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Case study: Multi-restaurant ordering for DoorDash
Hey DoorDash…so how does one order from more than one restaurant at the same time?
Unfortunately, you can’t. At least not yet.
Seven weeks ago, I began a journey to (at least my slightly younger self hoped) figure that out. DoorDash, one of the most well-known food delivery service apps that is available in more than 850 cities nationwide, assumes that I want to order from just one restaurant.
But what if I want Chicken Koobideh for dinner and and a pint of Netflix and Chill’d for desert? Much like the other food delivery apps on my iPhone, the answer was simple.
Place two orders.
Searching for the perfect restaurant, finding just that right flavor, adding it to the cart, checking out, selecting my delivery time, picking my tip amount, choosing my credit card, and last but not least, hitting that big bright orange Place Order button that will have my favorites at my door in no time. Times two.
So how did this all start?
Before this particular project began, I was working with three other talented students in a research class in the Maryland Institute College of Arts’ Master of Professional Studies in UX Design program. Our goal? Evaluate a problem statement presented by one of the group around communications issues when order problems occur using DoorDash.
While pursuing a deeper understanding of the problem through twenty interviews and many hours of analysis, we uncovered some interesting pain points and challenges beyond our initial problem statement, ultimately leading me to a question that I, with a little help from IDEO’s Design Kit, determined how to ask.
How might we allow customers to order from multiple restaurants at the same time?
It was a challenge that I, having kids of my own with completely different tastes, had also experienced. As for my plan over the next several weeks? Figure out a way to order from more than one restaurant while maintaining the experience that millions of DoorDash users already know.
And so my goals, quite simply, were:
- Design a method for customers to order from more than one restaurant at the same time on…
