TheGo

Project Overview

Client: Google UX Course Case Study
Project Type: Product Design, UX/UI
Industry: Tech
My Role: Product Designer

"Are you on Yelp?"
"No, I'm on TheGo."

Context

An app for food trucks

Problem
No modern solutions
People enjoy food trucks but lack a simple way to locate them and order ahead, leading to frustration, wasted time, and missed opportunities

Key Painpoints

• No reliable method to track food truck locations 

• Long wait times due to on-site ordering

• Difficulty discovering food truck events

Goal
Design an app that blends food delivery service standards with custom features tailored to the food truck experience:

• Enable ordering ahead and real-time location tracking

• Streamline event discovery and allergy accommodations

Research

Discovering what people need

I began by researching both users and other food delivery and grocery apps to understand how users navigate these spaces.

Interviews

I conducted five user interviews focused on food delivery habits and food truck experiences. This helped shape core use cases and identify customer needs in real-world contexts.

User Personas

To expand my design perspective, I created personas from varied backgrounds. One was inspired by my experience as a new uncle observing the changes in my sibling's life. I wanted to highlight the challenges of a young parent managing a child while ordering food.

Storyboarding

Using these personas, I storyboarded typical user journeys. This immediately exposed different pain points, like:

• Standing in line as an accessibility issue

• Food trucks running out of stock frequently

• Allergy concerns beyond what a basic notes section can handle

Design Process

Wireframes

• No direct competitors to benchmark

• Small interview pool (5 participants)

• Self-imposed timeline and self-defined goals

• Lack of experienced team feedback

Screens to include:

• Home

• Food truck Profile

• Item fill out card

• Cart & Check out

• Discover

• User Profile

Low-Fidelity Prototype

After transferring the wireframes into a low-fidelity mockup, I conducted some early usability tests. I asked users to try and navigate the app by giving them specific instructions. While the discover section of the app was received well, they shared some feedback on the checkout process.

Some of these things were:

• Lack of notifications made users unsure if actions (like adding to cart) were successful

• The Gestalt principle of proximity came into play when users were confused due to a lack of spacing between elements

• Typography and image layout caused navigation errors

High-Fidelity Prototype

After iterating on the low-fidelity prototype and incorporating some of my feedback, I was able to develop a High-Fidelity Prototype. As I refined the designs, users were able to connect with the process more. They realized there were still some things about the checkout process and discover page that were disrupting the user flow.

Some pain points were:

• Allergy section lacked clarity

• Pickup time bar was confusing

• Users wanted sticky “Add to Cart” and “Checkout” buttons

• Discover page lacked sorting/filtering options

• Entry fees and price ranges were missing from event descriptions

Finalizing the Design

Based on user feedback, I refined my designs to create a more intuitive and informative experience. While I considered all input, some suggestions were adapted to real-world constraints. For instance, instead of displaying entry fees (which vary and require external purchases), I linked out to external event pages. In the end there were quite a few features that I had improved upon through iteration and included in the final designs.

Some final features to note:

• Live GPS food truck tracker

• Potential allergy alerts built into ordering cards

• Color-coded stock indicators (e.g., “Low Stock”, “Out of Stock”)

Metrics

Upon my final user testing, 100% of users successfully completed the checkout process and comfortably navigated the discover section.

5 screens to show the order checkout process

GPS Live tracking feature, and the Allergy alert feature in the food card