Borage Grill UX Design

MY ROLE

UX Designer, Web Developer, and Digital Designer. Best practice research, wireframing, prototyping, and client presentation.

PROJECT SUMMARY

The client aimed to get an updated design with an effective web presence. This update consisted of a complete redesign of the current website, a transition to a mobile-friendly design, and a mobile-friendly website that would assist in acquiring clients and building a robust customer base. 

PROJECT CHALLENGES

This project had quite a few challenges. The first was a transition to a more mobile-friendly platform and a complete website redesign. The customer had no idea what they needed but did know what he wanted his site to accomplish. The main challenge was the scale of the work required and establishing a strategy to address some of the needs that the client conveyed to me.

THE SOLUTION

This design project was comprehensive in its scope. Although the Borage Grill site was sparse, transitioning the content to a new design was relatively straightforward. In addition, the client wanted to create a user-friendly website to attract new customers and create a community feel around the restaurant and online space. 

My designs needed to fit within their brand standards and the client’s required look and feel. I also had to create an app interface that was simple and easy to navigate and mockups that utilized simple design aesthetics to convey the needed application features.

Borage Grill Recipe Page

INTERVIEWS

At the discovery phase of this project, we surveyed a small group of customers to get their idea of what the new site would need and their problems with the current website. The survey results revealed that most clients expected a better quality web experience equal to the restaurant’s food quality. There also was a desire to order online and have pricing and a menu on the website. Lastly, there was an issue with the blog style of the current site, with most of the respondents expressing surprise that a blog was the website for the restaurant.

I agreed with the survey results and quickly realized a few factors prohibited the client from achieving the project’s goals.

First, the current platform was not conducive to do what the client wanted to do. It provided a very unpleasant user experience with the information on the site being a blog, with nothing giving interaction with the restaurant. So, the first order of business was to change the website platform to a CMS that would provide easier interconnectivity with payment platforms, an e-commerce ordering system, and a way for the client to make edits to the site if needed. The client also wanted a website that would drive traffic to his restaurant and allow him to communicate directly with his customers. He was not ready to embark on the e-commerce component of the project but did want to have the mechanisms in place to transition to it when he was ready.

USER JOURNEY

After receiving the survey results, I provided the client with a user journey/roadmap to how his customers should ideally traverse their web experience on the Borage website.

I proposed a few solutions that I believed would achieve the client’s goals. Since there was a need to get more clients and community visibility, I suggested the following:

1. Incorporate the current blog into the website redesign as a page on the website.
2. I also suggested that he add menu and recipe pages for customers to get and share Mediterranean recipes. These pages would allow the customers to see what options were available and interact with the restaurant at a deeper level.
3. The website platform was not adequate for what the client wanted the site to do. So I proposed a CMS (WordPress) platform allowing the client to grow the online presence as he saw fit and ease transitioning to an online ordering component.
4. While the client had a sound customer base, I believed it would be beneficial to reach out to prospective corporate partners strategically; this option was designed on the site’s back end but not implemented in this redesign phase.
5. The redesign needed to stay on brand, so I provided a redesign of some of the restaurant’s collateral to bring everything in line. 

Before getting to the website redesign, I updated the existing collateral with updated custom pieces. This update included a new in-store menu and an online menu that corresponded with the look of the physical menu. 

Borage Grill User Journey

With the collateral updated, I started on the website redesign. This process involved multiple mockups and proofs to the client to provide him with a design that was adequate for his needs and the survey’s suggestions. 

Additionally, most of the mockups provided a focused view on specific agenda items. Finally, this project’s user journey map helped allow everyone involved to look at the redesigned website from the user’s point of view; it also provided a reference point that kept the project on schedule and assisted in the usability and optimization of the site.

Borage Grill Menu

RESULTS

Borage Grill had a plethora of needs and a limited budget. However, the utilization of textbook UX and Design tools and methodologies provided the client with an effective redesign that met all of the needs and positioned the website to exceed the client’s expectations and address all of the shortcomings present at the project’s start. In addition, utilizing the user journey map allowed me to go over the strategies behind some of the design choices that the client questioned. Finally, providing the client with a roadmap to the project helped meet the design needs and assisted me in keeping the project on time and on target.