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Catering Website Redesign

Overview

In today's world of smartphones, ordering food from the comfort of your own home is not just a luxury for some, but also a necessity especially for those who are too busy to prepare their own meals or travel to their favorite restaurant. To take advantage of this opportunity, restaurant owners and caterers have to adapt and expand their online presence.

Mariam's Kitchen is one of the many food vendors who deliver meals to their customers' homes. Customers can purchase meals from her website by selecting from her menu, or they can order catering for an occasion and have it delivered anywhere in New York.

Challenge

The website is difficult to navigate and discover the information needed to order food.

Objective

To improve the website's user experience by redesigning it and make it easier for customers to browse and order food.

My process

UX design process

Assess the website

My initial objective was to conduct thorough research and gather insightful data regarding the target users and their specific needs. The purpose of this research was to gain a deep understanding of the users' goals and pain points when navigating the website.

I conducted a moderated usability test where I asked the user’s to complete the following tasks

  • Make a booking for a catering event
  • Order an individual meal
  • Reach out to the business and send them a message
  • View the entire list of dishes being offered

Feedback obtained from the users was:

  • No clear navigation bar to assist navigating the website
  • Catering section is easy to miss and lacks information
  • Unorganized footer with broken links
  • Menu is unimpressive and dishes are organized in a random manner.
  • It is difficult to browse the menu for a certain meal category.

Market research

I started by analyzing the market to gain a better understanding of the catering industry, including how it has changed since the pandemic and what the current trends are, as well as who the target audience of the market is.

Market Research for Mariam's Kitchen catering business in Brooklyn , New York

User Personas

Based on the conducted research, the following user persona descriptions were developed to better understand the needs, preferences, and pain points of the customers being served by Mariam's Kitchen.

persona 1: working millenialpersona 2: working motherpersona 3: office managerpersona 4: bachelor

User journey

I created a user journey map to better understand how users interact with the product and achieve their goals. The user journey map helped me identify areas of friction in the user experience and opportunities to optimize the journey to provide a better experience for our users.

user journey map

User flow

The goal is to make it as simple as possible for users to navigate the website and place an order for a single meal or a catering order.

My focus was on optimizing the user flow of Mariam's Kitchen's website to provide quick access to the most significant information. To achieve this, I designed a user flow that prioritizes the most relevant information and enables easy access to the available catering options and menu.

The user flow starts with a home page that contains comprehensive information about the business to address any questions customers may have. From there, customers can quickly find the available catering options, menu and contact information. This approach ensures that users have a smooth and efficient experience on the website.

User flow for Mariam's Kitchen website

Wireframe

From the user flow, I generated a wireframe. Some aspects of the website will remain unchanged because the focus was on fixing what wasn't working and I added new sections to meet the users' needs.

All of the new and previously existing sections of the website are represented in the wireframe below.

Improved user experience

Redesigned the navbar
To include all the relevant sections and pages of the website for easy navigation.

Redesigned the catering section
I also added a clearer primary CTA for people to make a catering order and a secondary button for users to download the catering menu.

The footer was redesigned to incorporate all of the important links and contact information.
The new footer has a cleaner, more professional layout with adequate spacing between each section to ensure that users are guided to the most important areas.

Added a services section to clearly show the two services being offered.

Added a product section to highlight select products from her brand

Added an events section to highlight past events she has attended

Brand Guide

I also created a brand guide to help her communicate her business's design standards and ensure consistency across all future design assets.

brand guide

Brand Assets

I created numerous brand assets for her to use in her business based on her brand guide. These are items such as business cards, T-shirts, and other stationery that are required by all businesses.

brand swag

What I learnt

The importance of excellent stakeholder communication throughout the process. By creating clear goals and transparent communication, you may help cultivate the client connection and set the tone for the project.

Working within platform constraints (Squarespace) allowed me to be more creative and helped me make design decisions that are more focused on what's important.

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