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About
Work
Resume
Pricing
About
Work
Resume
Pricing
Introduction
Empathize
Define
Ideate
Prototype
Test
Conclusion
Role
UX UI Designer
Stakeholder
George Visan (UXA Mentor)
Timeline
80 Hours (2 weeks)
Tools used
Figma, Photoshop, Quicktime

> Project Overview

Company Background.

Doordash is a California-based technology company founded in 2003 that provides a delivery platform for restaurants, customers, and drivers to get connected with each other. Doordash is currently the leading company surpassing its direct competitors such as GrubHub, Uber Eats, and Postmates. Doordash is now available in 5,000 cities in all 50 US states, Canada, Puerto Rico, Australia and has partnered with over 310,000 restaurants across these countries.

Problem.

Disclaimer: I am a UX Academy student. This is my capstone project and is about adding new features to an existing product. I do not work for and represent Doordash. Adding new features to Doordash’s platform is just an academic project.

As a frequent Doordash user, there are the features that I hope to see on Doordash’s platform. These features are:

  • Favorite restaurants and orders
  • Leave a review for both restaurants and drivers
  • Save an order

By adding the above features, I personally think that Doordash would become a fully one-stop platform for its users.

Goal.

The goal for this project is to :

  • Integrate the three new features (reviews, favorite, and save for later features) into Doordash’s platform.
  • Conduct a comprehensive user research to see if users would want to use the new features, competitive analysis, secondary research about Doordash, Doordash’s branding, design style, UI, and demands for the new features — reviews, favorite, and save for later features.
  • Seamlessly add the new features into Doordash’s original design (Sketches, LoFi & HiFi wireframes)
  • Prototyping
  • Run usability testing

EMPATHIZE

> Research Overview
‍
> Competitive Analysis
‍
> Secondary Research
‍
> User Research
‍
> Persona

> Research Overview

Research Goals.

In order to successfully incorporate the new features into Doordash's existing platform, it is imperative to:

  • Develop an in-depth knowledge of Doordash.
  • Study Doordash's direct and indirect competitors.
  • Familiarize myself with Doordash's design patterns, UI elements, and branding.
  • Assess the demand and necessity for the new features – Reviews, Favorites, and Save for Later.

Methodologies.

Three research methods are chosen to conduct the user research:

  • Competitive Analysis
    To learn Doordash’s direct and indirect competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. This analysis will help determine whether adding the new features to Doordash's platform can differentiate it and lead to competitive advantages.
  • Secondary Research
    Secondary research will involve researching Doordash’s business model and future plans, design patterns, UI, branding, demands for the new features. By doing so, the new features will work seamlessly and interactively within the platform and the research insights will give a solid support  to the existence of the new features and the value they add to the platform and users’ overall experience.
  • 1: 1 User Interview
    1:1 remote interviews with 3 - 4 frequent Doordash users(customers) will be conducted in order to get the first hand feedback about Doordash’s platform. Interview scripts and questions will first be created and reviewed so insights from the feedback will be consistent and usable for analysis. Interview questions will include both qualitative and quantitative questions.
To view the detail of the Research Plan, please click here.

> Competitive Analysis

To conduct this competitor analysis, I downloaded the apps of various competitors onto my phone for testing. This allowed me to experience their most up-to-date platforms and features firsthand.

Competitive Analysis Findings.

  • All platforms are very easy to navigate and buying flow is natural.
  • All platforms can be accessed on Desktop, Tablet, and Mobile apps.
  • All platforms allow users to do special instructions for their food and delivery.
  • All platforms have membership/subscription program that offers benefits such as free delivery after spending certain amount of money and low service fee.
  • All platforms have their own exclusive partner stores.
  • All platforms have their own specialty that attracts different types of customers.
  • Competitive advantage: none of the competitors’ platforms have the three features I am trying to add. So adding them would definitely benefit Doordash and lead to competitive advantages.

> Secondary Research

My secondary research is about getting to know more about Doordash and its customers. By understanding both parties, I get to add features that customers need as well as fit the company's mission and style. In this capstone project, I am only going to focus on Doordash’s mobile patterns since I will be adding the new features on its mobile platform.

Design Patterns.

To do a thorough research about Doordash’s mobile app patterns, I first go through all the pages on the app and look for every design pattern used by Doordash. These patterns are Slider, Cells, Grid, and Search.  To view the detailed descriptions of the patterns, please click here.

User Interface.

