I enrolled in Google's UX Design Professional Certificate program on Coursera, which challenged me to design a mobile app that could function as an inventory tracking app for restaurants. This project gave me the opportunity to gain experience with the UX design process and familiarize myself with software tools such as Figma. As a result of this project, I created the Prefire app, an inventory management app that includes a community platform for restaurant teams to track and order inventory items. Additionally, restaurants can request to purchase missing inventory items from nearby establishments to temporarily supplement their inventory.
Role:
Sole Contributer
Duration:
January 2023 - March 2023
Link:
Final Mockup
Tools:
Figma, Coolors, Material Design Resources, Coursera
It's common for restaurants to face challenges in maintaining an optimal stock of inventory items, which can lead to profit loss. This issue can arise from late or incorrect deliveries by inventory vendors, as well as restaurants' difficulty in making accurate orders without the assistance of specialized predictive analyses.
By leveraging sales data and the maximum shelf lives of inventory items, the app will make recommendations for optimum inventory orders. Moreover, users will have access to a community platform where they can connect with neighboring restaurants and quickly request to purchase small amounts of inventory items. This feature will enable restaurants to supplement immediately necessary items they didn't receive from regular vendors.
Research and interview potential users to define user needs and expectations
Brainstorm and workshop design layouts with wireframes and prototypes
Conduct usability research, identify and implement actionable insights to improve designs
To launch this project, I conducted interviews to elucidate what potential users would expect or desire from an adoption site. I was also aiming to discover many problems users have experienced or currently experience when adopting pets. From this research, I created the following user personas, user journey maps and I defined key user pain points to focus the designs around.
To launch this project, I conducted interviews to elucidate what potential users would expect or desire from an inventory management app. I was also aiming to discover many problems users have experienced or currently experience when managing restaurant inventories. From this research, I created the following user personas, user journey maps and I defined key user pain points to focus the designs around.
"I work hard to make dining an eating and drinking experience, but stocking inventory well is challenging."
About
Carl is a young entrepreneur who owns a small steakhouse in the downtown area. His top priority is offering his guests a wide selection of wine and cocktails to pair with their meals. However, he struggles to keep his popular wines in stock due to suboptimal inventory ordering.
Goals
Pair all menu items with a flavor enhancing drink, maintain stock of the whole wine inventory he has, & delegate inventory duties.
Frustrations
Inventory tools that are difficult to learn, Working late too often, & not having the data he needs to make better inventory choices.
Inconsistency
Due to late deliveries or incorrect vendor deliveries, restaurant managers frequently find themselves without certain inventory items for a day or two at a time.
Inaccessible Services
When inventory items are out of stock in restaurants, managers usually lack sufficient time or an efficient way to restock these items before opening.
Overly Complex Software
Common inventory management software options tend to require time-consuming training, can be challenging to navigate, and frequently do not support multilingual capabilities, which can exclude many people groups.
This remote, unmoderated usability study aims to determine if the site meets user expectations and if the existing user flows are logical, ensuring that users don’t miss necessary steps or get confused.
Given that inventory tracking is the focal feature of the app, it was important to ensure a positive experience when utilizing the function. To resolve some confusion there is now more text to guide the user through the inventory taking process.
Research also highlighted the need for a more predictable user experience. Therefore, now users are always sent back to the home page after a conversion and call-to-action buttons are more prominent.
Lastly, features novel to the app, like the sharing function were not intuitive to users. The feature was simplified by removing the message board and only include trade functions so it will be easier for users to learn.
Given that inventory tracking is the focal feature of the app, it was important to ensure a positive experience when utilizing the function. To resolve some confusion there is now more text to guide the user through the inventory taking process.
Research also highlighted the need for a more predictable user experience. Therefore, now users are always sent back to the home page after a conversion and call-to-action buttons are more prominent.
Lastly, features novel to the app, like the sharing function were not intuitive to users. The feature was simplified by removing the message board and only include trade functions so it will be easier for users to learn.
This remote, unmoderated usability study aims to assess the site's visual design, determine the efficacy of previous iterations, and elucidate potential future improvements. Participants fit the criteria used previously: individuals who have adopted a pet either online or in person or individuals who work in a relevant field and are familiar with the pet adoption process.
Research showed that users need a user information page to access records, preferences, settings, and things of the like. Therefore, a user profile page was added for users to access the records and information mentioned.
Users in the study expressed that they weren't confident about how to use the neighborhood sharing function, even after previous revisions meant to resolve this issue. The page needed to more clearly express what services are available and how to utilize them.
Participants were displeased with the visual design. choices, feeling overwhelmed by each new page and button. The design needed cohesion, so, now design patterns remain consistent throughout the app.
Research showed that users need a user information page to access records, preferences, settings, and things of the like. Therefore, a user profile page was added for users to access the records and information mentioned.
Users in the study expressed that they weren't confident about how to use the neighborhood sharing function, even after previous revisions meant to resolve this issue. The page needed to more clearly express what services are available and how to utilize them.
Participants were displeased with the visual design. choices, feeling overwhelmed by each new page and button. The design needed cohesion, so, now design patterns remain consistent throughout the app.
