Grubhub UX Research

WashU-Grubhub is a specific Grubhub page for WashU students to access the food services on-campus which includes all the dining halls. It is an online ordering & pickup platform that makes people's lives easier. However, lots of students have unpleasant experiences related to the user experience, especially in the field of customer feedback/review, which could help to improve students' campus life as well as the elimination of food waste.

• The WashU-Grubhub service needs improvement regarding its user experience, including review functions and wait time estimation
• The WashU-Grubhub app needs a feature/function to create a more new-user-friendly environment
• The WashU-Grubhub app needs to find a way to build a more personalized experience for the users

• We have experienced inconvenience in our daily lives regarding the Grubhub issue about incorrect timing. People have tried to address this problem by ordering earlier than the actual estimated time.
• We have received many inquiries from many WashU students about the quality of the specific food or restaurant on campus. People have tried to address their needs by utilizing the social media platform to send information manually.
• We have received complaints regarding the outdated menu on Grubhub, as the sold-out indication function is unstable.
• People have indicated their need to have a customer service function on Grubhub for WashU, specifically for their better future experience regarding the quality of food, dining halls, and staff.

• General Washu students need to get their food on time in order to catch their school schedule
• WashU Students who have certain food restrictions and need the exact food that they ordered. This could also impact the student's family.
• WashU students who decide their food based on others' reviews
• Campus staff who need better communication with the app and the updated information regarding the students' orders & dining service stock

• Hard to collect survey data from the school staff. I plan to address this problem by focusing on students' experience instead
• Hard to analyze data for a broader audience if the survey results are collected from certain groups of students. I plan to navigate this limitation by sending the survey link to people in different year groups, genders, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds
• Sample size
• Bias in data/question interpretation because some students might interpret the objective and survey questions incorrectly. I plan to write the questions as clearly as possible and collect data in a relatively large sample size to address this inaccuracy.
• Limited resources for follow-up studies due to the busy school schedule

• We want to know how much time WashU students spent and wish to spend going through the options listed on the homepage of the app, so that we can decide whether we should show more information about the dining service there
• We want to learn about how people decide their food options in a certain dining hall so that we can rearrange certain information based on priority
• We want to learn about how people decide on their dining hall so that we can rearrange certain information based on priority

• Determine which feature on the GrubHub app most students prioritize
• Understand the working system of on-campus food service to improve the Human-Computer communication
• Connect the dining working system with the app efficiently
• Promote/encourage WashU students to write reviews/ratings for on-campus restaurants/food (writing reviews is time-consuming) to help build a more personalized and user-friendly environment

Survey

• This survey aims to gather valuable insights and feedback from WashU students regarding the WashU GrubHub Online Ordering service, which will be used to improve the service in the future
• The main focus on this survey is to find out students' needs and preference on customer reviews and ratings for our school dining halls and food choices in each of the dining places
• 13 questions, received 18 responses from students in different majors and year groups

Interviews

• To obtain a more detailed and personal description of how users feel about current WashU GrubHub App based on their own experience
• Interviewed 3 people

Heuristic Evaluation (Peer Analysis)

• To understand and study how other food review/online ordering platforms improve and worsen in their user experience
• Compared and analyzed the functions and interface in WashU GrubHub, UberEats, Yelp, and EveryoneReview, focusing on the review/rating features

1. They all have experienced inconsistent menu issue

• Online menu shows sold-out but still available if order in person
• Some pictures of certain dishes in the menu are irrelevant to the real dish

2. Two people have expressed their wish to have a reward-available and taste-targeted review function to help people decide food

"I enjoy using that review group chat because people there have similar taste, if they recommended something or don't recommend something, i would trust them"

• "If use on campus, discount useless since everyone is using my meal points. But a reward of account leveling up would be cool"
• "I will be more encouraged to write reviews if discount or coupon is offered"

3. Opposite ideas about the estimate timing on GrubHub due to its unstability

• "I think the approximate wait time is the best feature, like whether the order is being prepared and how many people ahead."
• "Worst feature: inconsistent stock, inaccurate timing"

4. Two interviewees who want to save time ordering food find GrubHub generally convient and useful

• "If in person, have to wait there physically in line or constantly check if the order is ready (waste of time)."

The personas are developed from the interviews.

Jess values most on efficiency and health & well-being, who is hardworking in every aspect of her life.

She does not have a habit of writing.

Jess's journey of using WashU GrubHub to make an online order includes 5 stages: Research about available dining places, Decide on a certain dish, Make a quick & customized order, Wait for the order to be ready, and her pickup experience when she gets to the dining hall.

This journey map can be useful for studying students who value efficiency or have a lot of back-to-back classes every day.

Alex values most the fun and the enjoyment of youth. He can spend a lot of time researching and deciding on food to find the best choice. He also loves to talk and share his ideas.

He has a habit of writing reviews.

Alex's journey of using WashU GrubHub to make an online order includes 5 stages: Discovery of this GrubHub app as a new user, Exploration of the features in the app as well as available dining options, Ordering food based on his exploration, Make a payment with his mealpoint, and sharing his experience with others.

This journey map can be useful to study students who are at the exploration stage and love to share/read comments.

Learnings

• Learned to develop a more detailed and user-targeted persona and journey map
• Learned to develop storyboards through several stages of testing
• Finished a user experience research study, starting from zero

For Future

• Have a more diverse interview for more people, preferably different genders, races, and year groups
• Reflect on previous stages of development more frequently

My Experience

• The journey map considers more specific stages for each user, and compared to the journey map for the last project, I include more aspects for this one
• Storyboarding is challenging because it is my first time designing a storyboard and many aspects are worth more time considering
• To improve this project, I would create a persona and journey map for more people to represent a more diverse and general WashU student group.