Charles Sturt University: Food Hunger App User Interface Design Report

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments. This report analyzes the UI design of a food ordering app.

Title: Food Hunger
Author: Anusha Devireddy
Author’s Details: Charles Sturt University, Australia
Abstract
In this assignment, the user interface designed for the restaurant has been discussed. The
discussion about different usability requirements and the heuristic principles according to the
newly developed interface have been done. By using Nielson’s heuristic principle and all the
usability requirements, several modifications and development are done to achieve better
satisfaction of the customers. This will increase the productivity and reputation of the restaurant
in the market and furthermore this will increase their sales and customer’s value. However, still,
some modifications need to be implemented in the design flow like proper navigations and
support system which ensures the customers not to worry about how to use that interface.
Introduction
Using the heuristic principles, usability requirements and all the basic core principles of UI
design, a newly developed user interface has been designed for the food hunger restaurant which
enables the customers to book their table and order food items online (Portman, 2016).
So, in this assignment, we will discuss the improvements in the design and how they are meeting
the heuristic principles. As the design is properly meeting all the criteria of users and following
all the heuristic principles, the design is highly recommended to be implemented in Food hunger
restaurant. In this assignment, we will also discuss how the newly prepared design is meeting the
customer’s requirement which will enhance the experience and interest of customers towards the
food hunger restaurant. Also, while designing, there were several factors which are taken into a
scenario which restrict and influence the designing process of the application. So here, these
factors have also been discussed. The ideas and recommendation for the design had been taken
from the OpenTable online restaurant application.
Taking into account the other example of user interface design, a synset interface design for
YARN project has been implemented according to Braslavski, et al. (2014). The current synset
interface design has also been implemented taking into account all the heuristic principles and
maintaining the standards of the design process. As the synset editor interface follows all the
standards where to place words, where the synonyms and all other aspects have been taken.
Hence, we can say the interface also seems best at its place for YARN project. User Interface
User interface design for food hunger app
The user interface of all the applications should provide proper friction to the user’s actions with
proper usability requirements (Spacey, 2017). Hence, a user design interface for application of
Food Hunger restaurant is being developed keeping in mind all heuristic principles by Nielson
and all the user requirements as mentioned previously. By seeing all the screens with proper

navigation and images, the user can be able to state that what is actually happening in the app
and what next task to perform while ordering through the app which follows the first principle of
visibility of status. All the buttons like “login”, “register”, “add to cart” etc. and all the logos
inserted properly follow the second principle of matching the system information to the real-
world data. Users can easily control the workflow of the application like discarding an item from
the cart which will ensure the third principle of user control and freedom as per figure 1 with
proper error prevention messages like registration message and payment message which ensures
the recovery from clicking the buttons by mistake and ensures the fifth heuristic principle as per
figure 2. The repeated buttons like a home icon, back button all maintain the consistency
throughout the interface which satisfy the fourth principle of consistency and standards
maintenance. The flexibility and efficiency of the interface are too good to be used that the
smooth navigation and linkage of each screen with the respective screen throughout the design
for ensuring the sixth heuristic principle of maintaining flexibility and efficient to use property.
For the seventh heuristic principle of recognition rather than recall several images and logos have
been inserted into the interface design like images of food items because image tends to attract
the customers and can be easily recognized as compared to different names of the food items.
The design properly follows the minimalist design principle with a possible minimum number of
design screens which create less confusion among the users. More screens make the design
bulkier and decrease the efficiency of the application. For the tenth principle of help and
documentation to be maintained proper help and guides are also available in the design in case if
the user wants some help and have a problem while using the application. Hence, it can be said
that this design can be the best solution to be adopted by the restaurants for ordering food items
(Duggirala, 2016).
User Requirements
Any system to be adopted in by the restaurants some user requirements exist which need to be
possessed by the design of the interface of the application used. Some of those requirements in
case of restaurant application are required credentials to be entered for accessing the food app,
food menu, selection of items of choices, information of each and every item, cart for adding,
updating and confirming the ordered list, payment gateway, order status, registration of the
customers and discount & offer details on the food items (Berg, 2011). The user interface of
Food Hunger app possesses all these requirements. A proper table booking screen is being
inserted for booking the table. The food menu can be served online through a screen in this
interface so to enable the customers to choose wisely their wished food item. A proper screen
giving the details of each individual items is also inserted in the interface design which enables
the user to think properly while ordering that item. The selection of the item adds it to the cart
which is the ordering list in the interface. The cart screen contains the options for adding more
items, deleting the items and if the proper selection is done then confirming the order. Hence, the
customers have been enabled to add more, update and delete any food item as per their wish
from the cart through the Cart screen in the interfaceThis is also one of the major requirements of
users in the interface designing. Registration screen is also appended in the design so that the
new customers can register themselves with the food app otherwise the already registered
customer directly gets to the payment gateway. Also, some special offers and discounts of the

