Imm Thai
App Design
Timeline
2 weeks
Tools
Figma
One of the most popular Thai resturants in Berkeley, CA is Imm Thai. Like most resturants, they have delicious food and drinks but not a mobile app.
For my midterm assignment in the Figma Decal at Cal, I took it upon myself to design one for them.
About
Imm Thai Street Food is a local restaurant dear to the students of UC Berkeley. Their dishes are direct family recipes straight from the streets of Thailand. This history is rich and traditional. I wanted to reflect the unique style they have into my final design.
Paper Prototyping
When making my paper prototype, I wanted all options to be available from the very beginning. This increases usability and clarity.
I wanted a proper balance of shapes and images while still being able to maintain readability.
The bottom bar was also envisioned to aid in navigation between the main screens of the app.
Low Fidelity
The low fidelity protype focused on clarifying elements of the design that I wanted to emphasize.
During this time, I researched multiple food related apps for my market research. Relaying some of these elements into my final design meant convenient usability.
The home screen showcases "hot deals" and "favorites" that are specially curated towards to user. These serve to catch the eye and persuade the user to order food.
The menu selection's goal is to showcase the menu in a appetizing yet readable way. I adjusted the layout so that each item could have ample space to be showed off.
Final Prototype
The final prototype implemented everything that I talked about before in the low fidelity prototype. I used the main colors of Imm Thai, such as the traditional blue and bright red. The main goal of the app is to be scrollable and easy to navigate.
What I learned
As this was my first real project in designing an app, I was able to learn a lot through hands on experience and my peers.
With feedback, I was able to develop my prototyping a bit more by implementing screens so that they didn't have dead ends. With my user testing I found that being able to go back to the main screen at ANY point in the design was crutial. This allowed me to create a more circular prototype and increase usability.
After some advice from my peers, I learned that the fonts that I chose may have not been the best choice. The first font I chose was hard to read on such a small screen and I have since changed it to something more legible.
Prototyping in Figma is more fun than I could've ever imagined. It is easy to use and super customizable. I am able to put my vision on a screen and be satisfied with the result.
Future revisions
Moving forward, I would like to conduct proper user testing and research as well as being able to further develop the UI of the app.
Given the chance, I would like to flesh out this app more with proper user testing and research. The short time frame and the fact that the assignment wasn't for a case study meant that I was unable to do so.
I would also like to revise the layout of text within the app. It is small and hard to read making it difficult for users with poor eyesight to use. One option to combat that is to make it so that there is one item per row, making each item box bigger and able to fit more information.
I think adding more screens and options to this project would increase its success immensely.