The Todfoo Restaurant Finder app
A concept app designed to help parents find kid-friendly restaurants
Role
- UX / UI Design
- User Research
- Interaction Design
Tools
- Pencil and Paper
- Sketch App
- Flinto for Mac
Problem
Parents need a better way to find kid-friendly restaurants to feel comfortable exploring new places with their kids. I believe that by creating an app for parents that rates restaurants on kid-friendliness will allow them to make decisions more confidently and quicker on where to eat.
Interviews
I conducted a total of 15 in person and webcam interviews of various parents and caretakers. I made sure to vary the pool of interviewees to make sure I had a range of parents with a variety number of kids, kid's ages, and areas they lived in.
Sample nterview Questions
- Tell me about the last time you took your child to a restaurant.
- As a parent/caretaker, what would you want to know about a restaurant before taking your child?
- What was the worst experience you had with your child/children at a restaurant?
- What is the greatest concern you have when taking your child to a restaurant?
INsights
Everyone's definition of what it means to be "kid-friendly" is different. While having changing tables in the restroom or room for a stroller might be benifitial for a parent with a baby, these acomodations aren't necessary for parents with older children.
You never want to be that parent with the screaming kid
Restaurant choosing factors
One of the questions I decided to ask interviewees was "What are factors you take into consideration before taking your child to a restaurant?" I received a lot of different answers and used the data to determine which I should use as different filters to add into the app.
Personas
After conducting my round of interviews, I found out there were two distinct groups of parents that would find this app useful.
- First there is the parent who usually lives in a large city and loves trying new and trendy restaurants. They usually don't frequent chain restaurants or ones that directly cater to children rather they would like to come to a restaurant prepared for what their child may need.
- Secondly, there is the parent that has their go-to kid-friendly restaurant list but just in case they want to try something different or they are in an unfamiliar area they would like suggestions on where to go.
Competitive analysis
I only found one other app devoted to finding kid-friendly restaurants for parents. However, I included other apps dedicated to reviewing businesses that had a lot of the same functionality as the TodFoo app. While Yelp seemed to hit most of the features profiled, the Kid-Friendly filter was only limited to a simple on and off toggle switch.
User Flow
One of the goals for the persona Martha would be to directly search for a restaurant by cuisine.
Sketches & Wireframes
Based on the interview feedback and the competitive analysis, key screens were sketched out which included:
- The Onboarding Page
- Homepage
- Results Page
- Restaurant Profile Page
Usability Testing & Iteration
When testing the low-fidelity prototype, most test subjects found the app relatively easy to use. With popular apps like Yelp and Seamless that have a similar design language, users were already familiar with the layout and applied their navigation
