Inline Queue Systems Redesign
Project Duration
10
weeks
Team
Intern Dev
Product Manager
Timeline
May - Aug
2024
My Role
Solo Designer
The Context
​​Inline is a software company specializing in providing a C2M platform for managing reservations and customer experiences for restaurants and hospitality businesses.
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In May of 2024, I began working with Inline as a UX Design intern. I was tasked to work with
a developer intern to do an interface and experience redesign with their queuing system.
The Problem
Though Inline already has a pre-existing platform, the interface has remained the same since its launch in 2021.
​
As the industry evolves, so do the needs of businesses and customers, and limitations of the current platform has become clear as time goes on.
These limitations in usability, scalability, and flexibility leads to friction in user interactions and operational inefficiencies for restaurants. To address these limitations, the system requires a comprehensive resign.
The Goals are to...
Streamline User Flow
Increase Operational Efficiency
Integrate New Features
The Constraints
Limited Timeline/Resource
With one designer and one coder, 10 weeks is a tight deadline to make meaningful changes.
Technical Limitations
WIth a fellow intern developer, I have to consider our abilities to implement complicated or overly ambitious features and interface.
Diverse, International User Base
Backend Implementation
Needs to be accessible to both businesses and customers of varying degrees of technical literacy.
Must work with existing frameworks codebases and third-party tools (ex. reservation APIs) that impose design or functionality restrictions.
Design Process
Research
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Investigate current features
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Analyze top competitors​
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Identify key pain points
Ideation
Prototype
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Brainstorm Features
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Lo-Fi Wireframes
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Usability Testing
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Develop Hi-Fi Prototype
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​Interaction Design
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Developer Hand-Off
On-site Observations
Observation Artifact
We ventured out to the restaurants and customers using the current system for on-site analysis. Taking note of their user flow in real time.
Journey map
With these observations in mind, I created a journey map to reflect a typical customers experience - highlighting potential pain points and areas for feature imrpovement.
Competitor Analysis
Competitor Analysis
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Insights
I also analyzed the company's top competitors, investigating their user flow, queuing process, notification avenues, and extraneous features. I would do queuing myself. How Afterward, I conducted a comparative analysis to our own platform for improvements and insights.
Key Takeaways
Time is key.​ Nobody wants to take a long time to register queuing, especially if they're already waiting to eat in the first place. Simplicity and convenience is essential to customer satisfaction.
​The system needs a smart, simple interface that conveys information with a high degree of transparency with limited but efficient features.
Wireframing
With all of that mind, I've drafted a concept proposal with lo-fi wireframes that improve on the current interface, prioritizing clarity and simplicity in the reservation process, with a completely new integrated menu feature.
The Solution
An Optimized Home page
I wanted to improve the usability of the interface without altering the overall structure of the home page.
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By reorganizing the structure of miscellaneous information and improving the visibility of the brand with adjustments to the color, the main page conveys the same amount of information, in a much more efficient, straightforward manner.
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An estimated wait time was added to the home page to enhance transparency and reduce user frustration. This allows users to see the wait time before making a reservation, rather than discovering it afterward.​​
Streamlined Reservation
With a renewed goal of minimizing user frustration, the overall interface clarifies pre-existing features with increased visibility, such as additional icons and labels.
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For example, in usability testing between different feature ideas, I've found that a number pad is more visually informative than manual keypad inputs, and decreases the percentage of edge cases or user errors.
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An Added Feature
For many similar platforms, I noticed the inclusion of visible menus, but none for virtual pre-ordering. ​
In simple terms, the main goal of this platform is to get the customer from point A (outside) to point B (eating) with the least amount of time, paitience, and effort.
By adding a pre-ordering feature, we remove in-person ordering from the equation, saving both resteraunts and customers valuable time.
View my other work!
