When I joined the Eatology team, they were in the process of shipping their Giveaway feature with the purpose of driving user value and increasing onboarding rates. Subsequently, our mission began with rigorous trials, brainstorming sessions, and redesign efforts aimed at improving the Eatology platform. Our journey encompassed enhancing the website, SEO, and social media presence, along with designing AI-powered features to better cater to our audience's needs. Throughout this process, we relied on surveys, user testing, and collective brainstorming to uncover solutions that could maximize our platform's effectiveness within our constraints.
In this case study, I will guide you through the enhancements made to the Eatology app, our review platform, and our website, shedding light on how each component was improved.
Eatology is an app that addresses the problem of unreliable food reviews. We recognize the frustration of food enthusiasts who spend hours scrolling for the perfect restaurant, only to discover that the reviews are fake or biased. At Eatology, we leverage expert ratings to curate a list of restaurants reviewed by trusted individuals. The Eatology app is accessible through the iOS App Store.
As I was dealing with an already existing product I started by getting the team together and figuring out what each person thinks of the product. We made categories about what each one of us though what our advantages were, disadvantages, areas we needed to improve and future steps.
Then we each rated the topics we were interested in looking into and moved on to the next steps.
In order to get inspiration for how we needed to address our underlying issues that we had agreed upon in our meetings I started conducting thorough research on our market. The team had considered big names such as Yelp and OpenTable as competitors but hadn't really looked into smaller companies or direct competitors with aligning goals. Looking into the market I found that with what we were trying to offer to the market there were many start ups that were worth studying.
Also Studying the most successful food apps I gained valuable insight into how the industry worked which was valuable to future brainstorming sessions.
See full audit spreadsheet here
For the apps that stood out I did further research. I looked into their reviews, analyzed their features further and their positioning in the market.
After getting some idea over what works and doesn't in the market and where we want to position ourselves, we started talking to our users. we wanted to know why they use our app, what they think about the possibility of our future features, what type of users are we attracting and what their usual process is when approaching going out.
We sent out surveys and conducted in person usability testing with potential users of different ages.
One important factor is that we have a service pain point as users cannot finish the reservation process in app, they cannot see the availability in app and getting referred to the web version of restaurants is confusing for older users and can be frustrating. Our data shows that users mainly treat our app like a list of venues and most users leave after checking out venue pages.
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Despite being a relatively new app, Eatology already boasted a consistent user base that we could engage for feedback. Our strategy involved analyzing amplitude data, distributing surveys, and conducting moderated user tests to gauge user sentiments about the app. The majority of our users identify as food enthusiasts who find traditional food finder apps lacking.
We identified issues within our systems through data collected from surveys and user testing. Here, I'll outline the changes that have been implemented or are currently in progress, along with their corresponding outcomes.
To introduce our app effectively, we required a design that was not only technically simple to implement but also conveyed the app's features and enhanced its credibility. We achieved this by adhering to existing design systems and visual elements that the team had used.
For a visual representation of our website's transformation, consider the following before-and-after preview:
Results:
Following the website's revamp, we observed a 30% increase in website visits, as illustrated in the graph.
I started from the ideal state of the app I had in mind and started prioritizing whatever was more feasible for the team due to very limited resources.
After testing the concepts we made more iterations but the designs were well received.
Sarah- Eatoogy user
In conclusion we came up with a plan to improve our platform through these steps:
Our immediate plans include:
Recognizing the subjectivity of "good food" is crucial when tackling the issue of unreliable reviews. Preferences can vary widely, with factors like plate sizes, interior design, accessibility, and ingredient quality influencing dining choices. To address this, we propose implementing a personalized recommendation system based on users' personal judgments. Empowering users to define their ideal dining experience, rather than offering a curated list, represents a more empathetic solution to the challenge of unreliable reviews.
This approach aligns with our vision to deliver a more personalized, user-centric experience that addresses the issues of bias and unreliability in restaurant reviews.