Munch
Start-up Research Consultant
UX Researcher, 08/2022 - 01/2023
Background
I just moved to New York City in September. Fascinated by endless interesting restaurants, I was eager to find people to dine out with me.
At an open table, I met my project partner, who aims to create a platform to help people easily dine out with others in NYC.
Research Impact
Created 3 user personas -> Led to 2 product feature decisions
Conducted Usability Test -> Led to 2 feature updates -> 40% increase in user satisfaction
Research Objectives
The start-up team has 2 challenges:
Identify the target user groups
Understand the target users’ dining out needs and problems
To clearly understand people’s dining out needs and pain points, I suggested conducting generative user research and creating user personas.
We are at the first diamond phase (Discovery)
Research Questions
Who are the target users of our dining-out app?
Among the target users, what are their goals, motivations, and pain points when dining out with others?
What do people prioritize when dining out with others?
Identifying Assumptions
We assume that there might be two types of motivations for our users when dining-out with others:
A. Food-oriented; Discovering restaurants.
B. Social-oriented; Networking, making friends, and dating.
We want to understand if users’ motivations meet our assumptions, and which motivation our users prioritize.
Methodology
To find the right targeting user groups —> User Surveys
To dive deeper into users’ underlying goals, motivations, and pain points -> 1 on 1 user Interviews
To observe as a user -> Field Research
To discover trends and generate insights -> Quantitative analysis & Affinity Mapping
To identify user profiles and better empathize with users -> User Personas
Research Process
Recruiting Participants
We designed an intercept screening survey that includes demographic questions such as age, employment status, and marital status.
We distributed the intercept survey and generated 77 responses.
Identify Target Users:
From the quantitative analysis of 77 responses from intercept surveys, we discover that our target users might be single, actively seeking young professionals.
Quantitative Analysis
Then based on the target user groups, we conducted 8 user interviews by reaching out to 6 young professionals (5 single, 1 in a relationship) + 2 students from online dining-out group chats, existing networks, and food-related social media pages.
Research Findings
Goals & Motivations:
From the synthesis of 8 1-on-1 interviews, we discovered that:
People’s priority goal of dining out with others is food-oriented, which validates our first assumption.
People’s priority motivation for dining out with others is the intrinsic enjoyment of eating + exploring different cuisines, which further validates our first assumption.
There is the motivation for socializing, but it is secondary to food.
We are surprised to know that 6/8 people mentioned that they prefer to focus purely on food — people seem to care less about the social aspect of dining out. We are curious to understand why.
I did 6 follow-up interviews with previous participants about their reasons behind this and generated insights:
Eating is a ritualistic, intrinsic, and casual experience. Having expectations of making friends through dining out is socially demanding, especially in the already stressful NYC.
“It is stressful to have high expectations of making friends when dining out with strangers because it is hard to make one, so I wish to focus on food, and making friends is more like a plus.”
— Participant A
Pain Points:
Qualitative Analysis
The biggest pain point is coordination. It includes coordinating schedules, price ranges, food preferences, and locations.
Another pain point is related to identity. Participants mentioned that they were frustrated about being excluded or harassed due to race, age, and occupation.
Based on synthesis findings about users’ goals, motivations, and pain points, I generated 3 user personas for Munch:
User Personas
Defining problems / Design challenges
We are at the second half of the diamond (Define)
How might we create a dining-out experience that emphasizes purely enjoying food?
How might we create a dining-out experience that helps people easily coordinate with each other?
How might we create a dining-out experience that does not let people feel excluded or harassed due to their identities?
Insights & Recommendations
Design Implementation
What I have learned
Always ask “whys” with users. Nielsen Norman Group suggests at least asking 5 whys to users until you cannot ask more.
Always involve my teammates in research. It turns out that involving teammates in synthesis sessions helps generate different insights and eliminate personal biases.
What could be improved
Recruit equal numbers of participants from diverse ethnic groups. Ethnicity might influence our results, as people from different cultures might have different dining out customs and needs.
Distribute surveys online to minimize selection bias from intercept surveys.
Future Steps
Continue conducting generative user interviews with equal numbers of participants from different ethnic groups to understand if people from different cultural backgrounds have different dining out preferences.
Conduct a user survey (>300) to validate user personas.
Continue iterating with the prototypes and conduct usability tests.
