McDonald's
Streamlining their Mobile Ordering and Kiosk
This project aims to provide insights that enhance McDonald's mobile and kiosk ordering systems. The goal is to improve user experience by making the Order Ahead service more convenient and efficient.
ROLE
Solo | UX Researcher
TIMELINE
12 Weeks​
SOFTWARE
Figma, Adobe XD
DISCIPLINES
UX Design | UXR
PROJECT OVERVIEW
This study focuses on understanding McDonald’s Order Ahead service. A redesign was created to optimize the mobile and kiosk experience, making it more usable and accessible, and maximizing all possible areas for improvement.
PROJECT GOALS
1. Make the ordering experience simple, easy to navigate, and functional
2. Increase sales for the company and provide users with a convenient and efficient experience using the Order Ahead service.
PRELIMINARY RESEARCH
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
To understand McDonald's position in the market, a competitive analysis was conducted comparing McDonald's with its top two competitors, Starbucks and Subway.
​The primary objective is to uncover critical problems and opportunities for McDonald's.
Based on the SWOT analysis and Heuristic Evaluation, further research and analysis will tackle this problem:
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The app can only allow employees to start making the customer's food once they are 5 miles away from their specific location.
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However, the store I ordered from was less than a mile away, and it wouldn’t let me start my order yet.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
McDonald’s does not allow customers to schedule their orders in advance. Users must be within 5 miles of the store to order ahead.
RESEARCH
USER INTERVIEWS + USABILITY TESTING
I conducted interviews with five users who have used food-ordering apps. It was decided to conduct qualitative interviews with the aim of uncovering users' needs, motivations, and frustrations to gain insights into our new focus.
From the interviews, the following information was obtained:
RESEARCH
ETHNOGRAPHY
We conducted an ethnographic study to observe users using McDonald’s ordering service on their mobile apps and kiosks. I observed two participants who used mobile ordering, and two who used the kiosks.
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From the ethnography, the following insights were found:
Kiosk Ordering Insights
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The kiosk should redesign the homepage so that offers and points are clearly separated.
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The kiosk could save clicking time by combining some payment screens.
Mobile Ordering Insights
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If a customer orders on the kiosk and signs in, then the app can provide real-time updates on their order status.
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The mobile app could incorporate a preselected combo choice
Based on the information gathered so far, especially from the interviews, the following user personas was created, which will help us understand the app's users.
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I created two user personas to understand how different people order from a kiosk compared to mobile ordering. These helped us spot common struggles and patterns, so we could design solutions that work for everyone.
JOURNEY MAPS
CONCLUSION
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Our initial hypothesis stated that user satisfaction differs across mobile apps and kiosks.
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The data revealed that most participants felt that the kiosk was slightly slower than the app.
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Helping the kiosk can allow more users to customize their orders, and McDonald's can upsell more to increase profit.
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Helping the mobile is beneficial, as users tend to order more and customize more, increasing sales.
​KEY TAKEAWAYS + REFLECTION
​KEY TAKEAWAYS
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I was surprised that my hypothesis was wrong and that the users I interviewed didn't want this feature implemented.
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Ask more in-depth and follow-up questions during the interview sessions.
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BE OK WITH SILENCE!
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Recording the audio of the ethnography would have helped with note-taking in the future.​
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WHAT COULD I HAVE DONE BETTER?
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As this was my first UXR project, one thing I struggled with was interviewing. I want to improve my interview skills and be able to speak and take notes simultaneously. It's something I am working on improving.
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Even though this was an academic project, I would have loved to interview a variety of users to get a better consensus of the mobile and kiosk ordering process.
If I had more time, I would have created wireframes and mid-fidelity mockups to get a better idea of the proposed recommendations​