Challenge: Create a useful app for specific group of people
Timeline: 5 days
Solution: Midnight Snack is a food/restaurant finder for overnight employees (people who work swing, overnight, and graveyard shifts).
Role: Research, Ideate, Design
Understanding
There is no shortage of food and restaurant discovery apps on the market, some of the most popular being Yelp, OpenTable, and Munch. Each tool allows the user to perform general searches, and they usually have unique features that appeal to different users needs (ie: Yelp for customer reviews).
The idea for Midnight Snack came from speaking with family and friends that are nurses and veterinary technicians, and hearing them talk about their work routines. Many days throughout the week they alternate working swing shifts and graveyard shifts.
- Swing Shift Example = 2pm - 10pm
- Graveyard Shift Example = 12am - 8am
Two major pain points stuck out to me during our conversations that formed the basis of my app concept.
1) It's hard to find places that are open late.
2) Short breaks means finding and getting food quickly is important.
Research
Diving into the World of overnight and shift workers was surprising and enlightening. Did you know that roughly 15% of American full-time wage earners work outside the normal 9am-5pm hours?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Most shift workers are in service occupations, like protective service (such as police and firefighters), food preparation and serving, healthcare, and transportation."
This means there are millions of Americans that live and experience work on a daily basis in ways that are unlike the typical full-time employee.
Ideation
The goal was to create an app that is helpful and practical for overnight workers to quickly and easily find food and restaurants nearby.
Limiting Factors: Time of day, accessibility
Considerations: Healthy options, speed of service, relevant suggestions
Primary Audience: Nurses and doctors, cleaning service, construction, security guards, operators and fabricators
Secondary Audience: "Party" crowd or bar go-ers, young people like college students that are typically up late
Concepts: Playful, Engaging, Empowering, Helpful, Useful
Imagery: Nighttime, Neon, Moon and Stars
Solution
1) Display Only the Restaurants that are OPEN
Midnight Snack is made for nighttime and shift workers, so it makes sense to only show the options that will be relevant to their needs. The app focuses on locations that are open between the hours of 2pm-8am.
This removes the extra step of filtering nearby restaurants by "open now" (like you would have to do on Yelp for example).
2) Menu Button Easily Accessible
One pain point I heard from nurses was the need to see the menu options easily so a choice can me made quickly. This informed my decision to display the Menu button prominently for easy access. In similar food apps, the Menu is generally hidden several layers down and takes some searching to access.
3) Inspiration Feed
Sometimes you don't know what you're in the mood for and need help making a decision. The "My Feed" feature allows users to see food images from nearby restaurants that other users have shared/uploaded. It combines the sense of sharing with the nighttime worker community, as well as a place to find meal inspiration.
4) Time Awareness
Some shift workers only have 30 minutes for "lunch," which means time will make most of their decisions for them. Midnight Snack clearly displays walking distance, driving distance, and estimated delivery time for every location (when applicable).
Learning
When redesigning common digital tools like food finders or travel apps, it's easy to become overwhelmed by all the features and information that you could include in your design. The key is to focus on the core needs of the intended users and commit to designing for those needs.
The more features and choices you add, the less "important" each one becomes, the less it becomes about that user group (unless you are Amazon of course).
Another realization I had is that although it seems like there's an over-saturation of food, travel, productivity, apps (etc.), there is always room to improve a design set for a specific group of users.
The internet is still young, designing digital products is still in its beginning phases, and I look forward to contributing to that future in a positive and meaningful way.
Thanks for reading.
