Enhancing the Mobile Order experience
Since the launch of Mobile Order back in 2018, my team and I had been tracking data regarding Mobile Order usage within the Parks.
In 2019, we noticed that users were not picking up their orders in a timely manner after they were ready. This resulted in operational issues for the in-park restaurants such as wasted food and customer complaints. This project became an opportunity for us to take a second look at the Pickup flow to help streamline the entire experience through thoughtful UX and visual updates.
My Role
For this project, I was responsible for all aspects of design, including concepting, iterating, prototyping, and documentation. I also created presentations and pitched designs to our stakeholders and leadership teams. I worked with one Design Lead who oversaw the project and another designer from our Visual Design team.
In addition to design, I worked closely with our product management, business partners, and engineering teams to ensure that the project was meeting our projected timeline. This included project planning, budgeting projections, and resource allocation. I set up weekly syncs with product and engineering as well to keep all teams updated on the latest designs, as well as to collect feedback, thoughts, and ideas.
"Where's my food?"
One of the biggest pain points from both our users and stakeholders for was picking up the user's food orders in a timely manner. This conveyed to me that there was a problem within our current Pickup experience and our directions were not being communicated well enough to our users.
Users
Users of Mobile Order noted that they often had trouble understanding how the Pickup flow worked. When surveyed, these users stated that they weren’t aware of the instructions for pickup and they didn’t understand the states of the progress bar. Of those users that did understand the progress bar, they reported that the changes in states were not very clear to them.
Stakeholders
Our stakeholders for Mobile Order were the restaurants in the Parks that utilized the Mobile Order feature. Restaurant managers reported that there was an uptick in Mobile Order usage, but with the larger number of orders also came a larger number of meals that were not picked up. These meals would then be discarded to meet health code guidelines, which resulted in a waste of food and resources.
Once I had an understanding of the existing pain points that our users and stakeholders were encountering, I was abe to start working on designs for the update.
Mobile Order Launch Pickup Flow
1. Inactive State: User's pickup window has not started yet.
2. Active State: User's pickup window is now available and they must tap on the "I'm Here..." CTA to notify the kitchens to start preparing their order.
3. Preparing State: User's food is being prepared.
4. Pickup State: User can now pick up their food.
Making waiting fun
According to data from the restaurants, the average Mobile Order would be completed within a few minutes of placement. This created a unique scenario where we wanted our users to keep their screens awake for longer so that they could keep an eye on the status. I wanted to entice them to keep it open by incorporating something fun, delightful, and eye-catching.
Storyboarding
The exisiting Pickup flow states were used to instruct users and provide order status. I thought this would be a great opportunity to introduce a "story" that could incorporate both instructions and status into an animation which could be easily interpreted by users.
My initial storyboards were abstract, but the idea sold itself when I brought it up with the leadership team. I was able to then enlist the help of a Visual Designer who helped me flesh out the storyline and create the final animations.
Final Deliverables
Mobile Order State Enhancements launched in Q1 of 2020. Based off initial feedback, users found the new experience a lot more straightforward and fun. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 the Parks were closed down in early 2020. This refrained us from being able to collect data to see how Mobile Order was performing with the new update.
1. Inactive State: User's pickup window has not started yet.
2. Active State: User's pickup window is now available and they must tap on the "I'm Here..." CTA to notify the kitchens to start preparing their order.
3. Preparing State: User's food is being prepared.
3.1 Preparing State: Order Summary section expanded.
4. Pickup State: User can now pick up their food.
4.1 Pickup State: Order summary section expanded.
Thanks for dropping by. 
Thanks for dropping by.
