Bringing authentic Ethiopian food to Richmond
Helping redesign a local Richmond cafe’s website in order to attract more customers and provide clarity in their business services.
Overview
Buna Kurs is a small locally owned Ethiopian cafe providing authentic Ethiopian food and culture.
Over the course of two weeks, we decided to revamp the website as it lacked a lot of information and story.
How Might We
How might we create a seamless online ordering experience that allows for faster ordering and lookup for the variety of dishes?
What did our research entail?
This led to us creating user personas
Buna Kurs has racked up some pretty great reviews throughout the years for its excellent food and services. The few complaints we did find was that the lack of options for ordering ahead often left customers having to wait long periods to receive their food, especially during busy hours.
Sketches & Wireframes
After gaining some feedback from our professor we decided to stick to creating a seamless online ordering page, here’s our sketches and wireframes…
But wait, we had to switch it up
After visiting Buna Kurs, we got an amazing opportunity to talk directly with the owner. Turns out that what she needs is different from our initial research.
The owner did not want an online ordering option on her website at the moment since she is a loyal user of Uber Eats.
She would prefer to have her website go into detail about events like the tea ceremony they have and options to sell items that are not food-related.
So naturally, we came up with new thumbnails.
Which led us to our prototype
Summary
The prototype development involved maintaining the original feel for the home page but enhancing it with attention-grabbing elements and incorporating more personal aspects such as the owner's story and values. Although a "our traditions" page is pending due to a lack of information from the business, efforts were made to create a user-friendly menu page, inspired by the Starbucks app, with a table of contents that moves as users scroll. There is a debate about whether to use a carousel or showcase all items on the page, with a preference for the latter due to the addition of a left navigation feature.
A section for items not on the menu, suggested by the store owner, was included to highlight products like gift cards. An events page was also added for owners to update store-related information. Initially focusing on online ordering, a shift occurred after realizing the business was well-established on Uber Eats. Consequently, attention turned to addressing missing information about Buna Kurs on the website to better serve users.
Thank you for making it this far through our journey!