HEURISTIC ANALYSIS
Skip the dishes, is an online food delivery application, based in Canada, with over 30,000 participating restaurants. Having used multiple delivery services during covid, I realized that even though the delivery and services for Skip the dishes is competent, there were some inconsistencies and issues with their interface. I decided to analyse the application form the lens of Danish Researcher Jacob Nielsen, and re-examine its user journey.
Client
Skip The Dishes
My Role
Researcher, Interface Designer
Platform
Mobile Interface.
Duration
1 Week
Project Brief
I analyzed ‘Skip the Dishes’ mobile application based on the knowledge of Design Principle stated by Jakob Nielsen. I used the 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design and rated the severity on the score of 1 to 4 for each Heuristic.
Research
Conducted user interviews to understand customers pain points.
Read user reviews available online.
Performed comparative analysis.
Jakob Nielsen’s Heuristics Principles
Visibility of system status.
Match between the system and real world
User control and freedom
Consistency and standards
Error Prevention
6. Recognition rather than recall
7. Flexibility of system status
8. Aesthetic and minimalist design
9. Help users recognize, diagnose and recover form errors
10. Help and documentation.
User Reviews
We have all had our fair share of issues with the Skip The Dishes App! However, the best way to find the usability issues and evaluate the app is by listening to the users of the app and understanding their pain points.
Some very critical yet helpful reviews.
1.Visibility of System Status
1.a Sort & Filter Options
Violation: There is no option to filter menu and restaurants based on Dietary restrictions (like Vegan, vegetarian ) & Price Range. It may cause inconvenience to some user who would like to filter the restaurants based on the preferences before placing an order. This Is also a violation of Flexibility & Efficiency Of Use
Recommendation: Add a filter option in the “Sort” menu to filter restaurants by Dietary preference and price range.
Severity
1.b. Exact GPS Location for Restaurants
Violation: When placing an order for PICKUP, the exact location of the restaurant is not Visible, Some users may want to decide the restaurant based on the exact travel distance.
Recommendation: Add a link to the Restaurants location, that enables users to make an informed decision.
Severity
1.c Non-Clear depiction of Delivery Fee
Violation: The price displayed is the delivery fee. However, it may not be very obvious what that price means.
Recommendation: Add the words “Delivery Fee” next to the price, so that it is obvious what the price is.
Severity
2.Match Between The System And Real World.
2.a Skip Score
Violation: The App Features & displays Numeric Rating of the restaurants by the term Skip Score (a term coined by Skip The Dishes), there is no clear basis or number of reviews required to attain that score. It also Questions the credibility of the App
Recommendation: Provide a better explanation to skip score, In comparison to the number of reviews for a better clarity.
Severity
3. User Control & Freedom
3.a Cancel or Change order
Violation: User doesn't have the option to change or cancel an order if it is placed by mistake.
Recommendation: Allow users to cancel/change their order within a certain time frame.
Severity
3.b Change Quantity or Clear Complete Order
Violation: There is no option to clear your whole order, in case the user changes her mind. They only have option to cancel one item at a time, the app also doesn't provide the freedom to make changes in the cart ( Like adding or reducing the quantities) .
Recommendation: Next to “Add Items”, add a “Clear Items” button. This way, users can easily change their mind and cancel the order. Also provide an editable quality option that will save the user the inconvenience of going back to the restaurant in case they want to increase the quantity
Severity
4. Concistency & Standard
No Violation!
This app adheres to this guideline. The app maintains consistency and follows industry conventions
5. Error Prevention .
5.a Selecting Menu Option
Violation: This is an example of a slip error. A user may not read the message “Choose up to 1”, and select more than one liquid substitute. The app doesn’t prevent you from choosing more than 1 option until you click “Add to order"..
Recommendation: To save the user an extra step, after selecting one option, the other check boxes should turn gray. Alternatively, the “Choose up to 1” message should be highlighted once a user tries to select more than one option
Severity
5.b Undo Option
Violation: If you accidentally clear an item, you can’t undo this action.
Recommendation: Add an “undo” button to recover your items if you accidentally cancel an item.
Severity
6.. Recognition Rather Than Recall
6.a No memory for Previous Orders
Violation: No recommendations are provided based on last placed orders.
Recommendation: Allow for more personalization by recommending restaurants based on past order history.
Severity
7. Flexibility And Efficiency Of Use
7.a Sort & Filter Options
As Mentioned in Point 1.a of Visibility of System Status, The Sort and Filter options doesnt give the option to filter restaurants based on users preference.
8. Aesthetic And Minimalist Design
No Violation
The app adheres to this guideline. The app's interface looks aesthetically appealing and doesn't contain any unnecessary elements that could distract the users, The overall visual design focuses on the essentials.
9. Help Users Recognize, Diagnose, And Recover From Errors
9. a. Issues with delivery status
Violation: If there is an issue with a user’s order after delivery (such as the order was delivered to the wrong location), the delivery person can’t be contacted.
Recommendation: Provide a contact number or provide the location of the delivery person.
Severity
10. Help And Documentation
10.a Help Section
Violation : There is a help function in case users have problems with their order or any other issues. However the app doesn't allow the user to communicate with the customer service executives instead it allows a chat bot and a lot of users have had issues with it. For example one customer reported that the app glitched and the submitted his order twice and nothing could be done.
Recommendation : The app can either have a option to allow users to chat with a customer support executive or use a better AI that can be more efficient.
Severity
Final Conclusion
Overall, the app Skip the dishes has a good visual design, it focuses on the essentials and doesn’t have any unnecessary distractions, the app maintains consistency and follows most of the industry conventions. It also has an interesting point system that allows users to earn points as they keep ordering through the app and these points can be redeemed for discounts.
Having said that we think there is a lot of room for improvement. The app violates 8 out of the 10 heuristics created by Jakob Nielsen.
Visibility of system status: Absence of GPS location, Less filter options, and labelling the delivery fee.
Match between system and the real world- No clear basis or number of reviews for thier coined Term- "Skip Score"
User control and freedom - No freedom to change or cancel a placed order, & Change Quantity in the cart or clear the complete order.
Error prevention - No prevention towards selection of menu options and a Lack of an undo button.
Recognition rather than recall - No recommendation based on previous orders.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors - Issues with Delivery status and customer facing.
Help and documentation - No documentation and help limited to communication with chat bot.