Deliveroo Widgets
I participated in a UX/Product design challenge as part of the Apple Services Development Program. We were tasked to reimagine a widget experience for our chosen app.
I participated in a UX/Product design challenge as part of the Apple Services Development Program. We were tasked to reimagine a widget experience for our chosen app.
I applied for the role as a Product Designer within the Apple Services Development Program. We were challenged to design a Widget for the iOS platform.
We were given three options to choose from — Deliveroo, AirBnb & NHS COVID 19. I chose Deliveroo as I am familiar with their service and digital experiences. This presented an opportunity to display essential information and enable swift ordering directly from the Home Screen, eliminating the need to launch the full application.
Due to unforeseen technical challenges, I managed to complete the project in 3.5 out of 7 days.
In my experience, users typically prioritise delivery times and rapid access to preferred dishes from favoured establishments to fill those hunger gaps whilst ordering as individuals or with family and friends. At the time, users had to launch the Deliveroo iOS app or website via a browser to interact with their services for those key areas above. So in short, key status updates and information was buried within a few interactions.
With only a few materials/artefacts as a reference, I did some research on iOS Widgets to discover whether there were any technical limitations. I discovered that there is a refresh budget. iOS might hold back or bundle updates depending on battery life, app use, resources, network, update frequency, user habits and idle time. Widget sizes vary, so I focused on what really matters to the user; not every size needs a design if it doesn’t add much value.
Technical hiccups meant I sketched ideas by hand until my computer was fixed. I created on-brand, mid-fidelity designs and a design system (which the client would usually share). I used friendly, conversational wording for screen states, addressing order status and highlighting favourites.
I had to consider what if a user hasn’t started an order when they have an order status widget on their home screen. Could we use conversational language to encourage an order? Maybe highlighting an image from their last order, to create interest visually? Those were questions I asked and explored.
For this project, I put together a deck that shares my design thinking and journey. It includes user flows and designs ranging from low to high-fidelity. I also made a simple prototype to give a feel for how the experience might look as screen states change on each widget – like moving from ‘Preparing your order’ to ‘On the way’. I closely matched the palette of colours for primary to accent. Used their quirky illustrations to create a familiar experience. I also designed placeholder versions for if the information hasn’t loaded yet.
I submitted the project as part of the application process. Sadly, I didn’t move into the final round. However, I am incredibly proud of the work I created and achieved in the short turnaround time, considering the technical challenges as the project commenced. I believe that I achieved the design brief and beyond with the end product, especially for Order status, as I had to consider all stages of their customer journey. Whereas Favourites Widget was quite a simple concept based on Apple’s grid template of widgets.
If I revisited this project, I would merge both Order status and Favourites widgets together — for example, when there is no current order, we could display favourite restaurants or shops.
Deliveroo Widgets screenshots on iOS.