Rutgers University Dining Services Mobile Application

Like so many other millions of students in America, students at Rutgers University lead very busy lives and often lack the time to plan their meals. By researching Rutgers students’ lifestyles and how it directly affects their nutrition and eating habits, it came to the fore that Rutgers University students’ experiences with the campus eateries and dining halls are not the most satisfying. For students with dietary restrictions due to personal choices or allergies, the dining experience is not entirely seamless and most try to just work around it. And so students could benefit greatly from additional assistance with meal planning.

🌐 LINK TO PROTOTYPE

Design Process

  1. Empathize - User Research

  2. Define & Discovery - Identify the challenges and pain points

  3. Ideate

  4. Prototype

  5. Test

  6. Implement

ROLE:

  • User Research

  • Contextual Inquiry - Interviews, Surveys-

  • Journey Mapping

  • Sketching

  • Wireframing

  • Screen Flows

  • Visual Design

TOOLS:

Adobe XD, Adobe Illustrator, GSuite, Pen & Paper

Objective

The objective of the app is to provide Rutgers University students with a quick and easy way to find the right food at the right time by providing an application that allows users to specify their food preferences, requirements, meal plan information, and anticipated location, and receive a list of establishments and foods that meet their needs. In addition, users will be able to place orders for takeout or delivery through the application, without the need for additional applications.

A true “one-stop” experience!

Challenges

  1. Diverse student population

  2. Large university with different systems throughout campuses

  3. Different eateries available across campuses

UX Methodology Implemented

Data & Insight Collection through User Interviews to best figure out

  • User Expectations

  • Pain Points

  • User Behavior Patterns

  • User Preferences

Personas & Journey Map Development reflecting Rutgers students with different nutritional lifestyles in order to clearly identify and fine-tune pain points with the current Rutgers food service system. Assets developed:

Capability Identification. Outlined user expectations and scenarios prioritizing a Minimum Viable Product. Developed:

  • Crazy 8-s

  • Wireframe

Designed a High-Fidelity Prototype. Used Adobe xd to develop an interactive prototype that allowed for internal heuristic testing, wireframe validation and Usability Testing.

Usability Testing allowed for recommendations and insights to be gathered, as well as feedback for future analysis.

IDENTITY MODELS DISCOVERED:

  • The speedster

  • The vegetarian

  • The foodie on a budget

  • The picky eater with an allergy

  • The healthy type

  • The chef

Quantitative Research

Several surveys were conducted to assess student satisfaction and uncover behavioral patterns.

SURVEY FINDINGS

When asked about the most important and least important factors that play into making the decision of where to eat, or grab a bite, our survey findings were reflective of several main points that came up on the conversational interviews. Out of all the students polled, 90% felt the most important factor was the value for their money as well as the ability to take their meals to go,  followed by how fast they can go through the overall transaction from ordering all the way to paying at 70%. It’s interesting to note that for the most part, students considered most of the factors on the survey of importance, or on neutral ground and worth considering. 

The contributing factors on a more neutral ground or split decisions were the ability to use their meal plan to pay, having healthier options and being able to pre-order and pick up their food or call for delivery and have the food brought to them.  

Most important factors vs. least important factors when choosing where to eat

Student food behavior between 10AM- 2PM vs. Dinner (past 2PM)

Overall dining experience

LOW FIDELITY SCHEMATIC WIREFRAMES

Prototype Test Results

The feedback received from the students was positive for the most part. Students considered the application to be ready for development. Most of the users complimented how the interface was smooth and easy to navigate, allowed them to customize their order, and also mentioned how the application layout is easy for beginners which will help them find information easily. Students also liked that they were able to access their profiles and review their RU Express balance. Overall we received great feedback and no major issues from the student’s perspective. Minor issues reported involved device compatibility for users using an older iPhone version, making the bottom navigation hard to see and experiencing slow transitions when swiping through the Menu. Testers were made aware the interface is a prototype with limited capabilities and functionality.

  • Menu navigation discrepancies

  • Bottom navigation labeling issues to be explored in future iterations

  • The peak hour indicator needs more descriptive labeling

  • Make Express Pay feature also accessible from the home page  

Conclusion and Next Steps

A college student’s life is incredibly and increasingly busy, which often comes at the expense of proper nutrition. The lack of which is detrimental to their mental and physical well-being. The purpose of this application is to help alleviate Rutgers University students’ stress and difficulty choosing nutritious meals that fit within their budgets, preferences, timeframes, and other parameters, by providing an intuitive interface with real-time data from participating local eateries.

The initial prototype was well received by students. Nevertheless, for future iterations, the most negative feedback from users tested should be analyzed in order to determine what changes can be made, what caused the negative feedback, and ultimately how to eliminate it or if there is a learning curve involved and how to alleviate it. 

Recommendations for design improvements:

  1. The peak hour indicator needs more descriptive labeling

  2. Bottom navigation labels need to be more intuitive. A few of the navigation icons are currently inactive which caused some confusion and the question as to what they are intended for. Future iterations will allow full functionality removing the inherent issue.

  3. In addition, beyond testing and initial implementation stages, the ultimate idea is to be able to integrate a small fleet of food delivery robots in order to expand delivery times and areas.