MODERN MILKMAN : A VOLUNTARY REDESIGN

Background

About a year ago, myself and my husband decided to reconsider the extent of plastic waste and plastic products we use daily. The main source of plastic waste came from milk bottles - as extensive tea drinkers, we were getting through ~8 pints a week, creating a lot of plastic waste from supermarket milk bottles. We also only bought the 2 pint bottles as we worried 4 pinters would go off quicker... We soon discovered the Modern Milkman, a fairly new milk delivery business which also delivered eggs, bread and more - this company only delivered in a few areas (mainly up North) and so we quickly signed up. They deliver local milk, eggs and other produce in reusable glass bottles. Their main USP is sustainability and delivering British produce straight to your front door, quite ideal during the lockdowns!

After signing up through the app, we swiftly realised the app's user experience left a lot to be desired. Not something that has massively bothered me but I've definitely made a number of ordering mistakes over the past year. As time has progressed and we've been able to travel more, I've since been trying to pause some of my weekly deliveries and the frustration has grown.

This redesign is solely based on my own experience, I haven't any access to MM's data or user research from their current design. I've discussed it with my husband but that's the extent of my research - I want to consider the details of the app carefully and also keep the overall feel of the existing app.

I've broken down my project into two sections:

1: Current design analysis : Evaluating the current design and the pain points

2: The app redesign : Suggestions for improved UX by carefully redesigning the UI.

Current Design Analysis

I've mainly focussed on the Information Architecture of the app - something I've found confusing, mainly due to the poor navigation and features scattered across different areas. I decided to break down the current architecture to see what was going on and why it was getting frustrating:

Ok, so this looks pretty overwhelming, BUT the white boxes are the hamburger menu options, the blue-topped boxes are the main options on each page. The following list/descriptions show the route the user takes following these options. As you can see, there are 3 different routes to Repeat Orders (hamburger option, from the homepage and from the Orders&Deliveries page). There are 2 different ways to pause/resume deliveries, all worded differently. In terms of adding more orders/produce, which is one of the main directions users should be heading in, only one route is available from the main menu.

Also, My Account and Help&Support could also be condensed so I'll try to cover this too.

The main pain points here are:

• Overlapping features : A number of features appear in different areas of the app, and it's not immediately clear which section of the app allows you to do specific things. For example, Repeat Orders and Orders&Deliveries could definitely be condensed and reconsidered - both show similar information but in different ways.

• Similarly to the above, certain CTAs are scattered aross the app : Resume, Pause, Edit, Manage - these all do fairly similar tasks but are worded differently and are located in different places (RHS, LHS, above the order, below the order).

• Occasionally the language isn't reflective of the features : Example, "buy" on the produce - which in fact leads you to page on adding this product to a specific delivery. "Add to order" or "More Information" would be better, as this "buy" CTA suggests immediate purchase or add to basket.

• Menu Navigation : the hamburger menu icon is only visible on the home page, from other pages it's a back button that's then available. The hamburger is usually in place to stop users becoming overwhelmed with options, but the homepage has all the options immediately available, as well as on the menu. The links are important but, as this blog shows, sometimes reconsidering the hamburger can be beneficial.

The redesign:

So, first things first, I wanted to reorganise the main menu options - and consider the options from the homepage. Of course, there were too many complex routes to different options, options were also called different things and the help&account tabs could be condensed and connected.

As above, I've considered the main options that should show on a home page - perhaps tabs or dropdowns for ease of use, a main CTA for produce (important for the business) and a good space for changing seasonal offers, new produce or general information (xmas delivery hours etc).

The next option would be Orders and Deliveries - here a nice main page for orders and deliveries would clearly define the user's delivery days, the orders linked to those days and the abilities to manage/skip/add more.

The next option (which I forgot to rename on my mindmap oops) is the Profile&Help section (TBD) - here you'd find all the profile and delivery information, as well as a lead to the help and support sections. These haven't yet been renamed or reordered but I will do so in the redesign.

Also, if I'm considering top/bottom tabs, then 3 options is ideal for keep the app feeling spacious and clean - it's current feel.