How Can We Enrich the Doordash Experience through Transparency?
DoorDash, Inc. is a San Francisco–based company that operates an online food ordering and delivery platform.
What's Wrong?
Sadly, the DoorDash app doesn’t tell you when an order is delayed, if the driver is en-route but is experiencing difficulties such as traffic, food not being ready for pick up when the driver gets to the merchant, or not being able to find the correct address when dropping off food, etc...
Emotional Impact
This leaves consumers feeling frustrated especially since they’ve already spent a lot of money on food that they want to arrive hot and ready at the time of drop off.
The Fix
A DoorDash feature that would provide real-time location updates for customers' orders, ensuring transparency and eliminating the need for guesswork.
View Deliverables: Click Here
My Findings & Research
Sizing up the Competition: Competitive Analysis
I conducted a comprehensive analysis of DoorDash's main competitors, with a specific focus on evaluating factors such as pricing, strengths, deficiencies, features, and additional offerings. Three notable highlights are as follows:
All three services—DoorDash, UberEats, and GrubHub—maintain a standard pricing of $9.99/month, differentiating through user experience and additional features rather than cost.
Feature offerings vary notably, with DoorDash lacking in order customization and birthday rewards, which are present in its competitors, indicating a focus on basic delivery service efficiency.
Each platform showcases distinct strengths, with DoorDash focusing on interface updates, UberEats on seamless design and tipping flexibility, and GrubHub on Yelp integration and loyalty rewards.
View Complete Analysis: Click Here
Connecting the Dots: My Mind Mapping Process
After wrapping up my user interviews, I took some time to sit down and compile a list of goals and frustrations that each user had shared with me. I then transformed these valuable insights into a mind map, bringing their experiences to life visually.
Users want more transparency, including real-time updates and detailed information during delays, emphasizing the need for clear communication in the app.
Many users are frustrated by the limited customization and flexibility in the services offered, indicating a desire for more personalized experiences.
Integrating health and wellness recommendations and providing tailored notifications are priorities for users seeking to integrate the service seamlessly into their efficient, health-conscious lifestyles.
Dissatisfaction with reward systems and fee structures suggests opportunities for improving loyalty incentives and making fee policies more transparent.
View Complete Map: Click Here
Exploring the User Path: Stories and Learnings
After exploring the user's stories and taking what I learned in the form of a mind map. I wanted to continue my exploration by putting together a flow of what the user's journey would look like when using the transparency feature from start to finish.
View Complete Flow: Click Here
What the People Said 📣
I took some time to document feedback and what people are saying about this new feature, and how it makes them feel! The majority of folks are very pleased with this feature aligning with my goal to develop a user-centric feature.
Celebrating Wins and Embracing New Challenges
After completing remote usability testing sessions over Zoom, each of the five participants was tasked with identical scenarios. The outcomes indicated a unanimous task completion rate among participants, followed by predominantly positive feedback. The insights gathered identified two interface elements that, when refined, will improve overall app efficiency.
View All Revisions: Click Here
Delivery Complete: Final Prototype
Here is a a walkthrough of the customer experience using the DoorDash transperency feature from start to finish.
Closing Thoughts
The most important aspect of this project was to make sure all the elements of this new feature were user-friendly. My aim was for transparency within the order-deliver process which meant finding a way to communicate with users efficiently and effectively. Adhering to brand guidelines to maintain a light and enjoyable user experience was a primary consideration, reinforcing the brand's commitment to a user-centric approach.
Where to Next?
The next steps involve testing the updated designs and collecting additional feedback from users to refine the user experience. Finally, I would collaborate with a developer for the implementation of these improvements in the live environment.
