Responsibilities
Primary & Secondary Research,
Stakeholder Interview,
Journey Mapping & Persona Generation
Wireframing,
Prototyping,
Testing &Validation.
Team members
Amrutha Anup
Aniruddh Krishnan
Duration
3 Months
Year
2021
Tools
Figma
Mentor
Harshit Gupta
PESEats
Canteens are known to be bustling places. However the canteen at PES University had more than a few problems with its management system and crowd control. After dealing with an exhausting food ordering process almost every day, we decided to find a solution for this issue.
Project Overview
This project tackles the poor management system of college canteens causing long lines, significant delays ans disruptions to students class schedules
To accomplish this we identified our core users and conducted focus groups and field studies to understand the main problems that led to the problem.
Based on our findings we decided to create a smart app that could improve the ordering and pick up process and thereby help crowd management.
COntext
College canteens have always been a place of hustle and bustle. However the college canteen of PES University is much more congested than what is considered manageable.
There are huge crowds, lack of management, lack of efficient payment methods, food wastage and other issues.
We decided to tackle this issue as were part of the students impacted by this problem.
Objective
To create a food ordering and pickup system for our college canteen and food stalls.
How might we increase the efficiency of college cafeterias and allow students to spend less time on their orders?
Outcome
We designed an app interface that managed the canteens orders and made the whole process more efficient. It included the following
Community features with ratings for students to discuss what they would like to eat, this would help the staff stalk up on only what their audience wont waste.
Live Menu for students to get all the information regarding available meals, their ingredients and prices.
Map showing new students the way to the different canteens in and around the campus.
Filters, Rewards and Variety and more make sure the students can customize their search results as well as receive incentive to use the app and the canteen.
learnings
We learned about and implemented many different tools for ideation and documentation that helped us steadily design our intervention while keeping user needs in mind.
We effectively learned to question our stakeholders in interviews, and focus groups to get a deeper understanding of the problem.
We learned to collaborate, divide and delegate work amongst each other while making sure to communicate and stay on the same page which each other’s goals and expectations.
limitations
Our primary research and testing sample consisted of over 30 stakeholders across user groups. This is a minute number compared to the college’s strength. This may bring up additional road blocks in further rounds of testing and validation. To minimize this we made sure to interview numerous distinct users and get their insights.
Competitive Analysis
High-Fidelity Prototype
Wireframes
Information
Architecture
Brainstorming
Research
Discover
User Interviews
User Persona
Card Sorting
Style Guide
Discover
Define
Develop
Deliver
Develop
Define
Deliver
Design
research & exploration
In order to explore the different problems faced by the students in the college canteen, we conducted habitat studies to get a broad view of their main problems and events. We found that the canteen had difficulties when it came to tracking and managing orders, and the subsequent crowds that accumulate.
To have an understanding of the impact of this problem and be aware of previous initiatives, we conducted secondary research & market study
To gain a more in depth understanding of the problem, we interviewed the canteen staff and students, conducted focus groups and online surveys to get insights from both sides.
Additionally we also used various tools like Affinity & Empathy Mapping, to help us visualize the needs and pain points of the students.
stakeholder Mapping
Our primary stakeholders were segregated into two groups
Students who order from the canteen
Canteen Staff
There are other stakeholders such as teachers, students who come to socialize at the canteen but these two prioritized groups are the most impacted by the problem.
Journey Mapping & Persona
To consolidate the insights gained from our interviews and focus groups and to further understand the problem in depth we used tools like User Journey Mapping, Empathy & Persona. This helped us track the different triggers for a problem and its progression.
It also helps us stay aware of the users pain points, expectations and goals.
Student User Persona
Student Journey Mapping
Student Emotion Mapping
Problem Definition
We understood the core problems behind the inefficiency in the canteen. Other initiatives had already solved these problems but this particular canteen needed assistance due to the larger variety in food being made and the quantity of students. We understood that focusing on the following issues, the problem would subside.
Lack of Accessibility
Lack of digital methods of payment, a high canteen desk and a handwritten menu which is not legible to a large section of users are all issues that cause frustration to the user.
Lack of Efficiency
Due to the huge crowd that is present in the canteen, the user is not able to get the food in time, has to undergo lengthy wait times, cant communicate with the staff properly and at times cant find a place to sit. There is also additional confusion regarding who an order belongs to.
Problem statements
To design a digital interface focused on food management to make canteen experience more efficient for not just students and faculty, but also the canteen staff of PES university.
consolidated Problems
Lack of Accessibility
Lack of digital payments to make the ticketing process quicker
Lack of accessibility of front desk and menu due to congested crowds
Unmanaged Crowd
Causes problems like not finishing food in time, lengthy wait time and lack of communication with staff. It also makes the canteen feel claustrophobic
Lack of a regulated system
Lack of regulated system to get tickets, wait in lines, settle leftover food and follow order queue.
Brainstorming & idea bucketing
Ideation Process:
We used multiple tools to help us ideate different solutions and features that aligned with the core needs of our stakeholders.
Ready-to-go meals
Search By Ingredient
Recommendation combos
Allergy Precautions
Monthly subscription
Always accessible search bar
Coupons
Penalize users for abusing cancelling mechanics
Custom Recommended meals
Prepaid wallet service like Ola Money
Food Reviews
Community Hub
Customize Ingredients
Order any time
Digital Menu
Daily Streaks
PESEats
Token System
CARD SORTING
The long waiting times, and frustrating UX when ordering food from the canteen can be fixed by making an app that offers order details and order customisation and provides a contactless experience for the user while ordering food.
The app will decrease the whole meal ordering process by minimizing steps to pace an order.
Having preferences that can be filtered and catered to the customer is essential. Many times this helps the user find and choose the meal they prefer.
Having the feature to live-track the orders and have pre-made meals can help immensely in making the canteen ux faster and hassle free.
Waiting time can be further reduced by having pre-built QR Scanner that in turn reduces interaction with the canteen staff.
The addition of a token system and/or a slot based system can also help in reducing wait time.
MIND MAPPING
Collecting all our ideas for various sections of the app and categorizing the, based on functionality helped us keep track of our ideas and have a holistic view of the objectives of the app.
Mapping out the hierarchy of needs helped us understand the thought process of students when interacting with the app. This helped us prioritize the most important features in the app.
Information Architecture
The information architecture helps us to understand the user flow of our primary stakeholders as they navigate along the app. It helps us keep track of the app’s primary functions and helps us organize the flow in a way that is simple and guides the user along their basic tasks.
Design System
Storyboarding
Low Fidelity Wireframes
High Fidelity Prototypes
Product Posters
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