


La Weekend
Booking app design
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La Weekend is a French restaurant in France with two locations: Paris and Marseille. La Weekend is a Michelin One-star restaurant, it plans to launch its own app for managing its booking, walk-in, takeaway and membership, and provide more flexibilities for its customers to enjoy authentic French cuisine.
My role: UX designer designing the app for Le Weekend from conception to delivery
Design Platform: Figma
This project is one of the coursework (Design an App) from Google UX Design Professional Certificate, not a project for a real organisation.

The Problem
Traditional booking method like a phone call or a prior physical visit is not convenient for working people and tourists to successfully make a table reservation. Also, the long waiting queue for walk-in is frustrating for customers.
The Goal
Design an app for Le Weekend that allows users to easily make a table reservation and better utilise the queue waiting time for a walk-in.
User Research
1
Time
The queuing time outside the restaurant is usually long and French restaurants usually don't aim to turn table at night.
2
Accessibility
The restaurant phone line is hard to reach for a reservation, especially during rush hour.
3
Pricing
Dining out is expensive, how to spend the money wisely or save some unnecessary cost
4
Language
Tourists might not be able to speak and understand French for reserving a table by phone or understand the French menu.
Personas

Andrea
“Work hard and play hard, I enjoy spending my free time with family and friends with nice food and drinks"
pROBLEM sTATEMENT
Andrea is a busy working woman who enjoys eating out with families and friends on weekends. But she found it difficult to reserve a table by phone and she doesn't want to queue outside the restaurant for walk-in.
gOALS
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Be a great leader in the company
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To maintain a healthy work-life balance
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Be able to spend time with friends and family on weekends
fRUSTRATIONS
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”Nice French restaurants are always fully booked”
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“It’s difficult to reach the restaurant by phone, and I don’t really have the time to make calls”
BIO
Age:
Education:
Hometown:
Family:
Occupation:
32
Master in Marketing
France
Married
Marketing director
Andrea graduated with a Master’s degree in Marketing and currently works as a marketing director in a multinational marketing agency in Paris. She likes traditional French cuisine and the dining environment of a French restaurant where she can spend time with her friends and family on weekends. However, a lot of French restaurants need a reservation to secure a table, especially during weekends. She is always busy at work that she doesn’t have the time to make a phone call during restaurant non-peak hours. She is also annoyed about waiting outside the restaurant for a table.
Personas

JEFF
Age:
Education:
Hometown:
Family:
Occupation:
28
Master in Journalism Hong Kong
Single with 1 dog Journalist
“I use my camera to capture everything I see and use my pen to write down how I feel, and I love my job that I could record the moment”
pROBLEM sTATEMENT
Jeff is a journalist who loves traveling and trying local and authentic cuisines. But he could only speak English and Cantonese. While traveling he wants to spend more time on sightseeing instead of waiting for a long time to be seated
gOALS
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Be a great journalist to report and share things with public
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Share the love of food with people
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Enrich his experience through traveling
fRUSTRATIONS
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”French is so difficult and I feel embarrassed if I speak it wrong”
“I hate wasting my time queueing for restaurants” -
“I wish there are multi-language apps for reservations during my travels”
BIO
Jeff is a journalist from Hong Kong, he travels a lot and he also likes photography. He always documents the places he goes and shares it on his public social media account. He also likes trying local cuisines to experience the culture when he is traveling. He speaks English and Cantonese, and he only knows simple greeting words in Spanish, French, Korean and Japanese. He is not confident to make a reservation in foreign language. He doesn’t want to waste a lot of time queuing up for the restaurant. It’s important for him to make good use of his time in France to check all the tourist spots as he is traveling far away from Asia to Europe.
PAPER WIREFRAMES


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Taking the time to draft iterations of each screen of the app on paper ensured that the elements that made it to digital wireframes would be well-suited to address user pain points.
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For the home screen, I wanted to include all possible functions to provide a holistic customer dining experience e.g. booking, queuing, menu, takeaway, membership
digital WIREFRAMES
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The buttons here represent different functions that can be performed in the app
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Easy access to navigation that’s screen reader friendly.
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Users can see clearly how to reach different pages related to booking
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Users can fill in all info in one page
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As the initial design phase continued, I made sure to do screen designs base on feedback and findings from the user research
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I also made sure all graphics in my design aligned and the indication for action is clear.
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Easy navigation was a key user need to address in the designs, also equipping the app to work with assistive technologies is considered.
LO-FIDELITY PROTOTYPE

Using the completed set of digital wireframes, I created a low-fidelity prototype. The primary user flow I connected was reserving a table at the restaurant, modifying the booking and taking queue ticket remotely, and users could have better management of the booking and queuing, so that the prototype could be used in a usability study.
USABILITY STUDY
I conducted two rounds of usability studies. Findings from the first study helped guiding the designs from wireframes to mockups. The second study used a high-fidelity prototype and revealed what aspects of the
mockups needed refining.
Round One Findings
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Important features should be more visible
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Users want more guidance when they navigate around the remote queuing
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The user flow for key features can be shortened
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Users want to view activities history and be able to make multiple bookings
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Users want to be able to choose dates in the next few months
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The user flow for key features can be shortened
Round Two Findings
MOCKUPS
The early design of the home screen was a bit confusing for users due to the labeling and button placement of its key functions. But after the usability studies, I changed the design to make the booking button more obvious and give more explanation about the remoting queuing. And it is more clear now for the users to perform different actions once enter the app. I also removed the chat button as such function seems a bit unnecessary.
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Before 1st Usability Test
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After 1st Usability Test
The second usability study revealed frustration that customers can only make a reservation in the current month and no multiple reservations are allowed.
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To improve the user experience, I added back the option for selecting dates in future months. I also added a page of booking history under managing my booking to allow users to view the current and past bookings.
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Before 2nd Usability Test
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After 2nd Usability Test
The second usability study users also reflected that they would like to be informed about the receipt and check back the details of takeaway orders.
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Therefore, I added the option for users to get the receipt after placing the order and check their takeaway history, the order which could be viewed in the top left corner menu under "My Takeaway"
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Before 2nd Usability Test
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After 2nd Usability Test
key mockups


high fidelity prototype
The final high-fidelity prototype presented cleaner user flows for making reservation, managing bookings, remotely queuing for walk-in, and ordering takeaway. It also met user needs for a pickup or delivery option as well as more flexibility to manage their booking and takeaway order.

accessibility considerations
Provided access to users who are vision impaired through adding alt text to images for screen readers.
Used icons to help to make navigation easier.
Used imagery for the menu and promotion to help all users better visualise the dishes the restaurant provides
TAKEAWAYS

impacts
The app makes users feel that Le Weekend really thinks about how to meet their needs.
One quote from user feedback: “The app made it so easy to make a reservation! It's so good that you could even remotely take queue ticket for walk-in, and instantly check for the waiting time."

While designing the Le Weekend app, I learned that the first ideas for the app are only the beginning of the process. Usability studies and peer feedback influenced each iteration of the app’s designs. Do not be afraid of seeking feedback and the changes that need to be made, the final product always surprises you.
NEXT STEPS
1
Conduct another round of usability study to validate whether the pain points users experienced have been effectively addressed.
2
Conduct more user research to determine any new areas of need and add respect features if necessary
Thank you for your time reviewing my work on the Le Weekend Booking App!