Role
Product Designer, Solo
Area of Impact
Design Strategy, UX Reworking, UI / Visual
Project Duration
2 Hour Redesign Challenge
Intro
Beli is a mobile application I frequently use for ranking, sharing, and discovering restaurants. One of my favorite parts about Beli, in comparison to other similar platforms like Yelp or Google Maps, is the social aspect. I love seeing what restaurants my friends have been trying and recommend (or hated), because after all, I trust the opinions of my close network more than the opinions of strangers online – especially when it comes to food.
While I am a huge fan of the app and intend to use it after every restaurant experience, I realized that I often forget to write down my feedback in Beli or retroactively input my ratings weeks later when I would randomly remember. After talking to a handful of other Beli users and realizing this challenge was not unique to me, I was inspired to do this quick redesign sprint to improve this experience.
A real conversation between my friends, which I could relate to.
The Problem(s) at Hand
Beli's current UX frames the rating & reviewing process as an afterthought rather than a seamless process of documenting ones real-time experience at a restaurant. This delayed behavior causes a snowball of other pain points:
Users have complained that when they look back at their list, they are surprised because they feel like the rankings are off or arbitrarily ranked based off of vague memories.
There's no way to take photos directly in Beli as the food comes out, even though most people naturally snap photos at the very beginning (#phone-eats-first). Consequently, these photos end up just sitting in users' camera rolls unless they remember to dig it up for Beli later on.
Users tend to snap photos of good-looking food and remember to rank it later on if it was a positive, memorable experience. As a result, Beli profiles often leave out mediocre or bad experiences (which are equally as important and interesting to see), causing Beli to be more of a highlight reel than an accurate library of true food experiences and recommendations.
The Proposed Solution
Have Beli be a part of a user's end-to-end IRL experience at a restaurant. I want to craft a simple user experience that invites checkpoints into Beli throughout the user's restaurant experiences, from start to finish, rather than as an after thought. The goal is not to revamp the whole UX, but instead enhance the flow as it exists now.
Journey mapping
to identify opportunities.
Channeling users' inner food critic
I focused on the behaviors of a food critic when considering the ideal user experience for documenting real-time restaurant feedback. While we don’t want to replicate a critic’s intensity and seriousness at the table for a product like Beli, we can draw inspiration from certain aspects of their approach.
Identifying opportunities for Beli based on a food critic's user journey. The green stickies indicate things I ended up incorporating into the revamped UX flow.
User flow revamp
to incorporate checkpoints in Beli.
Reducing the need to learn new behavior.
When I was designing the new user flow, my main focus was aligning each step as closely as possible with the user's actual dining experience. A common misconception is that adding more steps makes the process more cumbersome, but in this case, it actually reduces cognitive effort.
This user flow has three checkpoints where users will naturally return to the app to complete a portion of the ranking process.
By including additional steps and checkpoints, we can better integrate the Beli flow with how users typically interact at restaurants so it feels more natural. This not only makes it easier for them to leave thoughtful & authentic reviews, but also enhances their holistic app experience by promoting more accurate ratings, personalized suggestions, and heightened engagement with friends.
Lock screen
widgets & live activity reminders.
Gentle reminders that reduce the user's responsibility to remember to go onto Beli.
Two key checkpoints are accessible directly from the lock screen: a persistent 'Quick Log' widget and a live activity display. Bringing Beli's experience to the lock screen invites prompt, real-time interactions and serves as a reminder for users to engage with the app. The live activity display also nudges users to complete actions they've started, keeping them on track.
Introducing two new lock screen UI components.
The solution
in a conceptual prototype.
A flow that allows users to pause and enjoy the IRL moment.
With three checkpoints in the overall ranking experience, users can start a log by snapping pictures (as they usually would) or jogging the restaurant name, then exit out of the app to enjoy a phone-free dining experience, and seamlessly re-enter the ranking experience directly from the lock screen.
Starting a log.
Tasting in progress.
Finishing up the ranking (experience truncated in this video).
Reflections
and takeaways from this sprint.
App experiences that encourage real-time involvement work the best when you allow for moments for users to pause and resume.
I think the most powerful parts of this redesign were 1) identifying easier entry points for users to initially engage with the app, 2) creating moments for users to pause and enjoy the actual dining experience, and 3) displaying a prominent CTA / re-entry point for users to return to the app without having to think about it.
Just a handful of the core screens in this redesign :) I am not affiliated with Beli, and this was an idea produced off of assumptions and personal experience – it may not actually align with Beli's business goals and overall vision.
The solution can be simple, it doesn't always require a full re-haul of a platform to change the way users interact with it.
Thanks for stopping by! For more detailed info on my experience at this role, contact me :)