OVERVIEW
Baemin K-Food Delivery
Baemin (배달의 민족) is the No.1 Korean food delivery app that holds over 12M users. Baemin has been placed No.1 in the Korean food delivery industry, yet there are many other competitors, including Coupang Eats and Yo-gi-yo, gearing up to chase after Baemin. In the midst of this competition, Baemin requested me for a UX solution: how it can improve the app in order to remain No.1 of the food delivery industry.
ROLE
UX Researcher / Designer (45%)
DURATION
1.5 Months
PROGRAM
Adobe XD, Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro
RFP ANALYSIS & USER RESEARCH
What clients really need and how can we set up the approach?
Our team was given the RFP (Request for Proposal) document beforehand.
Assignment:
1. Providing UX solutions optimized for users' needs
2. Discovering new tools or content that provide better convenience
Methods:
1. Analyzing current Baemin app
2. Analyzing competitors (ex. Coupang Eats, Yo-gi-yo)
3. Analyzing user behavior and Identifying a differentiated service
Goal:
Maintaining its position in the market as a No.1 food delivery app in Korea
USER RESEARCH
How can we set up the approach?
In order to define the problem, our team started user-researching, particularly focusing on the users' behavior in the app.
Key Insights:
1. Age generation / household using the app the most: one-person household of age 20s/30s
2. Users usually use the app from evening to midnight.
3. The food delivery market has dramatically increased from 15T to 20T (KRW).
4. There are competitors (ex. Coupang Eats) that have an exponential increase of users, while the number of users decreased in Baemin.
5. Baemin still ranked No.1 in most of categories, including efficiency, satisfaction, brand image, usability.
However, our team was only able to find analyses about the users' demographic regions and their basic information, not in particular about the users' experience and their detailed needs. Thus, we believed that we must conduct pre-interviews to identify the users' behavior patterns and needs.
PRE-INTERVIEW
What are Baemin's issues, and what do users need?
Most of users were satisfied with using Baemin. However, a majority of users complained about the limited amount of freedom that they have in the home screen and the lack of curation for the menus. For instance, the first screen that appears for the users directly displays multiple categories of food and forces the users to choose an option. Yet, choosing what they want to eat is one of users' biggest obstacles, and in this case, Baemin does not have tools that are optimized for various individuals.
Problem:
Lack of understanding various users' behavioral patterns and needs
So, our team aimed to find out various users' pain points and narrow down the user's key needs.
PERSONA
Finding users' behavioral patterns... who are our users?
Our team created four personas based on what users value (x-axis) and their behavioral patterns (y-axis). First, we discovered that there was a great variation in what users value, such as whether they value more taste - whether the food is "delicious" - or more cost - whether the food is "low price." Then, we found out the variation of users' behaviors, such as their activeness or passiveness in searching for food. The active users would search many places and actively evaluate the restaurants, and the passive users would typically reorder from restaurants that they have experiences with. There are several exceptional cases, including users who are allergic to some ingredients and busy users who want their food delivered in a short amount of time.
Needs:
1. "I want the reorder system to be more handy and convenient."
2. "I want to see which restaurant/menu are good for me."
3. "I don't know what to eat, so I want the app to offer several options for potential menus I can get."
4. "I want to see the coupons or restaurant menus more conveniently."
Possible UX solutions:
1. Menu curation system optimized for personal taste / mood.
2. One-click re-order system
3. Menu comparison system
4. Platform for detailed reviews (ex. taste, delivery, quantity, etc.)
USER TESTING
Why are we conducting user testing, and what information do we want to gain from it?
Our team identified three main tasks that could verify that our insights about the app and the users' needs were correct and that the possible UX solutions were on the right track or not.
Task 1.
Verifying the personas: identifying the users' behavioral patterns and characteristics
Task 2.
Verifying the users' behavioral patterns and needs: observing users' experiences and their circumstances (1. behavioral patterns and needs when they know what they want to eat, 2. behavioral patterns and needs when they don't know what they want to eat, 3. needs for particular tools in the app)
Task 3.
Verifying the possible UX solutions
After user testing, our team newly found out that users' behavioral patterns can change according to their circumstances (ex. eating with friends, having a lunch at work, etc.)
