The Chicken republic app is a concept app created as part of my Google UX design program. It is a custom food ordering, rewards and payment app for lovers of chicken republic. This app was designed to improve the customer experience for working professionals, people on the go and those in need of quick access to their favorite restaurant's menu via their mobile phone.

Role: UI/Ux Designer

Industry: Fast-food restaurants

Duration: 8 weeks

Responsibilities: User research, Wire framing, Visual Design, Prototyping, Usability Testing.

Tools: Figma

How can we make ordering from chicken republic comfortable and easier for busy adults?

Students and working adults have too many obligations that keep them from visiting the restaurant in person. These customers will choose to have their meals somewhere else if they can't rely on the restaurant to bring their meals on time. 

People want to enjoy their favorite chicken republic meals whenever it is convenient for them without necessarily being present in the restaurant or enduring long wait periods.

Chicken Republic is a Nigerian fast food chain and franchise that specializes in chicken recipes especially fried chicken. The company is arguably Nigeria’s largest chicken restaurant chain with outlets scattered across the country.

 I chose chicken republic for this project because their affordable meals and good ambience is often tainted by their poor service. Some of the restaurant reviews and ratings can be found on TripAdvisor. I believe the app will be a great way for customers to enjoy better service from the restaurant . Visit their website here.

Mobile apps are improving customer experiences across many businesses, and the restaurant sector is no different. With the chicken republic app ordering is easier for customers and it could help reduce lines and improve efficiency of the restaurant itself.

Understanding the users

I paid a visit to the chicken republic restaurant closest to me. From my time there, I realized that most of the restaurant offerings were tailored to students, working adults, families and friends looking for a good meal. With this in mind, I decided to interview some people from my friend pool who fit into the established user groups and also patronize the restaurant.

I prepared a script for my interview to ensure consistency and hopped on a video call with the participants during their free time. After the interview I converted my findings into an aggregated empathy map. The empathy map helped me get into the users mindsets allowing me to better understand their needs and frustrations. 

After identifying the user pain points I moved on to build 2 user personas. My personas are fictional characters based on the common themes I discovered from my interviews. 

The user personas were a great way for me to connect with the mindset of our users and empathize with them. Meet David the ambitious student Intern and Lisa the diligent Head Teacher.

I did a competitive audit of brands and companies who offer similar products and cater to the same audience as chicken republic. I compared the apps and websites of these brands to analyze their strengths and weaknesses. From my audit I was able to recognize a few gaps that can serve as opportunities for the chicken republic app.

Preparing the journey...

I constructed a user flow on figma to show the path a user would take from the entry point to the final interaction. This helped me visualize how the user would navigate the app and the different ways they can interact with the product. 

Step one wireframes!!

The first step in my ideating process is to construct paper wireframes. I started by researching already existing products and websites in the restaurant space for inspiration. Then I put my pen to paper to build out my own designs. After several iterations, I selected the paper wireframes best suited for solving the user pain points and converted them to digital wireframes with figma.

Testing early concepts....

I created a low fidelity prototype from the digital wireframes to be tested in a usability study. My goal was to assess how easy it was for users to complete core tasks in the design before making the final mockups.

The usability study was carried out remotely in the participants homes. Each session was 40 minutes long, including an introduction, a list of tasks and a short questionnaire. 

Feedback and Iteration

The usability study helped me to gain more insights from the users on the parts of the app that needed more work.  It was exciting to hear some participants suggest new features that would be useful to the app. I practiced using an affinity map to extract themes and patterns needed to help me build effectively towards an improved version of the prototype. Then I prioritized the insights and came up with ideas for the next iteration.

Making some changes 

I proceeded to make some changes to the checkout and delivery pages based on the feedback received from the usability study. Users now have an option to make payments with cash and also save their last location in the address book to enhance a better experience while using the app. To cancel orders users can proceed to the new my orders section under the menu tab.

What about a loyalty program?

Many business owners will agree that it's a lot easier to sell to repeat customers than new customers which is why I came up with Chicken Republic Rewards. I had a lot of options in mind for this project so to decide on what would work best for the users I put out a survey.

Introducing Chicken Republic Rewards

Going with the results of the survey, I designed a loyalty program for the app which would allow new and repeat customers to get points from every purchase they make on the app. These points can then be used for payments and in exchange for gift items. I think this feature would be great for business and delightful to users.

Chicken Republic is a bold and inviting brand. The restaurant uses a lot of red colour with yellow accents in their branding, which I also incorporated in my mockups. I went with a sans-serif typeface, Lato, because it is simple, offers many styles, and complements the rest of the design well. I also used simple icons that are easily recognisable and interface-friendly. 

Accessibility provides usability for people who interact with products differently. From my google program we were taught to approach accessibility as a facet of user experience rather than a checklist of requirements. To make the product more accessible here are some of the accessibility considerations put in place

Hearing from the users

The improved prototype with some added features and the loyalty program was shared online for more feedback from friends and people in my social circle. Here is what some of the users had to say - 

We did it thank you Google!!

Putting together my first case study was not as easy as I thought it would be. It took hours of pouring through YouTube videos reviewing design principles and speaking with users time and time again. 

The beauty of Ux design is that you get to think outside of yourself and challenge your own biases to build out the ideal experience for the user which is fun but also challenging. From here I would like to dive deeper into making inclusive designs and understanding how to make my designs more accessible for people of all abilities.