The best way to grab a user’s attention is to use a little magic.
Redesigning the delivery experience for Uber Eats was a cross-functional project between Brand & Product Design that lasted over a year. The result was a perfect intersection of emotion and function, something that brought delight and magic to a newer, more intelligent platform.
From eater to restaurant partner to courier, a lot happens after that magical “order” button is pushed, and a lot can go wrong. Here’s a rundown…
When a user places an order, they send a signal to the restaurant to begin cooking. On the other end, the restaurant partner sees the notification, confirms they’ve received the order, and begins preparing the food. Once the food is completed and packed, a courier is dispatched, and they arrive at the restaurant to pick up the order. The courier picks up the order and the user tracks the courier’s progress on a map until the order is successfully delivered.
Simple, right?
For a long time, a map showing the courier’s progress persisted throughout five phases of the delivery process. This map, which shows an empty screen with no movement or progress for the first three phases, can cause enormous anxiety for users eagerly awaiting their food. The delivery experience is a long experience, and hungry eaters are not patient people. They want to know where, and how, their food is getting to them.
Users want to feel like their food is being prepared, not just know it. In their most anxious, hungry-fueled state, they will cling to any piece of information they can find. Knowing all this, we replaced the map with delightful loading screens that indicate progress and ease user stress. We take the user along the delivery journey, lifting their anxiety with a pinch of magic while educating them along the way. Yes, their food is being prepared. And yes, just like magic, it will soon arrive.
When a user hits the order button, a series of kitchens come to life, hanging in suspense. A progress bar appears highlighting Phase One, while an ETD timestamp materializes above.
Once the restaurant partner confirms the order, the kitchens come to life. Whisks and spatulas spring to action, levitating as if by magic, telling the user that the restaurant has begun preparing their food.
Once the restaurant finishes the order, a courier is dispatched. The courier’s name and license plate number appears at the bottom. The eater watches as the courier’s location is updated in real time, and at any point, the eater can call or chat with the courier for updates.
The courier picks up the order and an ETA appears. The eater can watch their food travel. When the courier is within 1min of arrival, the app notifies the eater that their courier is approaching.
Once the courier has successfully dropped off the order, the app reaches the final phase. The progress bar vanishes, and the eater is prompted to tip their courier and rate their food. Success!
We launched with three kitchens to start, but the engineers designed the platform to easily swap out new kitchens on a whim. The goals is to develop a never-ending library of kitchens based on cuisine, weather, time of day, and cultural moments.
When an eater orders burgers at night, or ramen in winter, or a whole plate of tacos for Chinese New Year, they’ll see the corresponding kitchen come to life. With a personalized delivery experience, eaters will return to the platform again and again, finding new ways to delight in the magic of delivery…whenever and wherever they order.
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