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Can you have the food options of a big city in small town?
Some Background
Demand
Based on over a decade of restaurant management experience, I identified unmet needs of a local marketplace: On one end, food enthusiasts in these towns are often constrained to limited choices, missing out on the array of flavors and homemade quality available only elsewhere. One simply cannot find authentic Indian, home baked bread, or artisanal creations without inconvenience and/or disappointment of standardized chain offerings. Additionally, costly meal services or exclusive private chefs is an indulgence beyond reach.
People who live in a locale, whom possess cooking and baking skills worthy of show and tell. They have a range of aspiration, from a few meals to a restaurant of their own.
Local Culinary Talent (Providers)
Who are the People Involved?
Consumers (Patrons)
Individuals in the same locale who express an interest in more restaurant options than what is offered nearby. They have to cook themselves or drive far to find what they seek.
Supply
On this side, major challenges are faced by local cooks and bakers (we call them Providers) who dream of having a place to make and sell their goods. These Providers encounter formidable barriers in establishing their food businesses—high capital costs for kitchen space setup, the need for sophisticated equipment, and the daunting task of effective marketing. Furthermore, the operational complexities of running a food venture, such as hiring and managing quality personnel and navigating fluctuating market demands, can become insurmountable, stifling their culinary ambitions.
What are their Goals?
Local Culinary Talent
Commercial Place to Make their Goods
Access to Marketplace to Share their Goods
Earn a Sustainable Income
Consumers
Access to Marketplace of Diverse Foods
Find Broad Options within Budget
Role:
Date:
UX Research, Design, Testing
2022-24
What is MAPA?
MAPA:Provisary is a marketplace connecting people with independent cooks and bakers. Users can browse local meal offerings, place orders, and arrange for pickup, similar to using streaming or online retail platforms like YouTube or Amazon.
My Motivation
After 10 years of running a restaurant in a small city, I wondered if there was a way to access high-quality food without having to cook it myself, travel, or compromise on quality. I also wondered if there was a way for talented cooks to share their food without facing the typical barriers to entry.
Food Experience Map
A person has an initial thought, "I'm hungry." From here, an ideal food experience moves beyond mere consumption, with the ultimate goal of fulfillment and joy.
Budget
Every meal is subject to budgetary restrictions, be it a home cooked meal or finding a restaurant.
Subjective Evaluation (SE)
A complex interplay of factors that affect the perception of a meal and the context in which the meal is consumed. Every eating experience is evaluated, and every SE is variously affected by others’ SEs.
What’s my Value Proposition?
that is, Why should Provisiary happen?
Fulfill market demand for homemade food in smaller cities and towns where previously impractical.
RESEARCH
DESIGN
Sketches
Wireframe
Sketches led to a basic design wherein three choices are presented at once for a user.
Visual elements dominate the containers that contain a menu item; Visual information conveyed by the photographic is prioritized to “sell” the item.
Arrangement of these menu items is by algorithmic selection of relevance, meant to reduce time to select a desired item.
Menu tabs are across the top, akin to a browser; Page buttons are on the bottom, and naturally switch as the user selects items.
MINIMALLY VIABLE PRODUCT
Mike
Launch/Landing
This menu proudly displays the brand name and logo, and presents a rotating hi-resolution image of a current offering at the restaurant.
High quality photography of every item made at MA PA is standard across the platform.
Registration and Login follow modern convention, allowing for email or OAuth (third-party).
Mike
Onboarding Process
A simple 5-step process engages new patrons, utilizing an AI chat box to discovers personal preferences through natural-language conversation. A short setup is key to lowering onboarding frustrations. Skipping this will lead right to the menu with default settings.
User Profile
The previous process completes the Profile. Here, a list of subscribed-to diets by the patron are listed, with an option for “STRICT”.
With STRICT turned on next to a diet, along with any specific ingredient on the “Restrictions” list, any recipe containing these items disappear from the menu.
Privacy allows for an easy on/off of information collection.
Mike
Menu (1/2)
The top three choices are generated based on user preferences, available inventory for the location set, and (with permission): previously eaten meals, tracked data over other apps.
Photography is of the actual food, done in-house.
TRY! :
MA PA envisions a world where people try new flavors and dishes. The app moves towards this by removing barriers like limited availability, price, and irrelevance.
