Runnr-Mobile and Web Apps
Creating transparent and optimised systems, keeping delivery at the core of UX design
Logistic company Runnr acquired TinyOwl to venture into the online food ordering space. TinyOwl was more of a food discovery and ordering platform, while Runnr emphasised more on delivery.
Me and my team at TinyOwl had already developed web and mobile apps over a period of 2 years. Our challenge was not only to rebrand the app, but also to put forth a completely new narrative of fast and reliable delivery. We took this opportunity to make delivery process more transparent and accessible.
Visual (Re)design
Having most of the UX in place gave us sufficient time to define a cohesive visual language using reusable patterns in line with the brand. Standardization also saved us hours of unnecessary development time. We employed a bold and clean typographic style for better readability and emphasised on imagery to assist faster decision making. Standardized styles and well-defined snippets enabled us to create faster UI designs across platforms.
SOME SNIPPETS
Key features
Building on the TinyOwl apps, we included features like order status, live delivery tracking and order feedback to provide a comprehensive delivery experience. Some key ideas we worked on were:
1. Recent restaurants
Users frequently order from the restaurants they’re familiar with and trust. 75% of the users order from the same 5 restaurant 85% of the time.
2. Moods
Moods are sets of speciality restaurants grouped by cuisine. People who want to discover new food, usually find it easier to recognize a cuisine or a food type than choosing restaurants or applying filters.
3. Recommended items
The most selling items of a restaurant are shown upfront. This eased decision making and increased the click- through rate.
4. Add-ons
Add ons are items that complement food items users add to their cart. With data collected over 2 years, we mapped items frequently ordered together. It saved users from the hassle of navigating through the menu.
Delivery focussed features
A. Order status
People usually tend to be impatient when they're hungry and waiting for their food. Users should be able to track their order in real time till it is delivered. Order status needs to be upfront and easily accessible, as users generally check the same several times.
B. Delivery tracking
Users could track their order on a map. For more help, they could contact the delivery boy — enabling Runnr to deliver a fully transparent delivery experience.
MOBILE APP
WEB ORDERING APP
Using the massive real estate available on the desktop web, we provided added functionalities like filters, etc. Large images also created a huge difference in the appeal of the site.
We took our inspiration from the print menus available in restaurants - taking advantage of patterns that users are already familiar with.
Real time delivery tracking was available even on both web and mobile, making it a cross platform experience.
Bonus Project: Runnr Meals
We created Runnr meals — a corporate ordering platform aimed at providing pocket-friendly alternatives to insipid canteen food. Corporate employees were granted a monthly budget for their meals by their employers. As the service was pre-paid, checkout was super fast and the order through rate extremely high. Users order from a limited, fresh menu everyday. Orders were to be placed in a specific time window. This enabled restautants to not only create additional demand, but also plan their operations better. We successfully reduced the number of delivery touchpoints by clubbing deliveries — greatly reducing logistic costs.
Me and my team employed modular systems help create UI at a very fast pace. We also documented the guidelines helping us scale the app and design upcoming features. Guidelines always evolve through the life-cycle of a product. Hence, they should be flexible enough to accomodate new patterns and enable innovation. Runnr was acquired by food-tech giant Zomato in September 2017.
Special thanks to my teammates Arpit Dave and Hemant Panchabhai for helping me design the Runnr apps.
Avik Dey
UI/UX designer based in Helsinki. Ex-design lead at TinyOwl and Runnr.