Tackling large party reservation problems

UI/UX Designer and Writer | Research, Wireframing, Usability Testing, Design, Prototyping | 90+ hours

Here's how I tackled these issues

Here's a peek at some of the work I did

Research was what led me to design specifically for large party reservations

There were the occasional common mishaps that users brought up during my research. For example, users mentioned not understanding the person at the restaurant when they called up the restaurant to make reservations—some due to bad signal, some due to a language barrier. It was a given that for those problems, in addition to users preferring to do things through the internet, the reservation process should be online.

But the heaviest of frustrations that always came up was when users needed to find reservations for some group outing. That was where I knew I wanted to focus my attention.

It was imperative to have a straightforward and simple user flow

The biggest frustrations were rooted in the complicated, messy process of making a reservation for a large amount of people. So that was where I needed to focus my energy.

The key was to help people go from deciding to eat at a restaurant, to actually having a seat at the restaurant, with as little obstacles as possible in between. If there is some occasion that's happening, then finding a place should be the least of their worries.

Wireframing, designing, and a lot of testing

As always, it was imperative to get the flow right, and I discovered very early on that my initial ideas weren't achieving that. It was only through wireframing and usability testing that I discovered how I wasn't getting it quite right, as well as nudges in the right direction while I was watching my users get frustrated at my first passes of the UI.

Getting past the clunky flow was difficult, but once I smoothed it out, users were all able to successfully make reservations quickly and easily.

And the glue that holds it all together: the branding and visuals

Conclusion

I started this project while the global pandemic was still happening, and at that time, going out to eat and making reservations wasn't as common quite yet. My inspiration to pursue this project started then, while thinking of the future when things would go back to normal. This gave me a slight disadvantage starting out, as my research with users leaned more towards recalling further past experiences rather than ones more recent.

However, users surprisingly had stronger memories about their past experiences. I found that it was because eating out was an activity that they enjoyed but weren't able to do as freely, and users yearned to do so hopefully soon again, which lead to stronger emotions and recollections.

So despite the fact that restaurant reservations were, at the time, a thing of the past, it didn't mean that I couldn't think ahead to the future on how useful restaurant reservations will be for when people will be able to gather to eat together again, especially to celebrate the efforts and success of overcoming the pandemic.

Reducing food waste in the home

UI/UX Designer and Writer | Research, Wireframing, Design, Prototyping, Usability Testing | 100+ hours

Here's how I handled these issues

Here's a glance at some of the work I did

Empathizing was key in all my design decisions

I knew I needed to make sure I was designing for the right user. Because I felt like I was one of the users, one of the biggest hurdles was removing myself from the problem.

Focusing on problems that other people actually had was important, and empathizing helped immensely. Even just going through empathy mapping and creating a persona helped me push past my own biases.

Rapid ideation, for the win

It was important for me to find the best ways to tackle the pain points that users were having. Crazy Eights brought out not just one good idea, but a few equally good ideas that I couldn't resist going forward with.

And from there, rapid storyboarding was the way to go, as it was imperative to make it as easy as possible for the user to reach the end goal—reduce throwing out food.

Wireframing, designing, iterating...and testing, testing, testing

I found that copy was important to users, especially when it came to the terms/phrases that would indicate when a food is going to expire or go bad.

Terms like "expiring foods" were quickly thrown out after testing the first time around—it wasn't flexible enough and was too similar to hard date labels. "Last day to eat or use"—too confusing. So I spent a lot of time deliberating on words, but it proved to be time well spent after getting much more positive feedback later on in my usability testing.

The recipe searching was tricky at first, but in the end, it was the most satisfying to design.

The goal of the feature was for users to easily search for recipes with food and ingredients they've added to the app. My first iteration was a flop, with no users being able to complete the recipe searching task. But this is why I love testing as early and as much as possible.

After gathering everyone's insights and frustrations in that first round, I changed the flow completely. By the next round of testing, 100% of all users were able to easily complete the task.

And? Making it look and feel awesome

Conclusion

One of the ideas I originally had while ideating was having a way to recommend users on how they should interpret date labels and how they can determine if a food is still safe to eat, despite what the labels may say. However, I quickly realized that to pursue that, I'd have to find a health/food expert in order to safely recommend that kind of information. Maybe someday in the future, I'll have the resources to pursue this!

Looking back, this project was not only fun, but also made me push my limits in both ensuring the ease of use and the visual aesthetics. While it was initially a struggle to remove myself from being one of my users, the end product was entirely worth it and completely user-centered.

Encouraging social connections in Spotify

UX Designer | Research, Wireframing, UX Design, Prototyping, Usability Testing | 100+ hours

This was how I approached the music-intimacy complexity

Sharing music that you love...

There's a strong connection when you find that a friend likes the same music that you do. It's like discovering a piece of yourself in them, and when you do, it's a wonderful feeling.

But what about the potential rejection—someone not liking your music?

Well, why do people still date and seek out companionship, despite the past and potential future heartbreaks? It's because the feeling of a possible connection with another person tends to overpower that fear.

All my users mentioned enjoying the ability to share their music on social media. In one user's words, it was like "casting a net" to see who would respond positively.

It was exactly the direction that fit the bill, and it was the first part of my design implementation. This feature lets users cast to the world the music they loved, in hopes of finding others who feel the same way, directly on the music platform they regularly use.

...and finding out who loves it like you do.

So how does a user know if their net caught anything—aka, if anyone else also enjoys the music they posted?

My design: through simple reactions. Similar to social media "likes", people can react to posted songs to let the poster know that they enjoy the music as well. With this, users can tell who might have similar music tastes as them.

The magic in all this? It's just a simple reaction...or not. If a user doesn't particularly enjoy a friend's posted music, they don't have to go through the emotions of rejecting a person's music. They could just choose not to react at all.

That's the goal of this feature—to ease the heartbreak and frustration of giving and receiving rejection.

Here's a glance at some of the work I did

Research, empathize, and research again

One round of research was not enough. There was so much that my users talked about that I wasn't able to contain it all in the 30 minutes I had set aside for each interview. The goal was to improve the music-sharing process, and, initially, I had thought I'd just be adding a straightforward sharing function.

But after hearing the emotional aspects of sharing music from my users, I couldn't help but go through another round of research to dive deeper into that fascinating area. And it was worth it.

Crazy, rapid ideating...like crazy

Ideating was hard for this project. What was I supposed to design when it came to creating not just a good experience, but one where it would address the vulnerability of sharing a piece of themselves?

Crazy Eights and rapid storyboarding were the answers, and it was indeed both crazy and rapid. I went through so many ideas and flows and rounds that it seemed endless. But it proved be just what I needed.

And a ton of sketching and testing

Conclusion

I learned a lot about how users feel when sharing a piece of themselves through music, and, in a way, how they are opening themselves up to others in an effort to connect and deepen relationships.

What ultimately makes users hesitate before sharing music, or deciding against it altogether, is the anxiety of not knowing if the other person will reject this part of themselves. And on the opposite end, what makes users open themselves up is when they receive positive reactions and responses to music they shared.

It doesn't end there: many other emotions come into play, depending on what music comes on for users. For instance, a user mentioned that sometimes, the music they listen to triggers past memories...in an oddly complicated, but good way.

Moving forward, this is something that I would definitely spend more time on in the future, as I feel there are many ways of enhancing the experience of sharing and being shared music.