"Try" considers past purchases (if enabled), diet, restrictions, and price range to make a new match for patrons, essentially food sampling via algorithm. If selected, these items will appear more often (and for purchase) later.
ONLY [x] LEFT! :
With this notification, MA PA applies the scarcity principle (a proven marketing strategy to increase perceived value of an item). This label highlights the true rarity of each meal. (each Provider makes on average 25-50 meals).
Concept: Provisiary
Not unlike YouTube or SoundCloud, which democratized creative expression in video and audio, Provisary provides a new platform by which culinary amateurs and experts alike can share their creations, while circumventing the traditional hurdles of the restaurant industry. These Providers can think of a recipe or find a request, have the tools to make the meal, while offering consumers (the Patrons) unique, homemade dishes and experiences they previously couldn't find.
Patrons view a personalized menu based on their dietary and budgetary preferences, and (for the first time ever) have direct input into menu creation through Requests.
Providers finally have a way to simply make meals (in small or large quantities)—and share with their neighbors, making money in the process.
A digital platform to establish a dynamic, local food marketplace.
Mike
User Profile
The previous process completes the Profile. Here, a list of subscribed-to diets by the patron are listed, with an option for “STRICT”.
With STRICT turned on next to a diet, along with any specific ingredient on the “Restrictions” list, any recipe containing these items disappear from the menu.
Privacy allows for an easy on/off of information collection.
Menu Item Detail
All Details, including:
Portion, Description, and Ingredients, are written by Providers.
All details of an item, including an image, pends approval before posting to the app.
Oven-Mitt 'LIKE' Button:
"Liking" something is a well understood action since Web 2.0. MA PA implements this action in order to contribute to the weighting and subsequent order of certain items over others on the Menu tab.
This also contributes valuable information to a Provider's dashboard, allowing them to know what demand exists for yet to be made items.
Mike
Search
By Region: “Italian”, “Greek”
By Name: “Lasagna”, “Gyro”
By Ingredient: “Cheese”, “Chickpeas”
By Style: “Spicy”, “Snack”
By Provider: "pickleguy", "tartansoups"
The Provider brief highlights their profile picture, description, certifications, and entire menu item(s) provided by them.
Much like the other panes, the menu dynamically reconfigures to display relevant items from this Provider.
"REQUEST MORE" : Gives Provider of menu item an indication of demand on their dashboard.
Mike
Order
DRINKS [add] :
This button is meant to be a simple, non-aggressive way to suggest adding a beverages to the order. The drinks pane on the menu also considers a person's preferences, previous purchases (if allowed), and the food items already added to the order.
MODIFY :
These are the available modifiers for a particular item. Providers will be encouraged to think about creating dishes that contain these. (Eg., celery and blue cheese are unpopular among some; these items could be separated from the dish itself and added to the order in small portion cups)
Mike
After the order is submitted, the order screen displays:
The Order/Chit #
The MAPA Location (here 46953)
The Pickup Time (here ASAP)
Item List and Status
After some time, if the user has a login and previous order history, a list is displayed asking for their up/down vote on the particular item. These factor into future displayed menu items.
Upon order completion,
"COME ON DOWN" is displayed, along side a link to open up a directions externally.
Order, Placed
Design Notes
The color palette choice combines warm tones like "Serious" and "Primal" Red (d50000, ff0000) and "Sunrise Orange" (f8ad1c) to evoke appetite and new energy, complemented by refreshing cool tones like "Beverage Blue" (66daff) and "Forward Green" (b5d651) that suggest positive growth and health.
The Typographical selection of Milwaukee, Alata, and Raleway have that familiarity factor, balanced with high readability. With these choices, Provisary appeals to a broad audience and facilitates easy navigation with a contemporary feel, contributing positively to the UX journey and overall project goals.
Learnings
Size matters
A project of this scope and size has taken considerable effort and time, with the need to learn entirely new skill sets, but working towards such a lofty idea keeps me energized.
Less is more
The original designs and sketches required many successive removals of visual and functional elements to arrive at the "final" product.
Context
Discovering the who, what, where, and why of a project sets it up for the greatest chance of success.
Next Steps
Preference Testing (A/B)
The project needs to be sent to development and then further tested among the demographic mentioned in the user personas (A/B Testing).
Companion Applications
Provisary works with companion applications (similar to how GrubHub works) and a physical workspace to complete the entire MAPA environment. These all need to work seamlessly together and be built to iterate.
EVALUATION
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