As a team, our initial assumption was that, compared to physical menus, digital menus would not be the preferred choice for the majority of individuals who frequent sit-down casual restaurants.
To test our assumption we conducted a survey to help us narrow down to a target audience of who frequents sit down casual restaurants the most (in the college town we are in 16-28 years old). We also asked questions to find out preferences and demographics in our users such as eating habits, age, and current use of digital menus.
We found that our assumption was correct most of our users preferred physical menus. We found that what users liked best about current digital menus was the inclusions of images. After interviews we found images to be really important and an advantage of digital menus.
Generating concepts - Low Fidelity prototype
To improve the current design of digital menus we had a brain storming session getting as many design ideas as we could. We ultimately found a couple ideas that felt like they could be promising and made some low fidelity prototypes.
After some testing with the low-fidelity ideas, we had one idea that stood out above the rest. We decided to create a digital menu experience that we called "Tinder for food menus." Users would swipe left and right to indicate yes or no to food items. This provided two main advantages over other digital menus: large images for each menu item and a more interactive way to choose a meal.
Next Iteration - Progressive Disclosure
After testing our designs, we found that users were not engaging with much of the information and had difficulty swiping in the correct direction. As a result, we decided to develop another iteration for testing next week.
We also opted to elevate the designs to a higher level of fidelity, utilizing the branding and styling of a well-established company. Specifically, we chose to incorporate elements from Olive Garden and offer users a selection of main entrees to choose from.
