Yelp Mobile App Redesign
Yelp
for the community, everyone’s voices indeed
matter.
What’s the problem?
The original Yelp App is a social networking site that lets users post reviews and rate businesses, it supposes to connect people with great local businesses, to help the community to filter useful business information. By far, the restraunt Yet with too many features in the app currently, it can dilute the main purpose and function of the app.
Understanding
I took amount of time understanding the user needs and pain points of the current interface before diving into ideating the new user experience, which helped me tremendously to understand the logic behind the current design.
User Tasks & Goals
The user’s goals are: First, to search a restaurant for their upcoming anniversary celebration; Second, to find some inspirations and restaurant deals for weekend plan; Third, to post a review about another restaurant they went last weekend, and the tasks included:
What’s the real problem?
Reframing / The logic behind new design
Ideating & Sketching
With all the research and insights in mind, I started the design stage with pen&paper and sketching out the basic wireframes and the main concepts of the new app system.
Redesign
When designing the new interface, I made sure the original Yelp branding is respected while the new branding strategies are outstanding. In order to give users more autonomy, build new motivation system, encourage users’ innovation and creativity, improve the users experience, I changed the UI/UX design in the following pages, and also came up with this new slogan to redefine the brand image.
The Main Page Flow
The main page flow is focusd on real users’ social proof, all contents are suggested according to users previous interaction. This makes users feel more engaged and trustworthy in the Yelp community.
I reorganized the main header based on Yelp USA Users Age Wise. Made it clear and simple, easy to scroll horizontally, click to expand for filter and sub-header, and that direct users to the result without typing in the search bar.
Curiosity: scrolling in lists with endless scroll pattern makes users desire to interact more with the service.
Credibility: everyone gets to vote — each review post shares the total vote number from other users — one of the solutions for helping review quality control and audit.
A closer look at the Review Page
Simple layout allow users easily interact with others within the community and check the business info conveniently and directly.
Prioritize the review content strategy invites and encourages users to be more creative and engagement,also builds up more credibility.
Scrolling in Business Page
The new simplified but full-featured design makes the business page more authentic and trustworthy, it shortens the distance with customers and mitigates the pain point where users felt doubtful about the business-led contents’ reliability and credibility before.
The prominence of this new page is adding another interaction, parallel switch, to check the business information more easily and conveniently instead of scrolling on the previous lengthy cluttered page.
Scrolling in lists with endless scroll pattern in Menu and Reviews option make users desire to stay longer on the page to get to know more about the business.
A new system to encourage Review upload
While designing the new upload Review system, I made sure to balance between different user habits and the page flow aesthetics. Users are not only motivated to be more active and engagement but also be more creative and have more autonomy.
Based on the new slogan and encourage sharing strategy, I added a + bottom in the footer which can be easily interacted within the system.
After choose the business from recently visited or search bar, users get to choose post their review with or without photos. Everyone’s voices matter and should be respected.
Colorful palette background options will be given when users choose to post a review without photo. It will ensure the post display on the main page flow and review page as attractive as the ones with photos.
Multiple options for the photo editing allow users to be more creative and have more autonomy.
The feature of #Keywords is to better suggest recommendations while users explore on the platform.
Exploring in the Users Profile Page
Instead of scrolling down all the way to the end, now the Collections, Reviews, Reservation, and Following options are parallel designed on the top of ME page for users to explore.
Each option has an expanded sub-heading filter, as well as a search icon, allow users to easily find the result without typing in anything.
Except reviews option is set open to public by default, others are all set only visible to users originally with a lock icon, including check-ins. Respect users to customized their page autonomously.
Collections option has expanded sub-filter choices, votes, saved, and search by default, others could be created by users through add to my list icon on business page.
The New Deals & Offers design
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Reorganized and prioritized hamburger menu icons for easy navigation. Deals & Offers is replaced in a prominent position to attract more attention.
Each deal is presented as a coupon shape icon next to the business info. Eye-catching and please to the eyes, click to save for later, double-click to cancel.
Business owners can add more promotion info in this category, such as grand opening, holiday event, special hours to attract more customers.
My offers option help users to manage their deals&coupons, by organizing and reminding.
Branding Expansion
One special idea on branding expansion keeps lingering on my mind throughout the design process. I’ve already tailored one systematic brand strategy for Yelp, yet another one which I haven’t put in the design yet is: In Yelp, everyone can be a gourmet. Let me explain a little more about it：
The main purpose why people use Yelp is to discover great service to better enjoy their lives, searching for good restaurant, home cleaning service, kids related business serves, pet care, or even just some basic info of the business. So, why not offer users whoever contributed and helped a ton for the Yelp community the opportunity to become the gourmet/influencer in that domain once for free. It could be called “taster program”, whether it’s a restaurant who has a new menu and needs it to be tested out or just for the purpose of commercial promotion strategy, it could be a recently opened business who needs more attention to get to know their wonderful service, or simply just business wants to improve their services to better serve their customers and so on.
This win-win strategy will not only build a new brand image for Yelp community, but also all the users will feel more engaged and obliged within the platform. Motivating users to be more creative, participation, and enthusiasm, and eventually help our business partners to improve their services precisely and to thrive.
The Outcome | Reflection
After the redesigned mock-up is completed, I conducted usability study right away. I was able to finish the study with more than five people (age between 20-38), who all had used Yelp app previously. Even with different mobile devices, overall they expressed how better experience they had with the mock-up than the original Yelp app, which makes them desire to use it in real life soon.
In this mock-up design case, I’ve learned to how to ask the fundamental questions “what problem are we trying to solve?” and “how do we know that’s a real problem?”. Followed on my research and practice, I keep iterating the design throughout the whole process, and certainly there will be a lot more iterations need to be done, but the way how I rethink and reframe the problems in this case really taught me a new set of mindset in design, and in life as well.