Cottage Inn Pizza Order & Delivery Process Wire Flow for Mobile

UX Design

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Context

As a team, two classmates and I undertook the redesign of Cottage Inn's pizza order and delivery process for mobile in East Lansing, MI. We recognized the significance of this project because Cottage Inn is highly popular among students in East Lansing. Our goal was to simplify the mobile app's order and delivery process, prioritizing convenience and timely service, which are crucial aspects of student life.

Problem

The primary issue with the Cottage Inn mobile application was its unattractive and confusing user interface. This frustration led many students to abandon the ordering process and seek alternatives elsewhere. A redesign was urgently necessary to regain market share among students in the highly competitive pizza industry.

Process

To initiate the design of our wireflow for Cottage Inn's mobile delivery process, we conducted thorough navigation of the Cottage Inn website and other pizza websites. This research aimed to educate us on the ordering and delivery procedures and identify issues with the Cottage Inn site. We observed that the site was overly complex, prompting us to opt for a simplistic interface to enhance user retention during the ordering process.

Given the myriad options and customizations available for pizza orders, simplification was challenging. We approached the design from the customer's perspective and implemented dropdown menus to streamline ordering and provide clearer visualizations of available choices. This approach reduced interactions and improved the efficiency of the ordering process. Previously, ordering options occupied the entire page and necessitated extensive scrolling, which was problematic for mobile users.

Overall, our wireflow aimed to deliver a less overwhelming user experience, which we anticipated would lead to increased orders via the mobile app by reducing user abandonment rates.

Lessons Learned

Understanding is KEY to solving problems effectively. Without thoroughly educating ourselves on the order and delivery process at Cottage Inn, my team and I wouldn't have known how to address the complexity issues in the mobile app. Once we grasped every aspect of the order and delivery procedures, we could confidently proceed with designing our wireflow.

Maintain openness and curiosity! Approaching a project with an open and curious mindset allowed us to uncover the complexities of the pizza ordering and delivery process. Initially, we underestimated the intricacies involved, assuming it was a straightforward task. However, by remaining curious, we explored beyond the obvious and realized the true depth of the process.

Each of us was eager to find a quick solution, but we resisted the temptation to skip steps and instead thoroughly navigated through the entire process. The quality of the final design validated that this comprehensive approach was necessary. The key takeaway: never rush to conclusions or assume you fully understand the problem without conducting proper research—there's always more to discover, no matter how simple the issue may seem at first glance!