Lunch Lineup
This mobile application is designed to streamline lunch menu ordering for children, benefiting parents, teachers, and cafeteria staff. It simplifies the previously manual process of handling lunch orders, saving time and effort for teachers and cafeteria workers. Parents can easily select lunch and breakfast options for their children online and receive notifications when their meals are served, enhancing the overall experience for everyone involved.
Tool Used
Figma, Figjam, Abode Illustrator
My Role
Sole Product Designer
Timeline
80 Hours
Platform
Mobile
Understanding the Problem
Current System:
Simi Valley Unified School District provides free breakfast and lunch for all students on campus.
Students choose their meals at school, and teachers manually record these selections. This can be slow, taking several minutes per student.
Menu cards help younger children remember their meal choices during teacher recording.
Issues:
High workload for teachers and cafeteria staff.
Inconvenience for teachers having to manually document and manage meal preferences.
Younger children struggle to remember their chosen lunch items.
Proposed Solution:
Reduce workload for teachers and cafeteria staff by automating the lunch ordering process.
Allow parents to input and save their child's food preferences and allergens.
Enable parents to order lunches on a weekly or monthly basis, improving convenience and efficiency.
Research
Back ground Research for Lunch Menu application for other Districts and other states School
I used to volunteer at my kids' elementary school and observed the manual process of students selecting their lunches, along with the significant workload placed on teachers. This inspired me to come up with the concept of developing an application that could streamline their tasks and involve parents in the lunch selection process. I began researching this idea further, as the Simi Valley district currently lacks any lunch and breakfast ordering application.
I conducted research on lunch menu ordering applications used in various school districts across different states and performed a competitive analysis.
Conducting Interview
I started by conducting interviews with individuals representing three distinct user groups, i.e Parents, Teachers and Cafeteria workers and categorizing them based on their roles within the application, and subsequently created an affinity map.
Upon analyzing the interviews, I developed user personas that provide a comprehensive understanding of the pain points, frustrations, goals, and potential solutions for specific user groups. These personas serve as detailed profiles of users, helping to empathize with their needs and challenges within the application.
Define & Ideate
For this particular application, I was tasked with addressing three distinct user scenarios. As a result, I devised a user flow for each of these unique perspectives, ensuring that the design and functionality catered to the specific needs and expectations of each user case. This approach allowed me to create a more tailored and user-centric experience, ultimately enhancing the usability and overall satisfaction of the application.
User Flow
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Once I've completed the user flow, it has provided me with insights regarding the specific screens that will be needed for the wireframe design.
Prior to developing the mid-fidelity wireframes, multiple iterations were undertaken, accompanied by early usability testing. As a result of this process, I identified additional screens that needed to be incorporated and made necessary modifications to the existing screens.
Branding & Visual Design
My vision has transformed into reality.
Parent Interface
Sign-Up Page:
Parents register and add their children to their profiles.
Food Preferences and Allergens:
Options to filter food preferences.
Identify and integrate allergens into the child's dashboard.
Child's Dashboard:
Easy access to lunch and breakfast menus.
Seamless ordering process.
Nutritional Information Page:
Detailed nutritional facts for each food item.
Empower parents to make informed decisions for a balanced and healthy diet.
Teacher Interface
Sign-Up Process:
Choose school.
Sign up using the unified district account.
Personalized Dashboard:
View lunch and breakfast menus chosen by parents.
Inquire and select menu preferences for students without pre-selected options.
Forward finalized choices to the cafeteria.
Additional Features:
Streamlined communication with parents.
Facilitate necessary adjustments to meal selections.
Promote collaboration between teachers and parents for optimal meal provision.
Cafeteria Worker Interface
Sign-Up Process:
Use district email ID to initiate application sign-up.
Dedicated Dashboard:
Display lunch and breakfast menus for each class.
Systematically go through each class to select specified items.
Distribute chosen meals to respective students.
Mark each student's meal as completed after distribution.
Additional Features:
Tools for tracking inventory.
Managing orders.
Ensuring seamless coordination with teachers and parents.
Enhance efficiency in cafeteria operations.
Contribute to the smooth execution of meal services for students.
Usability Testing
I conducted usability testing with three user groups: parents, teachers, and cafeteria workers. The feedback from all users was highly positive, as they expressed a strong desire for an application of this nature.
Parents were pleased to discover the capability to place orders for a week or a month in advance for both lunch and breakfast. They also appreciated the option to filter food preferences and allergens.
Teachers were satisfied with the reduced morning workload as they no longer had to individually inquire about lunch preferences from each student.
Cafeteria workers find satisfaction in the app as they can anticipate orders in advance, enabling them to organize categorized lunch and breakfast for students. This eliminates the need to wait for lists from the office.
Final Thoughts
Key Learnings
Challenging conventional thinking and scrutinizing traditional methods can inspire innovative changes in users' lives. At times, individuals may not realize what they're missing by adhering to familiar, old-fashioned practices.
When you're feeling really creative, it's important to mix in some practical thinking for real-world situations. Be mindful of using resources wisely for projects. Remember, creative solutions for user experience can go beyond the usual limits of typical mobile apps.
Next Steps
After turning this proof of concept into a basic version that works, it's crucial to thoroughly test it in various situations. Sometimes, cafeteria workers end up with excess food that goes to waste. To address this, we need to consult with the district to figure out ways to reduce food waste.
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