CODE App
Refining an existing product
Background
For this project, I selected an existing product in the market that I would like to refine - changes that I applied to elevate users experience. As an existing user of CODE app, I chose this product to address key opportunities for improvement and enhance its functionality.
What is CODE App?
CODE App provides exclusive discounts (up to 20–50% off food and drinks at various venues) for hospitality professionals. It’s an incredible concept designed to support those in the field, many of whom are passionate about culinary experiences.
Restaurants can choose their discount time frames, usually during non-peak hours, which align perfectly with the schedules of hospitality professionals who typically work during peak times and free at non-peak time. This arrangement strike a perfect balance on the supply and demand.
Even with its fantastic concept, me, as a user, have experienced difficulties using the app. So, when the opportunity came to do a case study on an app, choosing CODE was on the top of my list.
Discovering the Problem
What do users think?
Despite my personal opinion as a first-hand user, I might be biased. Under the principle of no assumptions should be made, I started with user research to understand what other users think.
Ratings & reviews on Apple and Android store
After diving into the reviews on both the Apple and Android app stores, it became clear that users genuinely love the concept of the app (and who wouldn’t?).
However, there's a noticeable gap between the brilliant idea and a truly satisfying user experience.
Users’ Reviews:
“It’s a marvellous concept I fully support, but the app is awful.”
“Good app. Could do with better search function, categories to filter by cuisines.”
“It would be nice though, if it were possible to narrow down the search results (for example by cuisine or price), as its difficult to set through an ever increasing list of restaurants.”
“The concept is perfect, and we are eternally grateful! But the app is very glitchy!”
by Apple Store and Android Store
Secondary research
In the meantime, I read some articles to understand the main concerns of customers when they select a restaurant.
According to Upson (2024), the three main factors of customers care about are price, brand reputation and worth of mouth. These goes very much in line with the reviews on the app stores.
While The Fork (2024), has also highlighted the main 6 crucial aspects that customers concern are food style, value for the money, geolocation, opinion from other clients, brand reputation and the experience.
Reflection:
I could have conducted a few user interviews to gain a deeper understanding of the users pain-point, create a persona to help with the ideation. However, given the time constraints of the project, I prioritised resources that were most accessible. In this case, as 90% of the reviews highlighted the same issue which was aligned with the secondary research findings. I felt confident that the data was sufficient to proceed effectively.
“People don’t want a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole”
Jobs-To-be-Done Framework
In this framework, I identified the main users goals as below.
1. Users want to choose a restaurant efficiently according to their criteria (i.e. dietary requirement, time restrictions, number of pax, etc.)
2. Users want to explore different restaurants and enjoy culinary experience with a competitive price
3. Users want to stay updated with new restaurants on the market
Task to do
When conducting user interviews, the below tasks were given to users.
Scenario: You would like yo choose a restaurant for dinner with your friends for Tuesday, 4 people at 19:00. You want to choose a new Indian restaurant to try.
Task 1: Selecting a restaurant
Task 2: You just remember one of your friend is vegan, can you re-select a restaurant having that in mind?
Task 3: You went to the restaurant and enjoyed your dinner. When you asked for the bill, you need to apply discount by redeeming from your discount code.
Interview Questions:
How easy for you to complete the task? Are there any challenges? If yes, please elaborate.
Were the filtering options sufficient for the restaurant search process? Did you find all the information you needed to make a selection, or are there additional filters or details that could have improved your experience?
Can you describe your general experience while you are completing the tasks? What do you like or dislike about the interface.
Can you describe a typical situation where you would use the app to search for a restaurant? What aspects do you consider when you are selecting a restaurant?
After user interviews, I have understood users pain points from the current app.
Lack of flexibility
Lack of connectivitiy
Lack of opportunity to provide feedback
Lack of reliability
Based on the above, I have created my refinement design.
Lack of Flexibility —> Refine filter option
Users find it challenging to effectively search for restaurants because the current filter options are too limited and do not reflect the diverse preferences or dining needs users may have.
Current
Current filter function is limited to a fixed selection of neighbourhoods, dining day, fixed meal periods and the number of people.
According to online reviews and the secondary research, it is evident that these filter options don’t fully meet users’ needs.
2. Lack of Connectivity —> immigrate research tool
Many users are unfamiliar with the restaurants listed, making it time-consuming to research each venue on external platforms. This disrupts the flow and convenience of the app experience.
Current
The current restaurant information page does not show other customers review on the restaurant.
Refined
Newly added filter option - stay align with the top priorities of users, such as type of cuisine, price range, and dietary options (align with secondary research on decision factors when selecting a restaurant).
Users can also sort results by newest additions, pricing, and distance from the specified location.
Refined
Added a way for direct link to restaurant google page - quickest and easiest way to access reviews of the restaurant.
One of the main factors that affect users restaurant selection is word of mouth.
Further improvement: Moving forward, it would be great for each restaurant page to show google rating directly on the app to avoid linking to an external platform
3. Lack of Opportunity for Feedback —> allow users to review
Users want to share their dining experiences, but the app currently lacks a feature for submitting reviews or ratings, limiting community engagement and trust.
Added a pop-up feature to ask for instant feedback after redeeming offer for rate and review for the dining experience after user gets the redeem code.
Introduced an in-built review system within the app, enhancing the seamlessness of the research process.
This falls under “low impact” in the matrix, however, it does not require a lot of effort and it is “nice to have”, therefore, it is cost efficient to add it.
Further improvement: To further improve the review system, we can ask users to rate by “food quality”, “service” and “value of money” to better reflect the factors affect decision process of users.
4. Lack of Reliability —> investigation with engineering
Users frequently report slow loading times and recurring glitches, which negatively impact their trust in the app and discourage regular use.
by code app
by code app
I used the impact and effort matrix to help me compare and identify actions that should be prioritised, those are likely to be successful.
I decided to focused on the actions that fell under “high impact; low effort”, as they are the “easy wins”.
User-flow
To Sum up
It has been a fun journey working on this case study. Taking the time to redesign an app that I truly love and talking to users to understand their perspectives has been rewarding.
If I could, I would love to develope this to a high-fi fidelity and conduct a usability test to ensure the designed user flow is user-friendly.
Hopefully, the developer of CODE app will take these improvements into consideration in their next update. And if they need help with the UX part, I’d more than happy to lend a hand!