In UI section, I look for the icons, shapes, and states used in the app and the reasons behind the usage of those elements. To view detailed descriptions of the Doordash’s UI usage, please click here.

Branding.

  • Typeface
    There is no Doordash’s typeface information posted on their site or on the internet. To find out what typeface Doordash uses, I downloaded a Google Extension called Find Font to find out what the typeface is. With the help from The Find Font extension, Doordash’s official typeface is derived and it is TT Norms Pro.
  • Brand Message
    As Doordash continues to grow, the old logo(left) needs to be redesigned in order to be aligned with the new mission “delivering good by connecting people, and possibility.” Thus, the new logo(right) still retains its original bullet train’ spirit — speed, reliability, and efficiency but with negative space added to introduce the company’s new concepts — potential and evolution.
However, Doordash did not want to stop just there. Doordash wanted to add what they do and care about into their brand. Hence, they came out with a new color palette that conveys thoughtfulness, boldness, optimism, relentlessness, and humility. To view detailed research for Branding, please click here.

Demand for the new features.

I think the most direct and fastest way to find out if there is a demand for Review, Favorite, Save for later features is by looking directly at the reviews posted on the App store.

With the research findings above, time saving and convenience are users’ real motivation to use Doordash. Even Doordash’s CEO also mentioned that “Everyone, shockingly, wants convenience”. Thus, this has proved that adding Review and Favorite features will work because:

  • Review feature: Reviews can quickly help users make buying decisions especially when there are too many restaurant selections on the Doordash platform.
  • Favorite feature: Users can favorite their past orders. When they get too busy at work, they can quickly go to their favorite list to place an order.
  • Save for later feature: This feature is very similar to Favorite feature. The only difference is that users can save an order that they would like to order later. When it is time to order, users can easily go back to the “Save for later” list to quickly place an order.  

All of the three features help save time and create further convenience, which subsequently adds more value to the platform.

To view detailed findings about this research, please click here.

> User Research

The 1:1 interview research method is the most direct and efficient way to gather users' first-hand feedback on their pain points, needs, and goals. To facilitate the user interviews, I created an interview guide to help me conduct the 1:1 interviews consistently by asking the same set of designed questions. Hence, the responses from participants will be consistent and usable for deriving insights. View User Research Plan,  Interview Script, and Interviews’ Records.

Research Debrief.

Here are the valuable findings derived from the 1:1 interviews:

  • All participants use Doordash because it helps them save time so they can focus on important things.  
  • All participants like the idea of adding the Review and Favorite features and they will use the features if Doordash adds them into the platform.
  • All participants believe the Review feature will benefit the customers, restaurants, drivers, and Doordash.
    - Customers: Customers will be able to write feedback for restaurants whether it is a good or bad one so other users have the option to make buying decisions based on those reviews.
    - Restaurants: Restaurants can take those feedback from customers into account and improve their service if necessary.
    - Drivers: Giving feedback to drivers will keep them motivated to provide good services. For example, only drivers with high ratings and good reviews will get to deliver for Doordash.
    - Doordash: When a problem arises either from the restaurant or driver side, support can make a better judgment by referring to those customer reviews and come out with a better solution to the problem.
  • All participants believe adding the favorite feature will help them save more time when placing an order especially when they are busy.
  • All participants believe the Review and Favorite features will add value to the platform.
  • All participants like to have options when it comes to features.

> Persona

With all the findings derived from research and interview findings, Jewel Lim comes into being the best representative of all the interviewees' characteristics, behaviors, goals, needs, and pain points.

DEFINE

> Task Flows

> Task Flows

Next, I define the task flows. In this Define stage, I utilize task flows to achieve two objectives:

  • Visualize and determine how to seamlessly integrate the new features into the existing task flows. To facilitate this, I include screenshots of Doordash’s original pages to remind me precisely where to incorporate the new features without disrupting the original flows.
  • Showcase all the possible routes that users would navigate with the new features.
Since the Review and Favorite features can be accessed from different directions, I have included all of the task flows for those directions as well. To view the Task Flows in detail, please click here.

IDEATE

> Sketches
‍
> Wireframes

> Sketches

I only sketched out pages that are newly designed for the Review, Favorite, and Save for later features. There are some pages related to the new features that I didn't sketch out because I only added icons or buttons in those pages which could be done directly in wireframing.

> Wireframes

Low-Fidelity.

