Using research and strategy
to make products clearer.

The Order Anywhere platform lacked an intuitive way to communicate order status for table orders and pickups. Customers were frustrated with limited updates via email, leading to uncertainty and frequent inquiries. The new Order Status feature provides customers with clear, estimated order updates directly through the platform, enhancing transparency and confidence in the ordering process.

Key Goals

• Provide clear order updates to reduce uncertainty.
• Enable users to track their order status via intuitive visual indicators.
• Improve operational efficiency by dynamically aligning updates with merchant-entered data.

Why This Matters: Empowering customers with timely updates builds trust, enhances the ordering experience, and drives satisfaction.

Customers struggled with uncertainty about their order status due to vague email updates that were often delayed or overlooked. This lack of transparency led to customer dissatisfaction and operational inefficiencies, with staff handling frequent inquiries about order readiness.

To ensure a consumer-centered design process, the following methodologies were employed:

This SWOT analysis focuses on the order status feature for it is critical to customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, and competitive differentiation in the food delivery market.

Mapped the user flow for table orders and pickups, focusing on:

• Order Confirmation: Customer receives estimated time for preparation.
• Preparation Stage: Progress bar updates based on milestones.
• Ready for Pickup/Table: Clear notification when the order is ready.

Objective: To validate the Order Status feature's usability, focusing on navigation, clarity of estimated timelines, and overall user satisfaction.

Methodology

• Participants: 8 tech-savvy users familiar with table ordering and pickup platforms.
• Tasks: Locate order status, interpret progress indicators, and respond to notifications.
• Tools: Conducted via Maze, capturing qualitative and quantitative feedback.

The redesigned Order Status feature achieved significant improvements:

• Improved Transparency: Customers gained clear visibility into their order progress through intuitive progress indicators and estimated timelines.
• Reduced Inquiries: Proactive updates significantly minimized customer questions about order readiness.
• Enhanced User Satisfaction: Users appreciated the clarity, simplicity, and timeliness of the new Order Status feature.

Third-party delivery services often impose high costs and limit restaurants' control over operations, negatively impacting profit margins and customer experiences. This project aimed to design a self-delivery feature for Order Anywhere, enabling restaurants to independently manage their deliveries while offering customers personalized and flexible delivery options, such as saved addresses and scheduled deliveries.

Key Goals

• Reduce Costs: Enable restaurants to eliminate reliance on third-party platforms and retain more revenue.
• Improve Customer Experience: Provide tailored delivery options, such as saved addresses and scheduling.
• Increase Control: Allow restaurants to define delivery ranges, fees, and timelines for consistent service.
• Simplify Use: Ensure the system is intuitive for both restaurant staff and customers.

By addressing these pain points, the self-delivery feature strengthens restaurant profitability, builds trust with customers, and creates a seamless ordering experience.

Restaurants relying on third-party delivery services face significant challenges that erode profitability and customer trust. Customers, in turn, encounter inconsistent service and lack the personalized options — such as saved addresses and flexible scheduling — that modern diners expect.

To design a self-delivery feature tailored to both restaurant and customer needs, we employed the following research methods:

Leading platforms such as Uber Eats and DoorDash were evaluated to uncover best practices and identify gaps in delivery workflows and customer experience, informing the design of a more tailored and efficient solution.

Mapped the user journey for both restaurant staff and consumers, ensuring seamless integration and clarity:

• Restaurant Staff Workflow: Designed the process for managing self-delivery, including enabling the feature, setting delivery ranges, pricing, and providing status updates.
• Consumer Experience Flow: Focused on the customer's journey from order placement to delivery, emphasizing features like saved addresses, scheduling, and status notifications.

Consumer-Side Testing

Methods:

• Task-Based Testing: 10 consumers familiar with online food delivery platforms. Scenarios included saving addresses for future orders, scheduling deliveries for specific times, and switching between pickup and delivery options.
• Think-Aloud Protocol: Participants verbalized their thoughts while interacting with the prototype to identify pain points and validate usability.

Key Findings:

• Ease of Navigation: 90% of participants completed tasks smoothly, praising the intuitive design.
• Saved Addresses: 75% found this feature significantly reduced checkout time and improved convenience.
• Estimated Timelines: Users valued approximate delivery times but wanted explanations for accuracy (e.g., "based on current workload").

Restaurant Staff Testing

Methods:

• Task-Based Testing: 6 restaurant staff members, including managers and delivery coordinators. Scenarios included enabling self-delivery, setting delivery ranges, adjusting delivery times dynamically, and managing notifications.
• Observation Sessions: Monitored staff interactions with the prototype in simulated workflow scenarios to assess operational fit and ease of use.

Key Findings:

• Feature Enablement: Staff appreciated the straightforward process for enabling self-delivery and configuring settings.
• Delivery Configuration: The ability to set custom delivery ranges, prices, and estimated times provided flexibility, but some staff suggested tooltips for first-time users.
• Ease of Use: 85% found the interface simple and intuitive, reducing the need for extensive training.
• Dynamic Adjustments: Real-time adjustment options for delivery times were praised, especially during peak hours.

The self-delivery feature addressed key challenges, enabling restaurants to reduce third-party reliance, retain more revenue, and streamline operations. Consumers benefited from saved addresses, flexible scheduling, and real-time updates, enhancing convenience and satisfaction. Restaurant staff gained tools for managing delivery settings and timelines efficiently.

In the fast-paced service industry, effective communication is critical for seamless operations. Lightspeed POS's notification system faced challenges in discoverability and usability, resulting in missed alerts for critical issues like printer errors and connectivity disruptions.

To address these issues, we redesigned the notification system to provide:

• Improved Visibility: A prominent notification icon for real-time alerts.
• Clear Messaging: Simplified, actionable notifications.
• Interactive Elements: Direct-action options for quick issue resolution.

Why This Matters: Enhancing the notification system empowers users, improves operational efficiency, and positions Lightspeed POS as a trusted tool in high-pressure environments.

The notification system failed to support users effectively due to:

• Low Discoverability: Users were unaware of its existence.
• Ambiguous Icons: Confusing iconography delayed actions.
• Missed Alerts: Critical operational issues went unnoticed.
• Inefficient Workflows: Users struggled to respond to issues promptly, leading to downtime and service disruptions.

User Research

To understand user pain points and needs, I employed the following methods:

Key Insights

• Users frequently missed alerts due to poor visibility and unclear messaging.
• Service staff required actionable notifications to resolve issues quickly.
• Restaurant workflows varied significantly, necessitating a flexible design.

Market Research

The global POS market, valued at $11.99 billion in 2022, is growing at a CAGR of 10.8%. Trends emphasize real-time updates, cloud-based solutions, and user-friendly systems. These insights highlighted the need for clear, accessible notification systems to improve operational efficiency.

Based on research, I developed three primary personas:

I mapped the user flow, ensuring minimal friction during high-pressure scenarios.

Scenario-Based Testing

Approach: Simulated real-world scenarios where users addressed notifications during peak hours. Tasks included identifying and resolving printer errors.

Metrics Collected: Time to locate notifications, resolution time, and error rates.

A/B Testing

Approach: Compared redesigned notification icons and messaging against the existing system to measure improvements in usability.

Findings

• Repositioned notifications to the top of the screen and redesigned icons improved discoverability by 30%.
• Clear messaging reduced resolution time by 25%.

The redesigned notification system delivered measurable improvements:

• 25% Reduction in User Churn: Enhanced usability and operational efficiency.
• Faster Issue Resolution: Actionable alerts minimized disruptions.
• Increased Satisfaction: Positive feedback validated the design's impact.