Reducing friction in the shopping experience within the mobile app of the largest pizzeria in the world
About
Considered the largest pizza chain in the world, present in 85 countries, and with more than 16,000 physical stores, Domino’s Pizza is consolidated in the market as a giant in the pizza production and delivery sector.
With more than 70% of sales coming from online orders (according to AWS), the company relies on Project 3TEN, an initiative focused on pizza collection in 3 minutes and distribution in 10 minutes, reducing delivery time and strengthening its differential in the market.
Project Overview
In the digital environment, the company has different mobile apps according to the country in which it operates, adapting navigation to the customs of the local people.
Today, the Brazilian version of the mobile app is rated 3.4/5 on the App Store, and among the main difficulties reported, the confusing navigation, the unintuitive interface, and the complexity of completing the purchase process stand out.
PRODUCT DESIGNER
12 WEEKS (2023)
TIMELINEROLESCOPERESEARCH ○ USABILITY TESTING ○ USER EXPERIENCE ○ IDEATION ○ PROTOTYPING ○ VISUAL DESIGN ○ UX METRICS
TOOLSFIGMA ○ MIRO ○ SURVEY MONKEY ○ GOOGLE MEET ○ NOTION
— PROBLEM STATEMENTThe app doesn’t have a native experience for mobile devices. The interface is an adaptation of the desktop website, resulting in complex, frustrating, and tiring navigation, which can contribute to low conversions and high bounce rates in the medium and long term.
— THE SOLUTIONA new design approach, focusing on an information architecture rethought for the native mobile app context and flows adapted to a simplified experience, enabling a buying process with fewer touches.
Goals
• Simplify navigation based on usability heuristics.
• Reduce complexity in the purchase flow by presenting key information and eliminating distractions at crucial points in the the journey.
• Raise the level of accessibility through WCAG guidelines.
Impacts
• 83.5 raw score on the System Usability Scale (SUS)
• 44% reduction in the number of touches needed to complete an order, from product page to end of checkout.
Meeting users and understanding their consumption patterns
Investigating the habits and motivations of those who will consume your product is a vital task to design an accurate solution. Through desk research, it was possible to map out relevant insights regarding heavy buyers (names given to those who order delivery more than once a week according to the survey carried out in 2022 by the British consultancy Kantar):
The study points out that among the people interviewed:
of Brazilians order food and other commodities by delivery once a week;
32%
of the main orders from Brazilians are Pizza and hamburgers;
65%
of purchases are made with discount coupons or loyalty programs;
75%
usually place their orders via aggregators (Uber Eats, Rappi, Just Eat).
66%
The collected data and some evaluations from the App Store based on the tasks requested in the first usability test, were applied remotely and moderately with delivery users to investigate their most latent pain points when using the real Domino’s app.
The main insights were:
Lack of visibility on product prices during pre-checkout;
Confusion about how the offers and promotions system works;
Doubts in the ingredient selection process;
Lack of immediate feedback when completing an action.
How might we make the buying process more intuitive? How might we make users feel confident that they have the information they need to make a decision?
Exploring market approaches
Through competitor analysis, it was possible to investigate how the market approaches potential solutions to problems similar to those documented in the initial tests. During this process, the focus was on studying the functionalities, flows, and interfaces of Domino's direct and indirect competitors.
Converging hypotheses to users' mental models
As a large part of the delivery public has the habit of placing their orders via aggregators, the strategic decision was to approach these consumers to understand how the reasoning behind their actions works.
The application of card sorting was paramount to analyzing how users assimilate different functionalities into predetermined categories in a way that makes sense based on the existing usage patterns in their subconscious. The purpose was to anticipate possible navigation frictions and reduce cognitive effort during decision-making in the new design perspective.
The categorization of functionalities resulted in a user flow carefully designed for a native experience in mobile applications, reducing possible distracting elements and relocating information with little relevance in strategic areas to allow navigation with little friction.
Translating ideas into design
After a solo brainstorming session that explored initial ideas through low-fidelity wireframes, a set of assets, including fonts, sizes, colors, icons, and spacing, was defined, resulting in a Style Guide for the new application design concept. Next, Figma was used to bring the solutions to life by building the interfaces.
