Local E-commerce
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Project2: Lokos Tacos Taqueria
Goal:
Help a local business improve their online presence to be more competitive in the market
Business Analysis
I first needed a better understanding of the business, Lokos Tacos Taqueria. I examined the business’s needs, goals, and competitors by creating a Lean UX canvas, competitive feature comparison, and market positioning chart.
The charts show comparisons between Lokos Takos and four competitors. This shows what is out there, what is working and not working, and what competitors have that Lokos Takos does not. All of this helped identify opportunities, threats, strengths, weaknesses, main objectives, and strategies.
Stakeholder Interview
Interviewing the owner of Lokos Takos Taqueria, I was able to understand even more of the business. Along with their goals, limitations, and culture.
“Most customers come for the tacos and freshly squeezed margaritas. We cater to a lot of vegans and vegetarians too.”
“Pick up orders have gone up since COVID. You can’t order online right now, but you can get delivery from UberEats, Delivery Dudes and DoorDash…”
“People look at our website to see the menu. We also give out a paper copy with every pickup and delivery order.”
Along with the business view, I also interviewed five people about their experience when ordering online. Getting a better understanding of the customer’s view.
“I like when I can quickly glance at the menu and find the vegan options right away.” -Shannon
“The hardest thing about ordering online for me is deciding what to get since I can’t visualize the food.” — Leticia
With more qualitative data being collected, an Affinity Map, User Journey Map, and user persona were created. Creating these maps and charts, help give a better understanding of the customer and their wants, needs, frustrations, and expectations are.
Organizing all this data, trends, and relationships started to show:
- User needs menu variety and clarity
- User needs a good online presence
- User needs an efficient ordering system
A User Story developed based on Personas, ideas, and assumptions.
User Story
- When users want to order food online, Lokos Takos will provide an online ordering system with pickup and delivery options, in order to fulfill user needs, especially during COVID-19.
- When users have dietary restrictions or are confused about an authentic Mexican dish, Lokos Takos will provide a very visual and descriptive menu, so they can reduce choice overload for users and stand out in the marketplace
- When users have a question about the menu, Lokos Takos will provide an easy way for users to contact them through their website in order to fulfill the needs of their users better.
Then from more data and real scenarios from users, a Job Story evolved.
Job Story
- When I am hungry I want to be able to see what pick-up and delivery options are available, so I can order online and I can order exactly what I want and not be rushed.
- When I want Mexican food with vegan options I want to be able to search the menu easily, to find food that suits my dietary restrictions.
- When I have a question I need to ask a restaurant, I want to be able to easily navigate their website and find their contact information, so that I may either call or email them.
Heuristic Evaluation
The data collected points to problems in the Lokos Takos Taqueria’s website interface. Using heuristics, I was able to get insights that can help enhance product usability. It also helped to identify usability problems in the user interface design. Some finding were:
- AESTHETIC AND MINIMALIST DESIGN
The website uses stock-like photos, only dark colors, does not highlight important features, and has confusing navigation features
- HELP RECOGNIZE & RECOVER FROM ERRORS
The “Call Us” button leads to a blank page error, with no suggested solutions.
- RECOGNITION OVER RECALL
The menu has no visuals and little description making it harder for users to order
Defining Stage
With user research and heuristic data collected, I am then able to define the issues that need to be addressed and define the main objectives.
Focusing on the goal: Help a local business improve its online presence to be more competitive in the market…
I then created these Problem statements into, How Might We Statements that then generated ideas.
- How might we create a way for customers to order food or find delivery services more easily?
Idea: Order online page with hyperlink to delivery sites, collaborate with multiple delivery services, and show them on website
2. How might we create a way for customers to navigate through the menu more efficiently?
Idea: Food menu on a separate page, use symbols with a menu legend to indicate which foods are vegan, gluten-free, etc.
3. How might we create a way for customers to find contact information more easily?
Idea: Create a “contact us” button that goes to a different page, make visible, and clear. Have their number and location more visible.
To create a minimum viable product with this information, I needed to select and prioritize what to include. To do this I did the MOSCOW method to establish what the website must have, should have, could have, and won’t have.
Prioritizing what to include I concluded that these features were the most important for an MVP.
Menu, order now, and contact us, these features being added to the website will help reach the goal of helping a local business improve its online presence to be more competitive in the market.
Having these main features, I then created a value proposition canvas to help ensure that they are positioned around what the customer values and needs.
After creating these features and much research collected, I created a site map and user flow chart:
Site Map
I first created a site map to show the relationship between pages on the site.
User Flow Chart
I created a user flow chart that shows steps a user takes to complete a task. It is a flow of what the user sees and what happens. — the order users see things.
When the charts, maps, flows, and interviews were completed, it was then time to make these features come to life and test it.
Lo-fi prototype
Making a lo-fidelity prototype helped me make changes more easily and is a quick way to translate high-level design ideas into real and testable artifacts.
Mid-Fi Prototype
After finalizing and testing our lo-fi prototype, I created a mid-fi prototype that offers the “order now”, button with a drop-down list of options. This helps the customer to be able to order directly from the site and see what other services are available.
When the user chooses to order directly from Lokos Takos, they are brought to the “order” page, where they can start their online order. This page displays an interactive menu allowing users to click on food items, view pictures, descriptions, and add special requests before adding to their cart. This is helpful for users to see exactly what they want and are getting. The “special request” option is especially helpful for those with diet limitations and allergies.
Once the user is ready to order they click, “checkout”. They are then brought to the “Checkout” page. This is where they can fill out their contact and payment information and are able to review their order. When satisfied with the order, “place order” is clicked. A pop-up then appears that allows them to confirm their order before placing it. This is helpful to users because this takes away frustration if a mistake were to happen. They are able to confirm their order and payment one more time before committing to the order.
By adding these features the business will be more competitive in the market. Success metrics would be an increase in online sales, a high online conversion rate, and a variety of menu items being ordered. Failure metrics would be slow online sales, a high bounce rate, and frequently abandoned carts, indicating frustration by our users.
Key Insight
During this project, I learned, that what a business thinks a customer wants and needs, may be completely different from what the customer actually wants and needs.
When finished with the mid-fi prototype, I then made some features interactive. I created these interactions on Figma and then tested the usability on a platform called Maze. This platform tested how well users can complete a given task — Order tacos for pick up from Lokos Takos Taqueria. By doing this I got a better understanding of the user flow and what they think or expect to happen when they click something.
To see the active prototype click the “Task” below:
(don’t worry about payment)
