Freshness Burger: Online Ordering
How does culture, location, and language affect UX and design?
Project Brief
Freshness Burger is a Japanese fast food restaurant chain that sells hamburgers, hot dogs, soups, salads, and more. They have 189 restaurants in Japan. Some stores can be found on Uber Eats, and some locations offer delivery (via phone order) as well. Freshness Burger had a mobile app with discounts, but they used to not have a way for customers to order online through Freshness Burger’s site or app.
Mobile PrototypeDesktop PrototypeObjectives
Cultural Research
Understand Freshness Burger’s customers, and Japanese culture
Style Tile
Create a style tile to maintain consistency for Freshness Burger’s brand
Online Ordering System
Design a system that allows users to order via desktop & mobile
Research Methods & Takeaways
In order to learn more about Freshness Burger’s users, the fast food industry in Japan, Japanese culture, and online ordering systems, I created and did a number of things to guide research efforts, including:
Market & Cultural Research
Because this was a self-directed project, the user research I was going to need to do to answer all of my questions seemed daunting.
As an American who’d recently moved to Japan, I’d noticed a lot of differences in Japanese websites that were unheard of or simply not done in the west. Some of these differences included things like mountains of text on web pages, page layouts that seemed unintuitive and outdated, and oftentimes a lack of ecommerce presence for businesses & retailers.
I had so many unanswered questions, and felt so unsure and worried that Freshness Burger would even benefit from an online ordering system - as online ordering systems can be very expensive to maintain and sometimes aren’t profitable for restaurants.
I definitely felt like I flailed a lot during my research phase. I wanted to make sure I covered all my bases and really understood Japanese culture and the food industry in Japan, in order to create an ordering system that would make sense and be intuitive for Japanese users. Below are the key takeaways from my market & cultural research:
Online Ordering Isn’t Widespread in Japan
The reasons why online ordering is not as widespread / widely adopted in Japan is nuanced and includes a mixture of circumstance (such as living somewhere rural with few restaurants where ordering online isn’t even an option) and beliefs held by people living in Japan (such as the idea that takeout isn’t as fresh / delicious as in-store ordering).
Cultural Differences Affect Design & UX
Because of the cultural differences in how Japanese people think and approach using websites, website design in Japan is approached very differently than website design in America, and it will be important to design specifically for a Japanese audience, and not under the same assumptions / methods I would design for by default (which is usually for a Western audience).
Online Ordering Isn’t Widespread in Japan
The reasons why online ordering is not as widespread / widely adopted in Japan is nuanced and includes a mixture of circumstance (such as living somewhere rural with few restaurants where ordering online isn’t even an option) and beliefs held by people living in Japan (such as the idea that takeout isn’t as fresh / delicious as in-store ordering).
Cultural Differences Affect Design & UX
Because of the cultural differences in how Japanese people think and approach using websites, website design in Japan is approached very differently than website design in America, and it will be important to design specifically for a Japanese audience, and not under the same assumptions / methods I would design for by default (which is usually for a Western audience).
Style Tile
After the research phase, it was important to create a style tile For Freshness Burger’s existing brand. In order to maintain consistency with Freshness Burger’s brand, using elements from their website and in-store menus in the online ordering system would be key. I included things such as font, color, icons, and photography style within the style guide to define the brand’s visual language.
After the style tile was created, I decided to start sketching and exploring all of the different ideas I had for each of the different pages.
One thing I learned during my cultural analysis is that Japan is a mobile-first country when it comes to accessing the web. Years ago, it was expensive to create both mobile and desktop versions of a website, so Japanese companies chose between the two and settled for what the majority of users were drawn to: mobile-friendly websites. Thus, companies optimized the Japanese UI design of their sites for mobile. Nowadays, more and more Japanes websites are finding it important to incorporate more fluidity between mobile and desktop because it targets more users to access their websites and also to become multi-platform compatible.
Knowing that, I opted to take a more responsive approach for both desktop and mobile.
Wireframes
Then it was time to connect information architecture to visual design by showing paths between screens of the online ordering system! I created a series of wireframes to detail exactly how each step would go during the ordering process.
Visual Design
After creating the style tile, sketching, and wireframing, I incorporated Freshness Burger’s branding to all of the different UI elements.
Summary & Takeaways
Creating a responsive online ordering system challenged me to explore many different research methodologies, especially as someone who isn’t familiar with Japanese culture or businesses inside of Japan and how they operate.
It was really interesting to learn about diifferent beliefs and habits practiced by people of a different culture, and those beliefs and habits can greatly impact how businesses are run. Since many Japanese are suspicious of online ordering, there hasn’t been as much focus on ecommerce in the past, but that is slowly changing as more businesses are starting to implement online stores and ways to purchase goods and services online.
If I had more time, I’d test my designs again, and continue improving on the features that could help build trust with people in Japan while also helping them order and make payments online.
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