Focus on needs-oriented choice
The new home has a structured organization of the components, showing in its first fold the preview of the products via pill menu, two of the company's main differentials (assemble your pizza and half and half) that reflect Domino's value proposition, and the most ordered products, benefiting the business by taking advantage of the momentum of the best-selling items to encourage users to purchase.
Unification of promotional systems
In the current mobile app, the use of different nomenclatures (promotions, discounts, coupons) as functionalities containing the same flow, is something that confuses users.
The new design has a tab dedicated to Domino’s discounts, which have now adopted a single name. Upon activating a coupon, the app reveals a one-page scrollable bottom sheet with visual feedback via the snack bar, offer requirements, and the products available only for that coupon.
Visibility of values in real time
Through a fixed bottom bar, users can see the subtotal price of the products they are adding to the bag, as well as value updates according to the addition or subtraction of unitary ingredients, avoiding the feeling of frustration when finding out how much they will pay only at the end of the process.
Action-based visual feedbacks
To reduce uncertainty scenarios, the new design features constant feedback from the actions taken by the consumer, enabling a better understanding by the user about what is happening at the current moment of their journey.
Sign in only once
When the user wants to order a delivery, it is expected that his only concern will be in choosing his order correctly in a way that satisfies his hunger.
With the “keep me signed in” checkbox, the redesign seeks to prevent the user from having to enter their email and password every time they open the app (a scenario that happens in the current experience), optimizing the purchase flow.
Validating the solutions
With the interfaces designed, a new round of moderated testing was applied (via Google Meet) using Figma to build navigable prototypes based on the tasks of making a purchase using the coupon and “build your pizza”.
The goal was to test the efficiency of both flows, from home to checkout, and to understand whether the information available in the new design was sufficient to guide users in their decision-making.
100%
of success rate on both tasks among all 4 people recruited
users did not perceive the requirements to be fulfilled in the selected coupon
3
After completing the tests, a SUS (System Usability Scale) form was sent to participants to assess the usability and efficiency of the new design, along with user satisfaction. The results were analyzed using the MeasuringU calculator.
83.5
was the raw score of the System Usability Scale
47
was the estimated score converted from SUS to NPS
With an estimated score of 47, the redesign could enter the Top 5 delivery apps with the highest NPS in 2020 (according to data released in the SoluCX survey), joining Ifood (59.8), Uber Eats (50.0), 99 Food (45.8) and Rappi (44.0).
Next steps
My approach would be to tabulate the test results and present them to stakeholders, the Design Lead/Manager, PM/PO, and other interested parties to collect their feedback and perceptions.
Then, during an alignment meeting, I would seek to understand our deadline, roadmap, and technical limitations so that we could assess, as a team, the cost and impact of implementing (or including in the backlog) the new fixes before the design enters the production environment.
My next step would be to understand the development team's priorities so that I could hand off the elements to be developed on time.
I would also be in full alignment with the design system team to inform them about the inclusion of possible new components.
Finally, I would monitor the implementation of each feature and use some initial metrics such as Conversion Rate, CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score), WAU (Weekly Active Users), and MAU (Monthly Active Users) to measure the impact of the developed solutions.
What I would do differently, Takeaways and Reflections
As the people who contributed to the case tend to place their orders via aggregators (mainly Ifood), I would restrict my efforts to recruiting users who are more familiar with Domino's mobile app for the application of tests and surveys.
That way, I believe my insights would be more accurate. Something I would also do differently, if I had the opportunity, would be to understand the company's OKRs to interpret whether the solutions proposed with the new design are in line with the medium and long-term goals of the business.
During the project, I had the opportunity to improve my hard and soft skills. I learned more about accessibility, navigation standards, and design guidelines for mobile apps.
I exercised my resilience during small changes in the design process from user feedback and practiced my communication while conducting tests, research, and presentation of concepts and whys behind my decisions.
With the conclusion of this project, I feel that I am prepared to face complex challenges and contribute to the business to reach even higher heights.
It is worth noting that this case is a fictitious project for personal study, having no direct relationship with the Domino's brand or company.