Smitten Ice Cream

Designing a mobile ordering app

Overview

PRODUCT:

Smitten Ice Cream is a company that specializes in freshly churned ice cream. The company currently has 5 retail ice cream shop locations in Northern California. For customers who are not local, Smitten Ice Cream also offers its products online through its website.

PROBLEM:

Since Smitten's freshly churned ice cream is made to order for each customer, the lines at its 5 shops are often backed up. Consequently, customers waiting in these long lines feel frustrated and impatient. Many people have busy schedules and therefore forfeit waiting in line all together, resulting in customer dissatisfaction.

GOAL:

Design a Smitten Ice Cream mobile app that allows customers to conveniently order ice cream.

ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES:

UX designer responsible for research, interaction design, prototyping, and design iteration.

DURATION:

1 month

Research

I conducted a competitive analysis to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of Smitten Ice Cream's competitors. The goal of my competitive analysis was to compare the ordering experience of each competitor's app.

From my research, I identified three main pain points to consider while designing. I also created a persona to embody the end user.

PAIN POINTS:

1. Navigation- Ordering app designs with poor information architecture result in confusing navigation.

2. Experience- Ordering apps often do not include visual menus which makes it difficult for users to make their selections.

3. Interaction- Indistinguishable call-to-action elements in ordering apps complicate the ordering process.

Starting the Design

One of the main pain points was difficulty with navigating ordering apps. Therefore, I used that knowledge as a focal point in creating a user flow diagram for the ordering process.

Moving from creating a user flow diagram to wireframing made it easy to design the call-to-action elements and navigation of the app. 

To create a low-fidelity prototype, I connected all of the wireframes, according to the user flow in the user flow diagram.

The following are feedback I received on my prototype from a senior designer during a design review:

• "If the user is short on time are they really going to want to spend more time signing in or signing up?"

• "The navigation bar icons could be arranged in a better way to put more focus on ordering."

The feedback I received led me to iterate on my digital wireframes.

Finalizing the Design

Strong brand identity is key to a good user experience, so I performed some online research on the Smitten Ice Cream brand. From my research, I created a sticker sheet to use for my high-fidelity mockups.

Conclusion

With the expansion of its shops and growing customer base, development of a Smitten Ice Cream mobile app is likely in the foreseeable future. A Smitten Ice Cream mobile app would greatly improve the customer experience of its target audience. Furthermore, the opportunity to perform more research and conduct usability studies would benefit future iterations.