OVERVIEW
This case study contains work on a product that has not yet been released. To maintain confidentiality, specific details and visuals have been blurred or omitted.
Lead UX Designer
About this Project
Chilk LLC is a startup reimagining boba milk tea with its signature Chilk milk, an almond-coconut blend designed for more chill and mindfulness in your daily routine. Chilk launched its food truck in late 2022 (check out my design HERE 👈🏼), expanding on selling from farmers' markets and festivals.
I was tasked with designing a mobile app that lets customers order ahead from the Chilk food truck, helping reduce wait times and streamline the ordering experience for busy college students and other fans of the brand.
THE PROBLEM
In the weeks following the Chilk Truck's launch, customers faced long wait times up to 30 minutes during peak hours. This became especially problematic as the truck parks near college campuses in LA, where students already experience long dining lines. Customers need a quicker, more efficient way to order and receive their drinks without the wait.
After speaking with many excited customers, I created user personas to represent an average of the people I spoke to, most of them young adults in school. These personas helped guide design decisions by highlighting the different goals, behaviors, and pain points of potential customers, especially around time constraints and ordering convenience
Emily Dang
College Student, 19
Goal: Grab a quick, tasty drink between classes without waiting in long lines.
Pain Point: Limited time on campus, impatient with slow service, wants simplicity and speed.
Sam Miller
Software Engineer, 25
Goal: Order a Chilk drink during a lunch break or on the way home from work.
Pain Point: Busy schedule, doesn’t want to waste time figuring out complicated menus or waiting in line.
Both personas share the need for a fast, easy, and reliable way to order from the Chilk food truck. Designing with these users in mind motivated me to design the app focused on simplicity and speed.
THE PROCESS
To address Chilk’s biggest challenge, long waits at the food truck, I explored multiple ways the app could help. I considered features like pre-ordering, customizable drinks, loyalty rewards, and live truck location tracking. After interviewing 5 UCLA students, I summarized my ideas on how to address their concerns of a long wait time.
After reviewing the requirements with the team, I sketched out potential screens to better understand how to design a simple app that keeps the ordering process straightforward. I did this to ensure the app would reduce friction for users and make ordering from the truck quick and intuitive.
Just as momentum was building, and I wrapped up high-fi designs, the team shifted focus to a large music festival campaign, leaving little access to user feedback, and also redesigned the drink packaging. Once I was able to reconnect with customers after a few weeks, I realized that certain actions overcomplicated the ordering process and some screens looked outdated.
But this didn’t stop me or demotivate me! I dove back in, nearly starting from scratch to update the designs and keep the app intuitive and aligned with user needs.
Old Designs
The initial designs featured outdated styles and difficult-to-read fonts, making it hard for users to quickly understand drink options.
New Designs
The updated designs are clean, modern, and intuitive, clearly guiding users through ordering and customizing their drinks with ease.
To validate the design, I recruited 10 potential customers from two LA college campuses to try the app. All participants successfully placed an order for a strawberry tea in under 2 minutes with preset customizations, showing that the app was intuitive and easy to use, even for first-time users.
The Chilk app streamlines the ordering process, allowing customers to place pre-orders and skip long lines at the food truck. By making it easy to customize drinks and complete transactions ahead of time, the app saves users valuable minutes during peak hours. Additionally, real-time truck location features help customers quickly find and navigate to the food truck, making the overall experience smoother and more convenient.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Looking back on the twists and turns
Working on this project really showed me how important it is to get feedback from the people who will actually use the product. It’s easy to feel like designs are on the right track, but without testing with real users, you can miss things like confusing flows or outdated visuals. Once I got feedback, I was able to simplify the app, modernize the screens, and make sure it actually worked for the people ordering from the truck. This experience reminded me that user feedback isn’t just helpful, it’s essential for making a product that truly meets users’ needs.