Creating a mobile app to delight and feed America's diners

 

THE CHALLENGE

Provide fresh UX insights and design a delightful and intuitive mobile app for Sonic Drive-In that supports the needs of diners and the business service model.

 

OUTCOME

MVP mobile app that shipped and continues to develop.

 

MY ROLE & process

I worked with a team of designers, leading the experience design from ideation to implementation, managing a junior experience designer, driving the process and upholding the product vision through active collaboration with the client. Once the branding team established branding guidelines and a visual UI kit, I created final designs for the app and worked with engineers to build it.

 

phone photos.png
 

The new Sonic mobile app

The new Sonic mobile app brings America’s favorite drive-in up to speed with mobile technology. Leveraging the brand’s playful message, the mobile app is the digital arm of a new Sonic Drive-In experience. 

 

 
 
 

From signing up to eating your burger

While taking basic functionalities from the previous release, the new app is a complete overhaul and rethinking of user experience and service design at Sonic locations. We thought through every detail of the experience—from ordering ahead to pick-up, pops displays and back end integration with kitchen and wait staff.

 
 
Features.png
 
 

Building your order

From category to product detail pages, favorites and nutritional info, we investigated the most intuitive ways to navigate menu, customize ingredients and add items to cart, incorporating user data and menu content strategy. 

 
 
We conducted usability testing every sprint to explore designs, test assumptions and iterate from learnings.

We conducted usability testing every sprint to explore designs, test assumptions and iterate from learnings.

 
 

Ordering ahead

Ordering ahead lets you skip the lines and get your food made ready to order as soon as you enter the lot. We did best-in-class audits of pickup services and did extensive testing on the check out flow to create a seamless payment and tipping experience.

 
 
Created flow and interactions for checkout process, cart functionality, tipping and payment.

Created flow and interactions for checkout process, cart functionality, tipping and payment.

 
 

Getting your food

After months of usability testing (including simulating the entire drive-in experience), we figured out the best ways to order ahead, check in and pick up your food whether it’s in a parking spot, at a window or in the drive-thru.

 
check in.png
Sonic Toolkit.png

Available in iOS and Android