Redesign of McDonald's app – User Experience analysis and optimization

User Experience analysis of the quality and optimization enables further development and opens the possibility of meeting the requirements of even the most demanding clients. The purpose of the application is to meet the customer's expectations and give them the option to reach out companies and their services easier. Satisfied with the process, the customer more readily returns and makes a purchase.

The redesign process aims to improve the overall quality of the app, so users can order food faster and more conveniently. The McDonald’s application was analyzed across different markets in Europe, and it comes out that its features vary depending on the country. ‍

As the former UX Designer who created a mobile app for MIT awarded start-up from Madrid and former UX Researcher at the best research institute in Italy​,​ my goal is to leverage 4 years of experience to help you succeed with optimizing the UX of your products.


Project design: analysis of the user's perspective and app’s features

App functionality and user’s needs

Using the McDonald’s application, users can get familiar with available promotions and new offers. They can also collect loyalty points and use them later to pay. Depending on customers’ needs and the market, they can check for locations that meet their specific criteria. For example, Belgium users can charge their electric cars during the meal.

Current app features 

• Promotions – special offers of new products, loyalty programs.
• Food details – ingredients, nutrition information, possible allergens.
• Filtering and navigation – restaurant locations, available facilities, etc.

User problems

1. Full access to signed-up users only – browsing coupons available only after creating an account (macro-design choice of app developers for data analysis and content personalization purposes).
2. Price transparency – prices of products do not always appear.
3. No direct ordering system – the lack of possibility to order food via the app nor a delivery option. 
   

Based on user’s issues, UX design analysis is able to fix them by meeting customer’s needs, such as: to save money, explore food quickly and easy, find a suitable restaurant and get to know about the new menu.

User Experience analysis presentation and evaluation

According to reviews, McDonald’s app is number one for the category of Food & Drinks. At the same time it has a drastically low ranking: 2.5/5 based on more than 1000 reviews. 

Feature 1: Language and location selection

Issues include excise when changing language (multiple clicks) and as a result a growing frustration of customers when no choice is available. Location selection causes possible slips using the drop-down menu.

Feature 2: Filtering for facilities

First step of filtering redesign includes added buttons which give the opportunity to reduce slips possibility and get prominent feedback from the system. The secondary redesign of added parameters would be a scrollable list, optimal for multiple characteristics.

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Feature 3: Current product selection

The unstructured layout can cause following problems: a less responsive app, growing customer’s irritation and eventually inconsistent data that software developers receive. The disorganized product selection page consists of: irrelevant logo and menu button location, proximity of icons and not visible borders between product choice that generate possible slips. Furthermore, there are features that do not redirect to any content.

Feature 4: Landing page

The action button called News, working as a navigation button, redirects to Offers instead of showing more details of current promotions and actions. Additionally, the home icon is not corresponding to the News category - it causes mental model inconsistency. The redesigned landing page informs customer about new menu options better and allows them to save money using in-app deals.

Redesign: solutions with elaboration in terms of micro-interaction

Redesigned language and location selection

The language option is disabled when only one choice is possible. It provides limited excise (lesser number of clicks) and better affordance for possibility of action. Redesign for two languages gives the opportunity to reduce excise from 3 to 1 click by showing both options visible on one screen using a toggle switch. In the case of multiple languages, the addition of radio buttons allows users to choose up to three of them. By highlighting the chosen language, it displays more visible system feed-forward.

Solutions for product selection

Redesigned product selection allows to easily explore food options, which is one of the user’s most significant needs. Nowadays, clients seek for simplicity and similarities between mobile apps (e.x. buttons in usual places) that save their time and make them feel more confident when navigating.

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Additional observations and possible extra features

Application introduction

In the era of fast content consumption, a design pattern that would be more attractive to users includes animations and short videos. Taking this into account, a more effective and visually appealing way of explaining the process of a loyalty program  to collect points is a demonstrative video.

Data visualization

Whenever video content is not possible or effective, for example when presenting numerical data such as nutritious values, it can be introduced in a visual way. The current display does not fit the system model of the mobile environment: it’s a scan of a PDF document with a list of all products and categories. It is cluttered and hard to search for details. One of the solution is to put corresponding bars that help to understand the numbers behind each category.

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The User Experience development should be accomplished by an experienced professional. Like other digital products, mobile apps need to be designed in a way that delivers a positive impression. Well-planned application interface is easy-to-use, functional, responsive and visually appealing.