Hangry

A pre-order system for food trucks

Overview

On days, when we are craving for appetizing but affordable food, we resort to food trucks. But food trucks are a hassle, owing to lack of information about the trucks and the unorganized ordering system leading to long queues.

Hangry is a food truck mobile application that can locate food trucks around the users, allow them to pre-order and help the truck owners in increasing customer retention by providing a rewards system.

Type: Group Project (4 members)

Duration: 4 weeks (Interaction Design Overview, Fall 2019)

My Role: User Research, UI/UX Design, Visual Design

Tools: User Interviews, Storyboarding, Personas, Figma, Photoshop

How might we address the hassle of food truck queues for users and increase customer retention for owners?

The solution

A mobile application which allows the users to locate food trucks around and pre-order feature to avoid long queues. Other features include

Reward system to increase customer retention and user engagement on the application
Online payment option to provide convenience and avoid order-mixing

User Research

To understand the food truck experience, the team identified two main users: a) Customers and b) Food Truck Owners, and conducted interviews with 7 users.

Goals of research

General experience with food trucks
Information that people seek from food trucks
Experiences in person at food trucks either on or off CMU Campus
Information people seek on the web about food trucks

Sample Interview Questions

Food Truck Owners

1. How do you gain new customers?

2. How do you get the information about your competitors?

3. How often does the menu or the prices change?

4. What are some problems you face when running a food truck?

Customers

1. How do you find new food trucks?

2. What factors make you choose a particular food truck?

3. What do you like and dislike the most food trucks?

4. Are there any improvements that you would like to have in a food truck business?

Observations

Unorganized menu: The menu is printed on letter-sized paper and pasted on the windows of the food truck; it is difficult for customers to figure out the prices
Lack of seating: The seating have no shade covers, exposed to weather and are not enough for rush hours; some customers walk back on campus because there are no seats on the benches
Long queues: Customers wait in the queue, when the food is prepared, the employee calls out the food item and customers pick it up from the window
Lack of payment options: Accepts only cash; doesn’t accept credit cards or online payments

Synthesis

The observations were then grouped using affinity mapping. In the above picture, yellow tabs on the blue post-it indicate a negative user experience. — The observations were then grouped using affinity mapping. In the above picture, *yellow tabs on the blue post-it indicate a negative user experience.*

Customer experience

Use Google maps to find new food trucks around and filters by ratings; rely on word of mouth or and suggestions from friends
Customers congregate around the truck for their food; wait impatiently in line
A criteria for choosing a food truck is authenticity of food
Customers eat near the truck without any seating; don’t like the place if too crowded

Owner/Employee experience

Employee call out food items for customers to pick up often leading to mixing of orders
The employees are continually multi-tasking
No digital machine is present to order precisely
Food was pre-packaged to reduce wait time
The employee uses social platforms to communicate with customers
An employee speaks in their native language

Key Insights

Personas

Vedha Viyas, 24, Graduate Student

Vedha has moved from California after finishing his under graduation. He likes food trucks majorly because they are cheap and serves the food in less time. Though he doesn’t have a favorite food truck in the city, he likes a Mexican food truck, which he finds better than Chipotle.

Behaviors

Suggestions, popularity, and events help him explore food trucks
He uses Google Map to find the location and open hours of food trucks
He used apps in California to look for food trucks around.

Needs

Quick served food with an okay taste
Seat provision to eat
Being able to wait in an organized queue
Being offered the correct order every time

Melody, 19, Sophomore

Melody recently shifted to Forbes Avenue near the soccer field. She enjoys her off-campus home because she likes to go back home in between classes for running. During her free time, Jamie loves to play field hockey, workout and watch people play sports.

Behaviors

She eats food bought from the food truck while watching people play sports
She likes buying food from the truck because it’s cheaper with large portions compared to restaurant or preparing at home

Needs

Being noticed when the food truck is closed on bad weather
Being able to buy food on the way home from campus/soccer field
Prefers to eat under the shade near food truck

Storyboard

How can we let customers discover food trucks nearby, book food in advance and check the availability of rewards, seating and hygiene?

Melody is in the middle of her workout. She wants to grab a quick bite immediately after this. Since she is a fitness enthusiast, she is looking for healthy meals within reasonable prices which should be ready by the time she’s done with her session.

She opens Hangry and locates the food trucks around her. She filters a food truck on the basis of her reward points and seat availability. She orders a Panini sandwich immediately by making online payment. After 15 minutes, she gets a notification that her food is ready. She walks up to the food truck, picks up the food, chooses her seat and enjoys it without going through the hassle of standing in a queue for the entire process.

Wireframes

We did an initial sketch wireframe in studio that would encapsulate the main features we wanted in the design: map feature to locate food trucks, menu of trucks, rewards history, online payment feature, QR code, etc.

User Testing findings

We performed user testing to understand the confusion points in app usage. Following were the results:

Ambiguity about ‘stars’ icon for rewards
What is the QR code for - to pay or to receive order
Non-apparent food trucks on the map
No interaction after applying the coupon

The final prototype implemented the key insights from the test and was altered to mitigate the confusion points.