SOFO

Creating an app for booking and discovering food and drink experiences.

Overview

I was tasked with creating a leisure activity app that helps individuals discover and book new experiences. Through extensive user research, my team determined food and drink experiences aligned most with user interests and needs. From here, we established eight key features for the design of the MVP.

Key Features

  1. Make reservations

  2. Add friends and plan meetups

  3. Dropdown menu for restaurants and events

  4. Save places of interest

  5. High-functioning filter system

  6. Post pictures

  7. Achievements and gamification

  8. Personalized ‘For You’ page

Challenge

Design an app that allows users to explore and book leisure experiences effortlessly.

Solution

A prototype of the MVP that demonstrates the established key features.

My Role

User Research, UX Design, Prototyping

Tools and Methodologies

Figma, Google Forms, User Personas, User Flows, Lo-Fi Wireframes, Hi-Fi Wireframes

Research

The research began by creating a survey in google forms centered around leisure activities to gain insight into the way people spend their spare time.

Results

Key Insights

  • The majority expressed interest in an app that helps discover and plan activities.

  • Most respondents spent 1 to 2 hours daily engaged in some leisure activity. Only 17% only engage on the weekends.

  • Social Activities and Food and Drink Experiences received the most interest.

  • Cost, lack of activities, and limited availability are the biggest barriers.

Because Social Activities and Food and Drink Experiences showed the highest interest, I created another survey to gather more information to understand what specific features and services users look for.

Results

Key Insights

  • Most respondents expressed interest in using the app for finding new restaurants and bars and finding experiences nearby.

  • The majority valued location-based suggestions out of all features.

  • 80% are willing to travel for food and drink experiences.

  • Most respondents discover food and drink experiences through word of mouth or social media.

User Personas

After my team finished conducting the remaining research, I created the following personas.

The first persona represented the importance of location-based recommendations and a social element, with preferences for ambiance and popular, trending spots. Additionally, this persona addressed the common pain point of cost.

The second persona represented the need for advanced filter functionality and photo sharing, taking into account preferences for meal types, tracking and rating experiences, as well as addressing pain points related to time and difficulty filtering options.

User Flows

Our team brainstormed various user scenarios to map out the different paths users might take to achieve their goals within the app. After selecting a few key scenarios, we developed user flows to illustrate the potential journeys. The flows I focused on are as follows.

User Flow 1: Making a reservation.

User Flow 2: Earning an achievement.

Low Fidelity Wireframes

Since the user flows helped solidify the information architecture, I began creating low-fidelity wireframes to visualize the arrangement of content and user interactions.

This process led me to define a more specific scenario to make sure I captured all the planned elements accurately.

Goal:

Philip wants to find restaurants in his area for the upcoming weekend. He is looking for a place to reserve and invite his friend.

Scenario:

  1. User logs into the app (For You page)

  2. Philip taps on Discover

  3. Adjusts the filters

  4. Makes a reservation

  5. Sends an invite to his friend

  6. Achievement!

High Fidelity Wireframes

Having explored and refined various concepts with the low-fidelity wireframes, I felt prepared to start the final phase of creating the high-fidelity frames for the prototype.

Reflection

I gained so much from this project, especially the experience of working within a team of designers under tight timelines and constraints. I realized that being part of a team means stepping in wherever needed—UX isn't about sticking to a single role but about contributing to the ultimate goal of creating the best product possible. It's not just a checklist of tasks; it's an iterative process where each phase builds on the last, sometimes requiring revisiting and refining earlier work. I saw this firsthand, from the need for an additional survey at the beginning to the adaptations we made to the wireframes at the end. Design is truly an all-hands-on-deck effort.