restaurant are available in the interface which ensures the customers’ satisfaction and attracts
more and more customers through the discounts and offers on the food items there. Hence, in this
way, all the user requirement conditions have been fulfilled by this Food hunger interface design
along with their linkage.
Factors influenced
There are various factors which create influence in context to the user interface of Food Hunger
application. Several user requirements, heuristic principles and many business requirements must
be possessed by the system. The detailed information about each and every item will enable the
customer to know more about the food item and then choosing the one wisely to order also
influence the designing of the interface for becoming successful for the restaurant. Several
heuristic principles are also there to influence the designing like error prevention and user control
for payment gateway, registration process etc. all influence the designing of the interface. The
accessible, findable, usable and useful environment influences the user interface designing
criteria significantly. The interface should be accessible easily for performing the user’s actions
without any interruption. The searching engine property of the user interface also influences the
designing of the interface (The Interaction Design Foundation, 2018). For maintaining the
competitive environment and to enhance further, several offers and discounts are also available
in the interface design of Food Hunger application which enables the users to get attracted and
select more and more food items in the least amount.
Similar interface
For designing the user interface of an application, several influence and ideas can be taken from
other developed applications. So here, taking the other interface of the OpenTable food app, the
choice of the restaurant can be selected as per figure 4. This function gave the idea of choosing
the table from Food Hunger application. The idea for the menu screen of Food Hunger
application comes from the menu screen of OpenTable which gives the main menu along with
images as shown in figure 6. This main menu should be as attractive as given in the image as this
will create a good impression on the customers and attract them. The idea of how to design the
discount and offer page for the food items have been taken from the point redeem screen of this
application as shown in figure 5.. Furthermore, many of the other options like the login screen,
cart screen, payment screen has been designed taking an idea form this application of OpenTable
(Williams, 2018).
Conclusion
In this assignment, we had discussed various heuristic principles and how the design of Food
Hunger application fulfils all those principles for ensuring proper standards of the user interface
designing. The various user requirements fulfilled by this interface had also been discussed here
along with their purpose and effects on the customers. Several factors of competition, heuristic
principles and user requirements had also discussed here and at last, the discussion is all about
another interface taken OpenTable form which the screen designing idea and influence had been
taken.

Appendix
Figure 1: Cart screen which enables removing of items
Figure 2: Payment alert for error prevention

Figure 3: Help screen
Figure 4: table booking of OpenTable
app

Figure 5: Points redeem screen of OpenTable

Figure 6: Menu screen of OpenTable

References
Berg, K. (2011). 6 Commonly Ignored Website Requirements & 10 Tips To Remember.
Retrieved from https://searchengineland.com/6-commonly-ignored-website-requirements-10-
tips-to-remember-82683
Braslavski, P., Ustalov, D., & Mukhin, M. (2014). A spinning wheel for YARN: the user
interface for a crowdsourced thesaurus. In Proceedings of the Demonstrations at the 14th
Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (pp. 101-
104).
Duggirala, S. (2016). 10 Usability Heuristics with Examples. Retrieved from
https://blog.prototypr.io/10-usability-heuristics-with-examples-4a81ada920c
Portman, J. (2016). The core principles of UI design. Retrieved from
https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/core-principles-of-ui-design/
Spacey, J. (2017). 11 Examples of Usability Requirements. Retrieved from
https://simplicable.com/new/usability-requirements
The Interaction Design Foundation. (2018). The 7 Factors that Influence User Experience
Retrieved from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/the-7-factors-that-influence-
user-experience
Williams, R. (2018). OpenTable updates the app to make booking faster. Retrieved from
https://www.mobilemarketer.com/news/opentable-updates-app-to-make-booking-faster/522494/