Challenge
Because of the pandemic, many restaurants have switched to QR-code menus. These types of menus are rife with problems that lead to patrons being frustrated. Design a solution to this problem, be as creative as you want. Please remember that we care about how you conceptualize the problem, understand the user, and iterate your solution.
01 Understand the Problem
Problem
The problem that we’re solving here is to enable customers a restaurants to still enjoy a dining out experience even with the form factor of the menu has changed.
Top 3 Consequences of the Problem
Lower satisfaction of customers due to difficulties accessing the menu or having the dining out experience that they’re used to
People struggling with the QR menus and taking more time in seats therefore lowering the number of people that go through a restaurant and thus the revenue
Potential diners opting to not dine out at all (and choose other dining or group experience options) due to the frustrations of QR menus
Current Customer Journey
02 Understand the User
Research to Understand the User
I would like to do some ethnographic research to uncover other challenges the users face that might not be apparent if one just theorizes about the problem. I think it would also be useful to conduct some kind of survey with both restaurant servers and restaurant patrons to discover the scope of the problem -- how many people left because of challenges with the QR menu? What are some challenges the servers have with the QR menus?
Top 5 User Needs
The user needs to be able to know what items are available for order
The user needs to be able to understand what the menu items mean
The user needs to be able to communicate the order clearly to the restaurant staff
The user needs to be able to understand what the items cost
The user needs to be able to understand any options for the menu items
A Potential Proto-Persona
A Potential User Journey
03 Initial Solution
Information Architecture Plan
I would map out the information architecture by breaking down the different desired functionalities into their smallest parts and then grouping them by category. For example, the menu and its constituent parts would be one section — the menu item name, its description, and its price would be broken out into individual parts but grouped into one section.
New Customer Journey
Sketches
Testing the Initial Solution
In order to test the initial solution, I would first like to test and verify the proto-persona along with the scenarios and tasks I would imagine building a clickable prototype for. Once these things have been verified, I would then like to do either a clickable wireframe prototype or a paper prototype.
