Chit
An e-commerce platform integrated with Square that empowers small businesses to create customizable and cost-effective apps
The Client
UX/UI Certificate Course Project
Roles & Responsibilities
UX Researcher
Information Architecture
Interaction Designer
Tools
Figma
Google Slides
Miro
Timeline
3 weeks
Purpose of the Project
Small business owners struggle to build a mobile app for their business due to limited design knowledge or financial constraints.
We streamlined online ordering with customizable templates that allow business owners to easily create mobile apps that reflect their unique brand and integrate with Square.
Research
The Problem
Pre-ordering through mobile apps has become a customer expectation, especially in cafes, but implementing this feature is often expensive and complex for small business owners with limited resources.
The Solution
A mobile app that helps cafés and small businesses easily create their own branded apps using a simple, customizable template. It streamlines mobile ordering and gives small business owners the tools to offer services that rival larger competitors.
User Interviews
Merchant
Merchants emphasized the importance of an app builder that balances simplicity with creative freedom
Customer
Users expressed a desire for app templates that include features like saving payment information and favoriting items, making repeat orders faster and more convenient
Define
Ideation
Our focus was on keeping our merchant-facing interface simple while also offering a high degree of customizability that would allow small business to showcase their individual brand.
For customers we also prioritized simplicity and convenience by allowing users to save custom preferences that saves them time during the ordering and checkout process.
Design & Iterate
We developed a style guide for our brand that felt energizing and fresh but also clean and professional.
We applied this to our site home and merchant-interface while still allowing customer-facing app to reflect the style and brand of the merchant.
User Testing
After a series of qualitative tests and iterations on our design, we conducted A/B testing. The goal of these tests was to determine that the merchant's "app builder" experience was simple and intuitive.
Ultimately we found that the customization process could be perceived as overwhelming and that scaling back the number of available menu templates significantly improved the user experience for merchants.
Future Opportunities
The highest priority for future iterations would be to allow for a wider range of integrations beyond Square. A more diverse offering would allow Chit to reach a wider audience.
There is potential to expand outside of coffee shops and bakeries to restaurants in general that may want to offer takeout without the additional fees that come with existing apps like Doordash or Uber Eats. Fortunately, the simplicity of our design would allow for this expansion relatively easy by only slightly modifying the builder experience and available templates.
