Dining in is the new eating out. More and more people tend to think that the best place to enjoy food is home. Founders of small and cosy Chinese restaurant kitchen Tso, located in Austin (Texas, USA), decided to focus on food delivery to provide customers with fast and comfortable service.
Сreating design at the structural level.
Making the interaction between customer and product enjoyable.
Implementing visual and interactive elements users are engaged with.
Ensuring a high-level functionality of the platform at the server side.
Multiple testing to make sure the product works perfectly.
Support and improving of the platform.
According to our research, the individuals who place orders online most often are between 20-40 years old. They value their time and appreciate eating healthy food while being comforted at home. So we divided potential customers into three groups.
Busy college students or recent graduates with active social life who are always on the go and don’t have time to shop in the supermarket, let alone prepare something at home.
Being a parent is a full-time job. Sometimes moms and dads feel so tired, that they can’t stand the thought of spending few hours at the kitchen.
It’s difficult for a career-builder to find time for cooking. And what can be better than enjoying flavorful Chinese noodles in a paper box at the workplace?
We researched, analyzed, discussed - and repeated. As a result, we found out three essential ingredients for the successful food delivery.
Phone ordering can be tricky - if there’s noise in the store, or anything distracts the operator, delivery can end up being messy. It’s easier to make the process automated with web platform that must be convenient and inclusive. But in that case platform must substitute a real person and “communicate” with customer. When people make the order digitally, web platform must give all possible choice, so they can notify about anything they want - or don’t want.
Another important part of the development is admin panel. To make the process of taking order, cooking the meal and the delivery itself fast and smooth, we wanted to create a unique platform that will manage the service to work with the highest efficiency.
So we needed to create a platform that:
So our task was to create a tool both for customers and for business to automate the process of mutual communication.
Ordering via website gives clients much more choice than ordering via phone. People can see the whole menu, so it’s more likely they will order appetizers or try something new. So we wanted to create not only convenient technological platform, but also make it conducive to appetite.
We chose red colour as main element of the design - not only because it’s visually appealing, but also because it stimulates appetite. Plain white background emphasizes the food pictures and buttons. The design is minimalistic and not overloaded with details, yet assertive enough to persuade the customer to make an order. Nothing distracts the users from their main task - choosing food.
The menu shows actual positions which restaurant currently offers. The user sees catchy photos of every item with description and call-to-action button below. All images are optimized to minimize load time. Users can choose from categories in the menu such as Appetizers, Rice&Noodles, Vegetarian etc. and find a needed position faster. The cart icon is always seen in the upper right corner. The dot with number of items added shows that it’s not empty.
We made the platform adaptive instead of launching app for Android and iOS. The layout is flexible and adapts to every device it is being used on.
The platform is extremely flexible both from admin and customer side. Customers can choose not only meal, but additional services online, without checking with manager. Admins, at the same time, can make minor changes to the platform without help of developers. The app is opened to adapt new cuisine concepts or change the existing ones. It makes the project more agile and less dependant from technical support.
The admin can see the location of all orders waiting for the delivery in the map and can group them to make the delivery faster. The map also shows customers who may make the order soon - it marks those who have added some items to the cart but haven’t yet made the order with hourglass icon. The estimated time of delivery is shown to the customer - admin can regulate it according to the level of kitchen workload.
All staff members have access to the information they need about orders and delivery. While manager can see coming orders and group them, kitchen staff is immediately notified of what must be cooked and cross out already prepared meals. All ready orders are delivered via special service - drivers see destinations of orders and choose the best route to deliver as many orders as possible in one time. It shortens the time of delivery and minimizes the costs.
Customers can see on what stage their order is now and track in real time the route and location of the delivery car. It helps to streamline the delivery process and increase customer satisfaction.
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