Social Eats
Streamlining the restaurant selection process
Tools
Illustrator, Figma
Role
Ideation, research, interview process, style guide creation, design (UX/UI), prototyping
Duration
January to March 2023 | 3 months
Team
Hanna Burnham, Mary Gozum, Maryam Faizur Rehman, Gabriel Paragas, Zhuan Wang
Overview
Social Eats is an app that combines selecting a restaurant with the power of social media. Everything is in one place, a tap away. With this revolutionary app, you can find your next food adventure, communicate with friends, and share your experiences.
I was involved in creating Social Eats alongside 4 other individuals throughout each stage. I was actively involved in ideation, the interview process, creating a style guide, designing, user-testing, and the refinement stages. I worked with Mary Gozum to create and perfect the flow of recommending a restaurant to friends. In addition, I aided in the flow of signing up for the first time.
Problem
For many individuals, selecting a restaurant can be a time-consuming and difficult task, especially when factoring in friends. Different people have different needs such as dietary restrictions, desired atmosphere, location and pricing. With so many restaurant options, it can be difficult to find the perfect one. Individuals desire a more convenient method for finding restaurants and booking reservations.
Solution
Social Eats aims to make the restaurant selection process easier and more convenient. Instead of wasting time going through the fine details, Social Eats offers extensive filtering capabilities to simplify the selection process. The mobile app combines the restaurant selection and booking process with social media to offer more insight to users. Individuals have access to the top restaurants within their city to share with friends. Social Eats intends to make the restaurant experience as seamless as possible allowing users to customise their visit and have access to all of the required details upfront.
Design and Features
Social Eats makes the process of finding a restaurant easier. Individuals can view images, reviews, and menus conveniently in one place. Like what you see? Go ahead and send it to your friends to vote! Social Eats also has extensive filtering capabilities that make the restaurant selection process quick and convenient.
Groups
Users can create groups with their friends to plan restaurant outings. Users can send their favourite restaurants to their friends to vote on.
Restaurant Profile
Users can get an in-depth overview of what restaurants offer for an easy selection process. Since Social Eats centres around the social experience, there is a social tab to view different media from individuals who have gone to the restaurant. In addition, users can view the restaurant’s general information, menu and reviews.
Filters
Social Eats offers extensive filtering capabilities. Users can filter based on their price range, desired cuisine type, dining experience, distance, ratings and dietary needs. The restaurant industry is so vast and at Social Eats, we want to make the process of restaurant selection easier and more convenient for your specific needs.
Directions
Individuals can find their restaurant with the built-in map.
Voting
After sending a restaurant recommendation to friends, group members will vote yes or no. If the consensus is yes, it will then take the individual who sent the recommendation to the reservation process.
Reservations
Once all group members have voted, the sender of the recommendation can book a reservation. Users can easily view the available dates and times. No need to wait in line!
Atmosphere
To address users desires for a specific atmosphere, Social Eats allows users to view the restaurant layout and select their specific table for the reservation.
The Process
To begin the process of creating a mobile app, our group brainstormed some different ideas and problems to create a digital solution.
User Interviews
After conducting interviews with our target audience of young adults who eat out at restaurants, our team uncovered some essential information for developing Social Eats. This information was collected before developing the solution to uncover the core features of our app.
Decision-Making Process - People are indecisive and require time to make a decision, especially when factoring in other individuals’ opinions.
Convenience - Users need convenience, things that can shorten and personalize their experience.
Location/Distance - Proximity holds great importance for individuals.
Dietary Restrictions/Preferences - Many individuals have dietary restrictions and finding a restaurant that can accommodate them is essential.
Reviews - Many individuals utilise reviews as they offer reliable and unbiased insight.
Wait Times - Individuals would like to know wait times as they can be frustrating and preventable with a reservation.
Aesthetics/Atmosphere - Many individuals choose a restaurant based on occasion, and imagery helps individuals make a decision. Knowing the atmosphere and layout of the restaurant is helpful for some.
Privacy - For some individuals, privacy is essential and crowds will deter them.
Competitors
Personas
Wireframes
