Disneyland and
Disney World Apps
Creating Disney magic for the parks'
Mobile Order meal pick-up experience
Platform: iOS (Disneyland, Disney World),
Android (Disneyland, Disney World)
Role: Sr. Product Designer
Year: 2016–2018
THE CHALLENGE
Disney's theme parks rank among the most highly attended destinations in the world, delivering magical experiences for guests of all ages. But as attendance grows, so do park lines.
With a commitment to delivering the best guest experience, we wanted to improve one of the most frustrating experiences for guests: restaurant lines. Since Mobile Order was unfamiliar to users at the time, we lead the charge within the industry by creating intuitive patterns and easy-to-use flows. How might we effectively and delightfully allow guests to order food so they can return to the attractions they love?
DELIGHTFULLY CONVENIENT
Parents in the park typically have a hungry child nagging at their leg as they are trying to stay on schedule for the next ride. Meanwhile, guests were asking for more specialty items to accommodate a wide-range of allergies and lifestyle preferences. We needed to allow guests to browse dense menus quicker to find the specific item their picky child would eat.
To determine this, I facilitated a design workshop to determine user needs and business objectives within the complex Parks operational structure. Using workshop findings, including trust levels toward allergy-friendly kitchens and legal requirements around food preparation, I created two menu concepts.
With the help of the consumer insights team, we tested both of my concepts as prototypes visitors to Walt Disney World. Overwhelmingly 14 out of 14 participants preferred the concept that allowed them to order quickly while focusing on attractions and their family.
Left: Default view of menu. Middle: On scroll, menu categories collapse into persistent carousel. Selected menu categories subtly animate in with color. Right: Unselected and selected states of menu category icons.
DEMYSTIFYING DINING PLANS
Many Disney World guests opt in to the Dining Plan to simplify their family's food orders. However it's a complicated system comprised of entitlement types (meals, snacks, etc.) that changes annually. Guests needed to customize their order payment between Dining Plans and credit cards so that they get the best value without cognitive overload.
Originally our team assumed guests wanted powerful tools to manipulate Dining Plan entitlements. Upon my research and user interviews, we discovered guests plan Dining Plan usage pre-vacation, but did not want to bother once they were on vacation.
Learning from user testing, I iterated on a solution that highlighted Mobile Order's Dining Plan optimization and downplayed advanced controls. Furthermore, the design works for guest without Dining Plans as well by not getting in the way of a credit card checkout.
From Left to Right: The guest has added items to their cart, which has smartly assigned Dining Plan entitlements based on the best value to the guest.
For advanced users, the guest can manipulate the payment form and entitlement type, before proceeding to checkout.
RESULTS
Mobile Order has been embraced by guests as well impacting the business. Travel & Leisure praised the feature, writing "At a set of parks known for their ample wait time ... this [Mobile Order] has the potential to be game-changing." Due to the ease of ordering and adding customizations, guest spend more on their check using Mobile Order than with a cashier. And now mobile ordering is common industry-wide, thanks to our first-in-class product. Today guests can more easily enjoy a meal with their family and get back to the attractions they love.
- Guests spend 17% more on their check using Mobile Order than with a cashier ($29 vs. $24)
- Guest rate their food as tasting 18 ppts better using Mobile Order than with a cashier
BOBBY FEINGOLD
Product designer and manager with over 10 years experience working for Disney, Live Nation, and more Fortune 400 companies