It is 8 pm after a tiring work day, I am hungry and in no mood to cook a meal. A decision to quickly gobble some food at my regular hotel is dashed by a sudden pouring of rain. “Ah Bengaluru, never change ” I mutter to myself as I switch to plan B, ordering via a food app.
“ But its raining and the prices are going to shoot up ” — or not as I remember I am a Swiggy SUPER subscriber.
App decided, I am walking to my home from my drop-off point and simultaneously searching for something to order only to frustratingly tap for over a minute on the homepage which is presented like this:
Tired, un-decided, and after many taps with a cold, shaky hand, I simply go to my orders page and re-order my regular meal. Meal arrives, hunger is killed but the experience is still stuck in my head.
Come to think of it , the homepage is way too complicated for people like me and there can be a better way of presenting information.
I am a product designer, so if i pitch the issues in an effective manner, the designers at Swiggy can take it forward.
So dear Swiggy, could you please take a look at your homepage?
Framing the problem
When you need input from different stakeholders, it is necessary to first frame the problem and extract a problem statement. So here is some context for when it occurs and why:
What is the purpose of the homepage ? — CURATION
Ideally the homepage should be brief while offering the most relevant dishes/restaurants to the user.
So keeping the experience in mind, the problem statements can be framed as:
- Reduce rouge taps causing customer frustration — Increase usability.
- Help users find food they may love by decreasing repeating information and simplifying discovery — Improve discovery of dishes.*
*Swiggy Go has been launched but its still a developing product ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Solving for the user.
Problem statement in hand lets find out 3 types of customers — Personas — that are affected by the problems listed above. Following this we may be able to sort features in the order of importance for each.
- Type 1— Rare user. Only uses it as a last resort or with favorable offers. Actively looking for bargains. Prefers the best offers to be visible upfront. Willing to sacrifice on experience for price.
- Type 2 — Regular user. Likes to order under 150 rupees. Willing to order for larger amounts when there is a special occasion. Likes a mix of good offers and different food types with occasional special meals.
- Type 3— Rare user. Price is not a concern and is looking for speed, quality, experience. Strongly prefers high quality dishes and fast delivery from the best restaurants.
What adjustments would improve the user experience for listed types of people? Are the problem statements accurate?
- Reducing repeating information should help all 3 types get their items faster or nudge them to search. Risk of disrupting established habits exists.
- Lowering the amount of options on the homepage may help these users decide faster. Too little and its a wastage of arguably the most important part of the app
- Looking for possible way to club information or move some components to other tabs, can help in reducing clutter, which increases usability. Likely to be a double edge sword as simply moving items for no reason will just create confusion elsewhere on the app.
Okay enough text, time to visualize the homepage redesign.
The overall theme is the bringing simplicity to the homepage. Swiggy’s current layout is similar to Zomato, offering many carousels on the homepage. However the layout works against people short on time and the options overload users seeking to just order food quick.
This is just one suggestion. There are 2 more personalized variants of this design that depend on user behavior but have been omitted here for the sake of brevity.
Bonus points to the design system, almost every component in the redesign was taken from existing blocks via screenshots and it doesn't break the flow.
Swiggy is a live service, which means the app is never in a single design stage.
Over the course of writing the article, Swiggy Go launched, they shipped at least 3 different variants of reviews, improved the location component, are continuously updating the homepage and probably 10’s of small changes I may not have even noticed.
I appreciate the speed of iteration & hope these inputs are taken into consideration by the team, come the next homepage design sprint.
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Regards
Ganeshaaa ^_^
