Truffle Redesign
Social Restaurant Tracking App.
UX/UI Design
2024
Truffle is a social restaurant tracking app with a mission to help foodies organise and share their restaurant expertise with others. The redesign of Truffle is aimed at improving the usability for different users particularly the Gen-Z audience to find restaurants and organise social gatherings that cater to their diverse preferences.
Project Overview
Role
My role for Prodigi's Product Innovation Program and redesign project was the UX/UI Designer, collaborating with three other designers and project manager.
Process
Timeline: February 2024 - April 2024
Tools: Figma, Miro
Collaborators: Grace Choo, Ankusi Jain, Katherine Muy, Jessica Lin
Problem Statement
& Objective
Currently, the app provides two main user experiences: a Feed page and Map page, which displays archived restaurants by users and friends. As a relatively new platform that is primarily used in the United States, to ensure Truffle’s competitive edge among similar platforms in the market, we provided Truffle with two transformed user experiences - a 'This or That' feature and improvements in adding restaurant notes.
EMPATHISE
User research to unpack the problem.
Our overarching research goal was to understand what motivates young adults to engage in social dining experiences using a digital platform like Truffle. We came up to three research questions to determine our problem scope.
Why do young adults engage in social dining experiences?
What difficulties do young adults face when using digital platforms to find a suitable restaurant to dine at?
What factors influence young adults to engage in social dining experiences when using digital platforms?
Our primary research included surveys with 78 respondents and 10 semi-structured interviews to uncover both attitudinal and behavioral insights. Among our survey findings, 40% of participants reported dining out with friends monthly. Catching up was a key motivator, while scheduling difficulties and indecisiveness were major challenges. Usability, customization, and social features were significant factors influencing participants' use of restaurant tracking apps.
Through affinity mapping and thematic analysis, we identified 4 key themes related to dining experiences. Users expressed a desire for easily accessible restaurant profile information to find personalized recommendations, effortless social planning, better time management, and a simple way to understand and cater to their friends' needs for inclusivity and belonging.
User Journey Map
Truffle lacks a community aspect, as users desire better coordination for dining plans with friends and organisational features to keep track of restaurant preferences.
Problem breakdown.
Many users desire specificity and filtering for restaurants to find a suitable dining experience.
There is a need for tools that aggregate preferences and offer personalised recommendations.
Users find coordinating dining plans with friends to be challenging due to diverse and conflicting preferences.
To gain a comprehensive understanding of trends and consumer preferences, as well as to identify emerging opportunities, we conducted a competitor analysis to explore how Truffle compares with existing solutions on the market.
How might we improve the design of Truffle to include more relevant information, cater to diverse preferences, and organise dining experiences with friends?
OPPORTUNITY SPACE
Design development & key iterations.
BEFORE
Users generally found the 'This or That' feature page to be very cluttered and lacking in visual hierarchy. Additionally, the instructions on how to vote were confusing, making it difficult for first-time users to understand and navigate.
AFTER
To resolve the cluttered page issue, I removed unnecessary information, such as location details, which had already been collected during app onboarding. I focused on emphasizing clear calls-to-action by isolating the options in an overlay and adding tooltips and icons next to each option to guide users through the process step-by-step.
BEFORE
In addition to the feed displaying recent dining check-ins by friends, users expressed a need for friend recommendations to enhance their social community, as well as suggestions for popular restaurants and trending topics to assist them in decision-making.
AFTER
Taking user feedback into account, I implemented carousels to give users control over expanding their friend connections and exploring common dining needs. I also improved the layout by enhancing the hierarchy with distinct heading styles to emphasize usernames, display friend activity, and include a button to view all restaurant notes.
The solution - product redesign.
Connect with community by leaving a restaurant note.
PAIN POINTS SOLVED:
Concise and user-friendly documentation of restaurant reviews makes it more efficient for users to add notes. By organizing content through pagination to track progress with minimal navigation, more users will contribute updated reviews, enhancing the trustworthiness of the platform.
Given that users find restaurant reviews challenging due to overwhelming volume, inconsistent quality, lack of organisation, and outdated details, streamlined documentation allows for efficient restaurant reviews in form of adding notes.
1
Gamified ‘This or That’ feature with quick and inclusive preference-based polls to receive personalised recommendations tailored to everyone.
2
The new 'This or That' voting system assists users in finding relevant dining options by engaging all participants in the decision-making process. This makes organising dining plans more efficient, fostering a sense of belonging.
PAIN POINTS SOLVED:
Users often faced challenges in choosing a suitable restaurant with friends due to diverse preferences, which can hinder the dining experience when organizing group outings. 'This or That' is an interactive feature that embraces the social community aspect by allowing users to vote on restaurant options, giving users control over when to finalize their decision.
Style Guide & Visual Identity
Success Metrics
For Truffle’s update launch, the acquisition goal is to achieve at least 800 downloads per month, reflecting its status as a growing company. Additionally, aiming for an average rating of at least 4.7 on the app store would be ideal, considering the average iOS app rating is 4.53.
Lessons Learned and Future Aspirations
Prioritising Insights
Working as a team, we identified various user needs and frustrations. However, we needed to prioritise these insights to enhance a product that stands out in a competitive market. While the Truffle app initially included a map feature, it significantly overlapped with Google Maps. Consequently, we redirected our focus towards designing features that foster an interactive community for sharing food experiences, which better aligned with our users' preferences and differentiated our product.
Experimentation with Micro-Interactions
Moving forward, I aim to experiment more with micro-interactions on Figma by implementing intuitive gestures, such as swipes or smooth transitions between tab bars to improve the fluidity and intuitiveness of the user interface, making interactions more engaging for users.