For the first several years, managing menu was a job for sales managers and a few backend admin technicians. Demands to make changes were quite often very urgent (i.e. a side menu goes out of stock during peak hours) and complicated (these side menus are only available for large size pizza orders). Menu Manager was a part of the company’s decision to provide more service through digital platform. To accommodate these needs, menu data structure became very complex and confusing.
Part of interface is translated into English to help explain the design process.
Understanding Cases
Learning different types and structure of store, menu category, menu items, and sides was crucial before coming up with any interface. For example, a franchise store could be run by its manager, but the menu could be automatically updated from the headquarter. And for some franchise, these updates were optional. Because some menu items were seasonal, both menu categories and menu items could be 'hidden' from the app.
Lowering the learning curve
Since restaurant owners have different levels of digital literacy, high usability was very important. Multiple flowcharts were discussed (and many times trashed) to come up with the least possible depths and simplest UI elements. For example, buttons for actions of adding were left-aligned while editing buttons stayed on the right side. The fixed button on the bottom was only used for the final save.
Research and data matter
Several interviews and a few rounds of surveys were conducted with the restaurant managers and business owners, and there were some constructive feedback that changed the final specs of the product:
1. Most restaurants get their ingredients delivered every morning. This means when an item is out of stock, the default reset can be the opening time of the following business day. (Before we realized this pattern, managers had to set the time period every time they go out of stock.)
2. Restaurant mangers do not have time to sit down before desktop computers, even though most of them have one at the cashier. If necessary, about 69% of them access menu manager on their cell phones.
