Problem Statement 🔍
Nova Sweets and Café faced challenges in providing a smooth and modern ordering experience to their customers. Customers had to rely on calls or WhatsApp to place orders, which caused delays and miscommunication. Also, there was no loyalty program to reward returning customers. The goal was to create a user-friendly mobile app that allows customers to easily browse the menu, place orders, and collect loyalty rewards—helping Nova grow their business and improve customer satisfaction.
Solution Overview 💡
To enhance the customer experience and increase sales, I designed a mobile app for Nova Sweets & Cafe. This app provides a seamless ordering process, real-time tracking, a loyalty rewards system, and a user-friendly menu browsing experience.
Project Summary 📖
Nova Sweets and Cafe is a popular and cozy place where customers enjoy delicious crepes and desserts. Before, customers ordered through the website, WhatsApp, or by calling. These options worked but were not always easy to use. To make ordering simpler and give customers a better experience, a mobile app was created.
Tool Used
My Role 👤
As the UX/UI Designer, I was responsible for:
- Conducting competitor analysis and user research.
- Creating user personas and user flows.
- Designing low-fidelity wireframes and high-fidelity UI screens.
- Building interactive prototypes.
- Designing loyalty rewards and filtering system.
- Ensuring responsive and user-friendly design.
Collaboration 🤝
Even though there were no developers involved yet, I worked closely with:
👨💼 Stakeholders – Ensuring business goals aligned with design decisions.
📢 Marketing Team – Making sure the app supported branding and promotions.
👥 Customers – Gathering insights to refine the user experience.
Exploration and Problem Statement 🔍
The journey to creating the Nova Sweets and Cafe app began with a deep dive into understanding our customers. I embarked on this exploration to uncover their needs, preferences, and pain points, ensuring the app we designed would truly resonate with them.
Initial Research 📊
Surveys 📋 : I sent out detailed surveys to our current customers, asking about their experiences with the website, WhatsApp, and phone orders. The aim was to gather quantitative data on how often they ordered, what they liked, and what they found frustrating.
Key Findings & Pain Points ⚡
From my research, I discovered:
❌ Navigation Issues – The website was confusing, leading to abandoned orders.
❌ Slow Process – WhatsApp and phone orders were inefficient.
❌ Lack of Engagement – Customers missed out on offers due to no notifications.
User Personas 👥
I created detailed user personas to represent different customer types, ensuring the app met real user needs
✔ The Busy Professional – Wants fast ordering and secure payments.
✔ The Dessert Lover – Wants customization options and rewards.
✔ The Social Shopper – Loves deals, sharing experiences, and trying new items.
Empathy Map ❤️
Using empathy maps, I captured the feelings, thoughts, and motivations of our users. This tool helped us to walk in our customers’ shoes and design with empathy, ensuring that the app met their emotional and practical needs.
User Journey Map 🗺️
I created user journey maps to visualize the steps our customers took when ordering desserts. These maps highlighted all the touchpoints and identified areas where the experience could be improved. This helped us pinpoint specific pain points and opportunities for enhancement.
Design Process ✏️
With a clear understanding of our users’ needs and pain points, the next step was to brainstorm ideas for the Nova Sweets and Cafe app. The goal was to come up with creative solutions that would address the identified problems and provide a seamless, enjoyable experience for customers.
Sitemap & Flowchart 📌
🗂️ Sitemap: Organized the app’s structure for intuitive navigation.
🔀 Flowchart: Mapped user interactions to ensure a smooth ordering process.
📌 Card Sorting
I conducted card sorting sessions with potential users to:
🔹 Organize menu items logically.
🔹 Improve navigation.
🔹 Align categories with customer expectations.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes:
I began by sketching low-fidelity wireframes to outline the app’s basic structure and navigation. These wireframes focused on the overall layout and functionality without getting bogged down in visual details. They helped in visualizing the flow and structure of the app early in the design process.
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes:
After refining the low-fidelity wireframes, I created mid-fidelity wireframes. These wireframes added more detail, including basic typography and imagery, to provide a clearer sense of the app’s visual design without finalizing the aesthetic elements.
High-Fidelity Wireframes🎨
Once the mid-fidelity wireframes were validated, I moved on to creating high-fidelity wireframes. These included detailed design elements such as colors, fonts, and images, providing a clearer representation of the final product.
Interactive Prototypes:
With the high-fidelity wireframes ready, I developed interactive prototypes. These prototypes allowed for user interaction and were used to simulate the app’s functionality.
Challenges & Solutions
| Challenge | Solution |
|---|---|
| Make app easy for first-time users | Designed a guided onboarding and simple navigation to help users understand how to use the app quickly. |
| Show large menu without overwhelming users | Added categories and filters to help users find items easily and keep the menu organized. |
| Encourage repeat customers | Built a Loyalty Rewards system to engage customers and motivate them to return. |
📌 Final Thoughts
This project helped me refine my skills in user research, UI/UX design, and mobile app development strategies. By integrating a loyalty program and an intuitive ordering experience, Nova Sweets & Cafe is set to improve customer retention and sales.