Examples:
- When eating with friends - users seek for special meals that all friends can satisfyingly share together (Pizza, Fondue, etc.)
- When working until midnight - users seek for special meals that can energize them (ex. sushi)
- When working overload for a short period of time - users seek for simple meals (ex. subway, panda express, etc.)
What users value and their circumstances when they order hugely affect users' behavioral patterns and needs.
What users value when they order
X
Users' circumstances when they order
UX SOLUTION
UX Solutions optimized for each Persona and situation
After creating the different personas, our team identified the users' needs for each persona and situation.
1. Menu curation on the home page that depends on various situations, moods, and personal tastes of the users
2. Re-order curation system on the home page
3. Comparing system among different menus/restaurants
4. Platform for detailed reviews (ex. taste, delivery, quantity, etc.)
5. Easy access to coupons
6. Easy access to eco-friendly products
6. Split Purchase
APP FEATURES
Redesigned Baemin
Home: Minimizing Category
😵: "I get confused when the home page pops up first because there are too many categories in one place. I don't know which category I should go for first."
1. Minimized the size of the categories to show only five significant categories at the top of the screen: Baemin-Riders, Fast (Bun-chuk) Food Delivery, Gift, To-go, One-Person Serving
2. Set a large screen for the "B-mart," a food ingredients delivery system that is used more frequently by the users
Home: Menu Curation based on emotions/situation
🤔: "I always have no idea what I want to eat. I hope there is something that can help me to decide on what to eat."
1. Users are given a curation that empathizes their emotions and various situations (e.g. people's tiredness after a long day of work and, therefore, their want to get good meals to release their stress, etc.).
2. Using Baemin's character, "Baedal-i," maintained Baemin's unique brand identity.
3. Users are given a curation based on external circumstances (weather, time, etc.) and emotions.
Home: Reorder UX Composition
😒: "I always reorder from the same place. It feels like these restaurants are verified. But, it is annoying to go to the "order history" tab. I want to reorder right away when I open the app."
1. Users are able to directly reorder the food they have previously ordered on the home screen.
2. Users are called by their user names and titled as "Baemin VVIP" and "sir" to make them feel like special customers of Baemin.
Reorder History: Reorder Ranking & Search
😒: "I always reorder from the same place. It feels like these restaurants are verified. But, it is annoying to go to the "order history" tab. I want to reorder right away when I open the app."
1. Users can see the rank of menus based on how many times they ordered them
2. Users can see the rank of most frequently ordered menus based on different time frames: within a week, a month, or three months.
Home: Neighborhood Coupons Category
☹️: "I always check if there are coupons. When I check the coupon list, there are many restaurants that are not close to my house. I want to see the coupons that I can really use."
1. Created a new category called "Neighborhood Coupons," where users can see the coupons that they can use.
Home: Eco-Friendly Filter
☹️: "I don't really use Baemin that often because I feel guilty of tons of plastics used by restaurants / food delivery. I would probably order more often if they use eco-friendly products."
1. Added the "Eco" filter, which indicates the restaurants that use eco-friendly products only
2. Used a green color to mark the "eco-friendly" restaurants so that users can directly determine the restaurants that use eco-friendly products
Review: Detailed Reviews & Percentage of Reorder
🤨: "I always check the reviews to see if the food I'm ordering is really delicious or not. But, I can't really fully trust the ratings because there are so many review events that ask for positive reviews in return for free food. Also, I feel that the review system is inconvenient to use since I can't really see the reviews for the particular menus I'm ordering right away. I want to see the reviews for specific menus only."
1. Divided into three categories for rating: tastiness, quantity, and delivery
2. Users are able to check how many other users reorder from the particular restaurant.
Review: Checking Review by Menus
🤨: "I always check the reviews to see if the food I'm ordering is really delicious or not. But, I can't really fully trust the ratings because there are so many review events that ask for positive reviews in return for free food. Also, I feel that the review system is inconvenient to use since I can't really see the reviews for the particular menus I'm ordering right away. I want to see the reviews for specific menus only."
1. Users are able to see the reviews for the specifically selected menus right away.
2. On the review page, users are able to see the popular menus, and when they filter them, it automatically sorts out the reviews for the specifically selected menus.
