Case Study: Designing pizza hut’s contactless menu during covid in 2 weeks
Project Brief
During the covid wave, the restaurants in India were initially shut down; after a brief period, restaurants started opening up again, complying with the safety guidelines set by the government.
However, many customers were scared to enter restaurants since covid was spreading like wildfire in India. To combat this, Pizza Hut was one of the first few restaurants that wanted to implement a contactless menu for dine-in to gain customers’ trust again.
Pizza Hut wanted us to design a contactless menu in 2 weeks where users can browse the menu on their phones and place an order without making any contact with the physical menu.
Problem Statement
Design a mobile-only website for Pizza Hut customers which they can use to browse the menu at the restaurant and place their orders
Outcome
The project had a tight deadline, and the outcome for the project’s success was the initial motivation behind the idea, which was;
- More customers walking into Pizza Hut’s restaurant
- Customers can browse the menu without touching a physical menu
- Customers can place an order using this contactless digital menu
Research
The research was limited to understanding how customers can interact with this digital menu and the current fears due to which they are hesitant to visit a restaurant.
User Journey
The stakeholder’s vision was clear on what they wanted to achieve and how they wanted to achieve it. Next, we brainstormed and discussed ideas we could incorporate to the website to improve the UX.
- Restaurant UX was as important as the website’s UX
- Brainstormed on ways user can access the digital menu
- Finalized details such as how the staff can educate new customers how to place their orders
Information Architecture
Pizza Hut didn’t want to complicate the MVP version and tried to keep it as simple as possible. As a result, the MVP version was only a view-only digital menu with limited interactions.
- Simple IA to browse menu directly
- Less clutter and interactions
- Information hierarchy was a priority
Visual Design
Pizza Hut is very strict about maintaining its brand identity consistently, so I followed their existing design language to create this digital menu.
UI Exploration
Started with wireframes to align the stakeholders on the final visuals and then created high-fidelity screens.
- Experimented with hierarchy and structure
- Tried to keep it as simple as possible
- Played with typography
Finalising UI
Once the stakeholders were satisfied with the core screens’ visuals, we finalized the screens and proceeded to create 0–1-infinity states.
- Followed 4-pixel grid
- Cross-checked all fonts & colors to maintain brand consistency
- Cross-checked spacing & alignment
- Polished UI
Project Handover
After the stakeholders approved the final prototype, I prepared the designs for developer handoff.
- Changed copy where needed
- Changed the name of all the layers for handover
- Marked assets for export
- Uploaded fonts to a cloud folder for easy access
Learnings
I have been lucky enough to have worked with a brand like Pizza Hut and be able to use my creative process to solve their problems.
- Learned how to work with design systems
- Learned the importance of brand identity and brand recall
- Understood the importance of MVP and how to plan phases
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