Project Brief

Overview
Welk Resorts owns and operates three on-property restaurants—Canyon Grille in San Diego, CA; Estrella Restaurante in Cabo San Lucas, MX; and Stagedoor Restaurant in Branson, MO. Each restaurant has multiple menus (e.g., breakfast, lunch, dinner) that need to be updated frequently to reflect price and item changes.

The Problem
Currently, users are only able to place to-go orders by calling or in person. What other opportunities could be explored to expand ordering to-go?

Project Role
UX/UI Designer + Graphic Designer – Research, Interaction and Visual Design, Prototyping, and Testing; Design Strategy, Concepting, Branding, and Print Production.

---

Discovery/Empathize

Stakeholder Interviews
Below are are the following goals/objectives and pain points/frustrations discovered after speaking with the stakeholder:

User Reviews and Surveys
I took a look at several surveys and reviews—Yelp!, TripAdvisor, OpenTable, Google, and also surveys received from guests that had just stayed at the resort. Below are are the following goals/objectives and pain points/frustrations:

---

Analysis/Understand

Solution
The solution we came up with was creating a mobile app that could be used for all three restaurants. Some reasons for that decision:

• App would allow guests to place an order, pay for it, and then pick it up
• Restaurant could provide users with accurate information on pick up or wait times
• Alow users to enjoy their food in their villa suites or somewhere on-property
• Because the food is taken to-go, it would not negatively impact in-dining wait staff
• For customers dining in, they could use the app to view the most up-to-date pricing and details ahead of time

---

Design/Iterate

Sketches & Low-fidelity Wireframes
After coming up with a few solutions, I started writing down a few notes, then quick sketches and low-fidelity wireframes.

Quick notes and sketch wireframes for the printed menu and an app for to-go orders

To-go Ordering App Concept: High-Fidelity Design, Mockups, and Prototype
So why a to-go app? Well, being digitally accessible is now more important than ever for restaurant success. For this app, here are some important features that will make the user experience positive:

• Brand consistency that ties back to the branding of each restaurant and their in-dining menus
• Easy-to-use navigation to make navigating through the app very simple and straightforward to prevent any distraction or frustration for the user
• Easy-to-use ordering to ensure there’s a greater chance of the user NOT abandoning their cart out of frustration
• Detailed purchase order information to reduce the chance of them ordering and paying for the wrong items

Restaurant to-go menu and order screen examples. Click image above to enlarge.

All mobile-sized screens of the prototype, shown with and without hotspots. Click image above to enlarge.

---

Concluding Thoughts

Mockups of app in use. Click image above to enlarge.

Outcome
So… now… what happened? Well… the COVID-19 pandemic happened. Unfortunately, this project came to an end, as did my employment at Welk.

Lessons Learned and What Could Have Been
Even though this project came to a halt, I still think it was a great success. A few reflections:

• Providing a great user experience could in turn positively affect the business, like increasing their sales and revenue, and also possibly being able to hire on more staff Team Members.
• If I was still working on this project, I really would have liked to do user interviews and usability testing with actual guests on-property and with someone on the Executive team, to work on getting buy-in to make the app happen.

Thank you for reviewing this case study. If you have any feedback, questions, or comments you'd like to share, you're more than welcome to!