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Individual Case Study
Research, UX Design, UI Design
12 Weeks
09.19.2022 - 12.09.2022
Figma, FigJam
Adobe Creative Cloud
The pandemic fueled food delivery, accelerating the mass adoption of ghost kitchens. These are delivery-only kitchens without physical storefronts or dine-in areas, allowing restaurants to streamline their operations, cut costs, and increase efficiency, reaching larger audiences through online ordering and delivery platforms.
Finding a ghost kitchen that meets your restaurant’s needs is hard. Restaurant owners lack the knowledge, time and resources to properly do so, which has led to a 35% failure rate in ghost kitchen contracts. (John H. Meyer, 2022).
A matchmaking platform where restaurant managers and ghost kitchen managers can list their businesses, filter through their specific requirements, find their perfect match and reach out!
Tell us what type of kitchen you’re looking for: location, budget, size and more!
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Visit different kitchens’ profiles to get a closer look at what they’re offering.
Message ghost kitchen representatives directly through the app’s chat feature.
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By utilizing the human-centered design process, it was possible to discover the specific causes behind the dysfunctional relationship between restaurants and ghost kitchens, identify pain points, and effectively translate them into a design solution.
For an in-depth visualization of each stage in the design process, please visit the website through a desktop computer.
The secondary research provided valuable context as it revealed the main problem: there is a 35% failure rate in ghost kitchen contracts. This market insight served the primary research and guided the interviews and surveys.
Covid-19 accelerated the mass adoption of ghost kitchens as food delivery orders surged and restaurants had to adapt.
Restaurant owners were desperate for ghost kitchens but lacked knowledge, leading to improvisation and failure.
Interviews and surveys were conducted to restaurant managers, ghost kitchen managers and their staff. They revealed several issues in finding, collaborating with, and operating within ghost kitchens, which were all causing their high failure rate.
80% of restaurant managers working with ghost kitchens claim the process of finding them was daunting.
70% of ghost kitchen managers claim that most restaurants that reach out are far from being a potential match.
90% of managers in both ends claim to lack basic information about the other party upon meeting.
By identifying trends among the interviewees and survey responders I was able able to consolidate the research into three main pain points. The pain points were addressed by questioning how might their exact opposite experiences be achieved.
Looking for ghost kitchens that meet your needs is challenging. The process lacks clarity.
There is a lack of transparency from both restaurants and ghost kitchens before meeting.
Internet results focus on ghost kitchens tailored for big chains rather than small businesses.
How might the ghost kitchen search process be optimized and simplified?
How might managers from both ends access the information they need easily?
How might ghost kitchens tailored for small restaurants be spotlighted?
To address the design opportunities, it was crucial to conduct a more in-depth exploration of the users' pain points. To achieve this, two user personas (a restaurant manager and a ghost kitchen manager) were developed along with their corresponding journeys.
Studying the user personas and their corresponding journeys helped translate the design opportunities into feasible solution proposals, setting the beginning of the ideation process.
How might the ghost kitchen search process be optimized and simplified?
How might managers from both ends access the information they need easily?
How might dark kitchens tailored for small restaurants be spotlighted?
Centralizing the process?
Matchmaking restaurants with ghost kitchens based on filters?
Facilitating their communication through in-platform messaging?
Profile pages for restaurants and ghost kitchens?
Making it mandatory to include certain information?
Rewarding transparency?
Reviews?
Making them traceable by categorizing kitchens?
Option to sort results by size or client type?
Flowcharts were curated to get a bigger picture of the proposed solutions and see how they could blend with each other.
The flowcharts helped determine the overall UX, but UI design still required exploration before prototyping. It was unclear wether the solution would be app or web based, so both formats were considered for user testing.
The interaction of the potential end-users with working prototypes led to a more profound evaluation of the designs. This allowed them to experience the UX more vividly, sparking a productive dialogue that came with constructive feedback.
User feedback was addressed with the following decisions and design updates.
Once the updates had been implemented to the design system, the final UIs were crafted.
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An extended prototype was put together, showcasing the app's entire system and how its pages and features coexist in it.
Ghost kitchens are new to the restaurant industry and many still struggle to understand how they actually work. An educational feature that highlights the potential benefits of renting one could incentivize use among restaurant owners that aren’t too familiar with the concept.
Although user testing proved that a mobile app was the optimal format for the MVP, certain managers pointed out that a website would eventually be required to enhance the platform's accessibility in the workplace. This is because some employees use tablets and desktops, and they may need to check for Kitchen Katch updates occasionally.
The platform's primary focus was on the restaurant's end in the process of finding a ghost kitchen. Nonetheless, some interviewees believed that giving them the option to look for restaurants wanting to do business with ghost kitchens without having to wait for them to reach out could further enhance the matchmaking process.
As this was my first UX/UI design project intended for businesses rather than consumers, I encountered a new set of challenges. Reaching out to industry experts in the ghost kitchen industry for primary research was quite difficult. However, working with these professionals was enlightening since their feedback was more elaborate, specific, and data-driven than my previous non-business-targeting projects. This experience taught me the value of consulting experts and its impact on the solution’s effectiveness.
