing delivery apps ourselves to see what the experience was like. Some key findings are below:
1. Existing ice cream ordering systems were often cluttered, especially when it was for a customizable offering. These experiences made it challenging to find where you were in the process, and what you’d already chosen at earlier stages, as well as difficult to change a selection.
2. Menus with visuals were easier to navigate. In our ordering experience, we found photos at ordering set a clearer expectation of what you were getting, and helped alleviate any disappointment upon delivery.
3. Experiences aimed at children tended to use large visuals, which makes sense for kids who cannot read yet.

Wireframe Sketches

We then started sketching out solutions to help work out the best way to guide users through the app. The following 3 main features were our focus when sketching out initial visual thoughts:

Mid-Fi Wireframes & Clickable Prototype

In order to keep our scope of work manageable, we decided to prototype a small portion of the experience to get some early user feedback and help us sell the concept. We decided to focus on the customizable order flow, which showcased many additional features within it, all hitting on our persona’s needs and pain points from our research.

These wireframes focused on the below offerings which directly stemmed from user needs and our competitive research findings:

1. MAKING SURE THE USER WAS AWARE OF WHERE THEY WERE IN THE CUSTOMIZING PROCESS Being sure that the customizable experience remained manageable and pleasant. Many customized ordering systems in our research either became overwhelming in sheer amount of options. In other competitive examples, there was no reference to where you were in the process, making it confusing to know what you’d added previously or what was coming up.

2. PREMADE PICK-A-PINT OPTION Although we worked to be sure customizing was a manageable and fun experience, our persona also spoke to often being very pressed for time and needing quick options. We prioritized this by building a large toggle at the top of the screen to quickly go to a page where plenty of premade options are available for quick order.

3. NAME YOUR CREATION CUSTOMIZATION In order to allow the user to feel more ownership over their creation and add an additional layer of personalization, we prototyped a feature allowing you to name the flavor you built and have it printed on the carton. This would allow kids to get creative, or for mom to make celebratory events feel a bit more special, like naming a pint “Ryan’s A+ Crunch” if they were celebrating a good report card that night.

User Testing and Learnings

In order to validate our solutions, we did some user testing on our prototype. There were a few areas that didn’t perform as we’d hoped, and these insights led us to reiterate some screens and interactions.

1. There was some confusion about the tabbed subcategories and scroll placement in the mix-ins screens. Ultimately users weren’t clicking through all categories and missing out on toppings.

2. The large image of the ice cream on the left as you built out your flavor was positively received, but was eating up a lot of real estate at each stage. This was taking away from the experience of each choice being made, and creating some difficulty in browsing current options at any given stage

3. The first iteration was pretty text heavy with small type and visuals, which was a bit overwhelming for kids, who made up a large chunk of our target audience considerations

Below are a few before and after visuals showing how we adjusted based on the user feedback:

Early Branding & UI Exploration

Given the research we had done on the user and appropriate features, we also wanted to showcase what the UI could potentially look like for this experience. Our initial designs featured kid friendly, large visuals. We wanted the experience to feel fresh and creative, and indicated this artistic feel through ice cream splatters reminiscent of paint. A bright, fresh color palette was chosen highlighting softened brights remeniscent of mint and strawberry ice creams. Finally, playful fonts and fun textures were incorporated, allowing the experience to evoke a sense of physical creation, even if just on your screen.

Project Learnings

We had a lot of ideas for this project, and it was difficult to narrow them down. In the end, it was great practice getting comfortable letting go of some initial concepts, and being sure the scope of work was realistic and manageable, allowing the idea chosen for prototyping to really shine.