As I progressed to crafting the wireframes, I carefully recreated every UI element from scratch by cross-referencing screenshots of the original pages for accuracy. Subsequently, I seamlessly integrated the UI design of the new features into the wireframes while adhering to Doordash's design style. To view the wireframes, please click here.

High-Fidelity.

After having a solid wireframe base, I then incorporated images, illustrations, and colors to create these high-fidelity wireframes. Every element is carefully and strictly following Doordash’ design style.‍

Homepage

Restaurant Detail Page

Review Detail Page

Cart Page

“Save for later” Confirmation Page

Orders Page

Reorder Page

Rating Page For Restaurant

Rating Summary Page

Review Confirmation Page

PROTOTYPE

> Prototyping

> Prototyping

In order to make the prototype function the same as the real Doordash app, I recreated the interactions used by Doordash. In addition, since there are 3 features to test, instead of having 3 different prototypes, I consolidated 3 features into one prototype. By doing so, participants will be able to see and experience how the new features behave seamlessly within in the platform. To play with the initial prototype, please click here.

TEST

> Usability Testing

> Test Interpretation & Prioritization

> Iterated Prototype

> Usability Testing

Planning.

  • Test Objectives
    - Test the coordination of the new features with the platform.  
    - Evaluate the usability and learnability of the new features.
    - Identify any obstacles or friction points hindering users from completing the testing tasks.
  • Task Testings
    - To favorite a restaurant.
    - To favorite an order.
    - To “save for later” an order.
    - To find favorite and saved orders.
    - To find reviews of a restaurant.
    - To write a review for the driver and restaurant.
  • Test Goals
    - To ensure every task performed by users is friction-free, intuitive, and easy.

Usability Test Finding.

  • All participants found the flows of the newly added features to be natural, intuitive, and easy to navigate.
  • All participants didn’t know they could scroll the page as they were using a computer to do the testing. They said using a computer to do a mobile app testing was unnatural. (I didn’t know they could actually use their Zoom mobile app to do screen sharing. I will make sure to ask participants to use their phone for usability testing next time when it comes to mobile prototypes.)
  • 2 out of 3 participants had a problem identifying who Daniel (the driver) was on the Rating page. They suggested to use the word “Driver” instead of the driver’s name.
To view detailed Usability Testing Detail, please click here.

> Test Interpretation & Prioritization

Affinity Map.

I began by referring back to my testing notes and grouped every note based on similarity to create this Affinity Map. In order to easily identify each participant, they all have their own Post-it note color. By having this Affinity map, I get a bigger and clearer picture of which iterations I need to prioritize and what can be next.

Next Iterations.

Based on the usability testing report, I have created a prioritized iterations list:

  • Make more links and buttons tappable on all pages
  • Change the question sentence asking about driver’s delivery service on the Rating Page. Although the wording is Doordash’s original design, it is worth changing it since it will make the question sound more intuitive and users can recognize right away it is the rating for the driver.

> Iterated Prototype

Based on the feedback from the usability testing interviews, I have made the following iterations:

  • More buttons and links are now tappable on all pages. By having more working buttons and links,  the newly added features are now fully accessible from different pages and the prototype functions almost like the real app.
  • The sentence “How did your delivery go with Daniel?” has been changed to “How was your driver, Daniel?”
View prototype

Live Prototype.

NOTE: Since the app below is just a prototype, many features and links are not working/tappable or do not work as expected.
* To see which feature/link is working, simply tap anywhere outside the app and the blue rectangular boxes will show up.
* To restart the prototype, simply tab "R" on your keyboard.
* If you have a problem playing directly with the live prototype below, please click here.

> Reflection

This capstone project has given me a great opportunity to add the new features (Review, Favorite, and Save for later) to one of my favorite apps and the app that I use almost everyday – Doordash. As a frequent user of Doordash, I have seen myself wanting these features so badly and how much these features can help make my life easier. Thus, with the pains and needs that I can personally and fully relate to with Doordash’s platform, I decided to dive into a comprehensive research to find out if there were Doordash users like me who would demand and appreciate these features. Surprisingly, my research shows that many Doordash users have wanted these features for a long time and these features are in great demand. However, there must be reasons and enormous research done to support why Doordash’s design team is not adding these features into the platform. Whatever the reason it may be, I have learned a lot in this project. My research, problem-solving, and prototyping skills have improved tremendously.  With what I have learned in this project, I am confident to say that I am now a UIUX Designer and looking forward to new challenges and to learning more about this field.

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