Summary
SCCDineOut is the official app for accessing food facility inspection results within Santa Clara County, California. The app allows users to search for restaurants, examine compliance scores, and explore detailed inspection reports.
Problem
Solution
The redesigned SCCDineOut app now offers a streamlined landing page, simplified navigation, an alternative map view, and a reimagined Sort/Filter view, providing a seamless and efficient experience for users when searching for food facility inspection results.
Process
Given the short duration, my process mainly involved
- Empathize: Conducted extensive research, including user interviews and competitive analysis, to understand user needs and pain points
- Define: Identified key user pain points and scenarios, establishing clear goals for the redesign process
- Ideate: Explored creative solutions and rebranding opportunities, such as implementing a minimalistic design system and enhancing app functionality
- Prototype: Developed a high-fidelity prototype with features like a streamlined landing page, simplified navigation, alternative map view, and reimagined Sort/Filter View
- Test: Evaluated the redesigned app's effectiveness in addressing user pain points and meeting their needs, ensuring the new design provided an improved user experience and increased efficiency
Design Objective
Research Methodology
Next, I conducted a comprehensive two-phase evaluative research process: preliminary research and in-depth research.
- The preliminary research involved scrutinizing online reviews of the app on Android and iOS platforms to gain insight into the existing user experiences.
- The in-depth research phase consisted of four user interviews to acquire further perspectives.
Competitive Analysis
In addition to evaluative research, competing app reviews and ratings were analyzed to understand user goals and pain points when using similar products
User Scenarios
To understand when and how the users might use the app, I mapped out a few user scenarios and user goals to help make better design decisions.
- When the user plans to try a new restaurant, they want to assess the restaurant's food safety or explore alternative options.
- When the user notices a health code violation at a restaurant, they want to report the violation to the proper authorities.
- When the user's favorite restaurant is closed, they want to determine if the closure resulted from health and safety violations.
Key user pain points
Accessibility considerations
The reliance on color as the primary method of conveying information, especially regarding placard colors, posed difficulties for users with color blindness. Visualizations were created to demonstrate how the app would appear to someone with color blindness.
Rebranding
High Fidelity Prototype
Landing Page
Added an initial landing page with illustrations so that first-time users do not feel overwhelmed when they see a search bar as soon as they open the app. This also serves as a quick introduction to the app.
Search Page/Detail Page:
Added the search bar on a screen of its own because this would be the primary user touch point for the app. Changed the visualizations of the placard so that there is equal importance to color, visuals, and texts.
Alternative Map View:
Added a Map view to help users better visualize the places. Added a floating action button for filtering through types* of food facilities on the map.
(*California Health and Safety Code groups food facilities into 22 different categories. These categories were further grouped and used as visualization in the map.)
Sort/Filter View:
Redesigned the sort and filter tab to incorporate score range and placard color to enhance the overall user experience when scrolling through nearby food facilities.
