Ethical Eaters
A NEW KIND OF RESTAURANT REVIEW APP
Is there a way to help ensure better working conditions for restaurant employees while choosing where to eat?
Welcome to Ethical Eaters!, the crowd-sourced review app dedicated to local restaurants in Mexico City. This app allows restaurant employees to provide insightful reviews on working conditions and rights, while customers can share their valuable dining experiences.
DATE
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January - June 2023, Mexico City
ROLE
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UX / UI Designer
RESPONSABILITES
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UX research, competitive audit, wireframing, mockups, visual and graphic design, prototyping, usability testing.
The problem
The Ethical Eaters app aims to address a critical issue prevalent in the restaurant industry in Mexico. Currently, a significant number of employees in this sector face labor exploitation, with many lacking fundamental rights, such as proper employment contracts, social security benefits, and vacations.
The goal
Create a dedicated app and a complimentary responsive website that allows employees to provide insightful reviews on working conditions and rights, while customers can share their valuable dining experiences.
Process
1 EMPATHIZE + DEFINE
User personas
It was crucial to understand both types of users (customers and employees), their stories, motivations, goals, and frustrations to really empathize and spot key pain points and ideate solutions.
Research summary: Pain points
Lack of information
Both types of users, customers, and employees, don’t know which restaurants have fair working conditions. Also, most of the employees ignore their rights.
Limited perspectives
Most of the restaurant review apps don’t include the employee's point of view, which is key to knowing if a restaurant is ethical or not.
Reliable sources
There is a lack of trustworthy sources to identify ethical restaurants. Online articles are often paid by the restaurant to speak well about them.
2 IDEATE
Competitive audits, brainstorming, and quick sketching
To kick off the ideation phase, I ran a competitive audit to uncover gaps and opportunities in similar apps/initiatives. Then I brainstormed and did some quick sketching with the key pain points to solve in mind.
3 PROTOYPE + USABILITY TEST
Wireframes
A clear call to action for finding restaurants was implemented on the home page, as well as an emphasized section with information about the employees' rights and how the listing works.
To make sure the app would work for both customers and employees, every restaurant in the app has two options to add reviews, as a customer or as an employee of the restaurant. This way we make sure to include a broad perspective.
Low fidelity prototype
The first user flow implemented was the add review feature for both customers and employees.
Usability study
parameters
TYPE OF STUDY
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Unmoderated usability study
LOCATION
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Mexico City
PARTICIPANTS
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5 participants
LENGTH
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10 - 15 minutes
Usability study
findings
Security
Most of the employees felt concerned about their identity being exposed in reviews.
Reviews
Users found it confusing to explore reviews. The restaurant profile was cluttered and it was difficult for them to find the reviews section.
User flow
Some users felt frustrated with the number of pages to finish the task of adding a review.
Iteration
Based on the findings, the prioritized iteration was to modify a key part of user flow: the way employees add reviews to the platform.
Submitting a review with their names could lead to intimidation at their workplace. To solve this problem, we decided to use the survey information to summarize the data in a chart and include a personal data privacy disclosure.
Refined mockups
High fidelity prototype
Accessibility considerations
Adjustable font sizes and different contrast modes are available in the accessibility button implemented on the home page. All interactive elements, such as buttons and form fields are using appropriate text descriptions for screen reader technologies.
Responsive design
Going forward
TAKEAWAYS AND NEXT STEPS
This is a very ambitious project that needs support, hence one of the most important next steps would be to find a sponsor/partner and a bigger UX team. The Institute of Work of the federal government would be the best, as it is their duty to ensure quality working conditions for everyone in the country.
The app would also benefit from adding a feature for restaurant owners, for replicas and requests for auditing. This would also ensure this is a fair and unbiased initiative.
Thanks for reviewing!🍕
Let's connect
alejandrazapata.art@gmail.com
