MiNu

UX STRATEGY, Product Design, Business pitch

Helping individuals make quicker and efficient food decisions at restaurants.

Overview

College + The Futur Creative Jam was a competition hosted by Adobe in the month of March. The goal of the competition was to create a perfect pitch that has a clear goal, value proposition and to envision the impact of the concept.

My Role

Interaction design, UX strategy, Product design, Business pitch

TEAM

Vignesh Sanathkumar, Akshat Prasad, Snehal Ladke

the Problem

Imagine you are out with a group of friends at a restaurant and are all super hungry. You quickly order something of the menu, but

There is always one person in a group who takes a lot of time make up their mind.

People often experience decision paralysis thanks to a range of choices of restaurants, dish types and customization options

How might we reduce the cognitive load of options and empower people to make quicker decisions while ordering food?

KEY FEATURES

CONCISE OPTIONS GENERATED BY AI

The app’s AI algorithm recommends 3 options on the homepage based on learned behavior and previous choices.With time, the AI will learn your food choices based on mood, time of the day and suggest your choice of comfort food, healthy food, etc.

AUTOCHOOSE

If you’re not in the mood to choose an entire meal for yourself, then Minu can curate a food-list for you (much like a Spotify playlist), based on the app’s understanding of your behavior and moods.

FUN ONBOARDING PROCESS

Kickstart your journey with Minu with a quick and fun quiz that helps train the AI and also self-reflect on your food preferences.The app continues to learn the more you use it, and every recommendation improves with usage.

BRAINSTORM & SKETCH

Our objective was to understand the factors that led people to make decisions when they order online or visit restaurants. Based on that, we started mapping out some generic flow on each insight we got from our research phase.

Decision paralysis can affect people of all ages, especially between 18 - 38 years old. But why?

OVERWHELMING DECISIONS

A large menu with too many options can be overwhelming, and people may find it difficult to make a decision when they feel like they need to evaluate and compare numerous options.

PERFECTIONIsM

Some people have a tendency towards perfectionism, and may feel like they need to make the "perfect" choice when ordering food. This can lead to indecision and decision paralysis.

DECISION FATIGUE

People have limited cognitive resources, and making decisions can be mentally taxing. When people are presented with a long list of options, they may become mentally fatigued, making it difficult for them to make a decision.

FEAR OF MISSING OUT (FOMO)

When people are presented with a long list of options, they may worry that they are missing out on something better or more appealing. This can make them hesitant to commit to a particular dish, leading to decision paralysis.

Understanding My AUDIENCE

We reached out to a few friends and tried to understand their decision making process, their mindset, other factors that goes into play.

Here's what they had to say

" I only try something new if I’m really in the mood for it. And even then, there needs to be an element of familiarity to the dish, like chicken or a familiar spice.Price matters to me as a student, so I try to assess how much quantity I will get for a certain amount. Overall 7-10mins for decision making. "

" I just open UberEats and see what jumps out at me.Even so, my decision making process is fairly long, like 15-20 mins. If I know exactly what I’m in the mood for, like a burger from Mcdonalds, then it doesn’t take time for me to decide. "

" My food ordering habits depend on the weather, time of the day, and how my day has gone in general. Food choices are just on what type of mood I am in. Usually my decision making is quick, because I order what is tried and tested. "

Key Insights

BALANCE

For people to have control over their choices and still receive assistance- Flexibility and balance is key.

LACK OF FAMILIARITY

If people are not familiar with the cuisine or ingredients on a menu, they may feel uncertain about what to order. This uncertainty can make it difficult for them to make a decision, leading to decision paralysis.

VALUE FOR MONEY

If people feel dissatisfied with their order, one of their first thoughts is around making a bad investment.

TIME PRESSURE

If people feel rushed or pressured to make a decision quickly, they may become stressed and anxious, making it difficult for them to choose a dish.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

After mapping out the factors that play into people's decisions, we sat down and ideated on the feature list which in turn helped us build the information architecture of the app.

WIREFRAMES & EXPLORATIONS

Based on the flow, we developed low fidelity screens for an app that helped us visualize how we could create an experience through navigation, hierarchy and components.

BRANDING

We wanted out brand to be authentic, trustworthy and simple to use.

THE OUTCOME

2nd Place Winners of the Adobe Creative Jam competition which witnessed the participation of 76 teams worldwide. The panel of judges included Chris Do, Ben Burns, and Danielle Marimoto.

Some of our next steps that we’d like to explore at some point in the future would be:

1) Test with more users - restaurants, wait staff and general public
2) Expand the idea of how this product would work when there are group orders.
3) Register the product on Kickstarter and secure funding for further development.