A UX/UI Case Study: Re-developing the chef experience with an innovative portal that supports time management, meal plan customization, and revenue analytics.
Project Insight
Project Type: Real world project
Project Context: Chef Post provides a unique culinary experience by sending a professional chef to your location. They collaborate with you to create a customized meal plan tailored to your tastes, ensuring each dish is both delightful and nourishing. Whether for a special occasion or a personalized meal at home, Chef Post is committed to bringing your culinary dreams to life.
Challenge: As impressive as Chef Post's services are, their dedicated chefs were having issues utilizing the portal that was given to them when it came to adjusting their schedules, meal plans, and tracking their revenue progress. So, my team and I dedicated our efforts to transform the current portal into a chef's command center that provides interactive information, empowering them to effortlessly manage their availability, adjust menus, and track their revenue.
Results: Due to time constraints, my team and I worked closely with the client to focus on the portal's essential feature, "Time Management." The new design allows chefs to view their schedules in various formats and adjust plans for multiple days. These improvements enhance usability and performance, enabling chefs to concentrate on providing exceptional service’s to their clients.
Collaboration project: Brandon Tsukano, Ronald Cruz, and Myself
Role - UX Designer & Researcher
I conducted user research to understand the needs, pain points, and workflows of our chefs through interviews, and usability tests, using various methodologies to base our design decisions on real user experiences.
Tools
Figma
Excel
Notion
Slack
Project duration - 2 weeks
Research Methods
User Interviews Affinity Map Persona Usability Testing
Getting Down to Business
At the outset of this project, the CTO indicated that his chefs were occupied with providing an exceptional experience for their clients, which meant we needed to communicate directly with him to identify the chefs' pain points. I requested that he guide me through the current portal from the chef's perspective, highlighting any issues encountered. This approach effectively aligned our efforts and clarified the project's requirements.
Chef Post's Chief Technology Officer observed that many chefs faced significant challenges when trying to navigate through the complex and often convoluted portal. This difficulty hindered their access to vital resources, such as adjusting meal preparation times, updating detailed meal plans, and effectively tracking their progress. As a result, chefs frequently found themselves making calls to management or customer support, which led to wasted time and ultimately had the potential to reduce overall revenue for the business.
After identifying the pain points with the CTO, I conducted usability tests with five diverse participants of varying familiarity with the portal on my own. Each 30-minute session involved guiding them through the interface while encouraging discussion about their experiences. I focused on navigation ease, clarity, and overall satisfaction. This structured format allowed me to gather detailed feedback on features, pain points, and improvement suggestions.
Pain Points & Frustrations
Lets jump in and see what the users were saying.
Dashboard
Putting the interviewees into a chef's perspective, it was crucial for them to see their booking details first so that they could easily prepare for the customer and cater to their specific needs. Thus, viewing the services offered, revenue generated, and customer reviews were not a top priority when evaluating the portal at first glance. Furthermore, they expressed confusion about why they were unable to press the button to access and review the booking details directly.
Instead, they had to utilize the hamburger menu to navigate to the booking details, which may not seem like much of a hassle at first glance, but when the chefs need to be informed quickly and efficiently, it becomes an obstacle that is truly unnecessary and complicates the overall process.
Adjusting Time
Users were frustrated with the welcome message, which distracted from adjusting the time. They suggested a more direct approach with "Adjust Time" prominently displayed.
The "Hours Action" initially presented quite a challenge for users, as it appeared to be somewhat limited to the functionality of only adding or removing specific hours. This limitation led to considerable confusion and uncertainty among users regarding how to effectively remove entire days from their schedule, leaving many unsure of how to proceed.
Users reported that the initial display of the entire week's schedule, particularly when day numbers were absent, created unnecessary cognitive load and hindered their ability to quickly select specific dates. This design choice led to frustration and inefficiency in the user experience.
Chef’s Availability
Participants indicated that the calendar's small size and lack of clarity significantly hindered their ability to accurately select the intended dates. This issue resulted in unintended selections and considerable frustration, ultimately negatively impacting the overall user experience and reducing satisfaction with the tool.
Product Listing Page
Users expressed considerable frustration with the hidden and somewhat inconvenient location of the meal adjustment option, which required excessive and unnecessary scrolling to locate. This lack of visibility significantly hindered their ability to quickly and efficiently modify their meal plans as needed, leading to a less satisfactory user experience overall.
Must scroll to the right to see the “Action Tab”
What People Are Saying
“It's so hard to change availability.”
“Calendar on mobile is not utilizing the entire screen, really hard to read.”
“Booking detail page has repetitive information.”
“How do I remove the entire day from my schedule?”
“Why cant I click any of the buttons on the dashboard.”
Persona: “The go Getter”
Gloria Travera
Status: Married
Occupation: Executive Chef
Location: Florida
Description: Gloria, a seasoned executive chef, balances high-profile private dining events with the operational demands of Chefpost. While she thrives on creating unforgettable culinary experiences, she values quality time with her family, including vacations upstate. However, the current portal's complex interface hinders her ability to efficiently manage her availability, leading to scheduling conflicts and increased stress.
To address these challenges, Gloria needs:
A more intuitive and user-friendly interface would allow her to quickly and easily navigate the portal, saving time and reducing frustration.
A streamlined process for adding, removing, or modifying availability would enable her to maintain control over her schedule and avoid scheduling conflicts.
Easy access to important information, such as upcoming events, bookings, and performance metrics, would help her stay organized and informed.
A well-designed portal would minimize the time spent on administrative tasks, allowing Gloria to focus on her culinary passion and spend more quality time with her family.
Creating the Problem statement:
To create the most effective and comprehensive problem statement for Gloria, I carefully combined her various frustrations with her specific needs, ensuring that I thoroughly explored her perspective, until the most suitable and appropriate one was ultimately formulated.
Gloria, a busy professional, needs a streamlined and adaptable agenda on her dashboard to maximize her productivity. This tool should allow her to efficiently manage appointments, optimize her schedule, and ultimately free up more time for her family and customers.
Gloria needs a thoughtful agenda on her dashboard to easily adjust her schedule. She aims to manage her time wisely, providing quality service to her customers while also ensuring she spends meaningful time with her family.
Gloria is struggling to balance the demands of her career with her desire to spend quality time with her family. An intuitive and flexible agenda on her dashboard could empower her to better manage her time, ensuring she dedicates sufficient attention to both her professional and personal life.
I chose to focus on this problem statement because it highlights the frustrations many users experience with the current portal. It’s clear how much a simple work tool can significantly impact both an individual's personal and professional life, and I truly empathize with those affected by these challenges.
Image used for representation only
Personal info:
Sketches to Mid-Fidelity Wire Frames
While carefully sketching the new design, incorporating all the valuable feedback that was received from our users, we wanted to make sure to keep the overall design simple enough so that the chefs can spend minimal time managing it.
This approach will allow them to focus more on catering to their clients' needs, as well as enabling them to enjoy quality time with their loved ones without the stress of complicated systems.
After bringing the initial sketches to life and creating a mid-fidelity prototype, the crucial next step was to demonstrate that the design would function as intended. We ran comprehensive task for approximately 7 individuals 10 minutes each to see if they could navigate through the portal utilizing the time management feature.
Carefully measure the success rate in completing this task. This thorough evaluation was essential to ensure that the design met user expectations and requirements effectively.
User Testing Takeaways
The absence of clear date and time indicators within the interface led to confusion and uncertainty.
The inability to easily remove entire days from the schedule hindered efficient task scheduling.
Multi-step processes for simple tasks created unnecessary friction and slowed down user interactions.
Small font sizes made it difficult to read information, especially for users with visual impairments or on smaller screens.
A lack of visual consistency throughout the interface made it difficult to navigate and understand.
The inability to personalize the interface to individual preferences hindered user satisfaction.
The Re- Design
After receiving valuable usability test feedback, we acted quickly to implement necessary adjustments due to tight time constraints. We revised the scheduling system to enhance user experience. Users can now view their schedules in monthly, weekly, daily, or list formats. They can select multiple days and enter specific hours or remove an entire day, simplifying time management.
The new dashboard gives a clear view of schedules and the current month is displayed at the top in bold, allowing users to keep track of upcoming bookings and possible earnings.
Now you can seamlessly and easily select specific days you need to adjust by simply choosing them directly from the convenient calendar interface. This feature enhances usability and provides a more intuitive experience.
Effortlessly remove an entire day from your busy schedule without the need for specifying exact hours or making complex changes. This straightforward approach greatly simplifies your planning process and effectively enables you to save valuable time.
Outcomes
Chefs can now conveniently view their schedules in a variety of formats, including monthly, weekly, daily, and list views, thanks to the helpful dashboard and user-friendly time management tools available to them. They also have the ability to easily adjust their plans for multiple days at once, which allows them to manage their time effectively and serve their customers more efficiently. These innovative features significantly enhance usability and assist users like Gloria Travera in seamlessly controlling and organizing their schedules.
Research
More informational content significantly aids users in navigating tasks effectively and efficiently. When information is clear, concise, and relevant, it reduces confusion and greatly enhances overall understanding. This clarity not only allows users to accomplish their tasks with greater ease but also fosters a more positive experience when interacting with the material.
Personal take aways
Design
Teamwork in product design brings in different viewpoints and skills, resulting in more creative solutions. Working together promotes open communication, helping to spot and fix problems early. In the end, this combined effort improves customer satisfaction by creating a product that meets their needs and expectations.
Next Steps
To focus our efforts on developing a more effective and informative product page. This enhancement will assist chef’s in reaching their culinary goals more efficiently. Additionally, my team and I aim to continuously improve our designs through further collaboration and partnerships with Chefpost, ensuring that we provide the best possible offerings.
