Sushi Hub is a Japanese franchise sushi business in Australia. They started off as a small shop hidden in Western Sydney back in 2006 and has reached 136 Sushi Hub stores by the end of 2022 across Australia.
From 2019 - 2022, I’ve been partnering with Meld Design studio on the Sushi Hub seasonal magazine (24 pages) - The Hub.
In 2021, I collapsed with Meld Design Studio and led the project team to rebuild and rebrand the public-facing website for Sushi Hub, from conducting user research and interviews to testing, prototyping, and working with the development team to ensure the design was implemented correctly.
Business Goal
Revamp the website and user experience alongside their branding refresh.
To facilitate existing eCommerce within their branding website.
Improve and increase foot traffic at the Sushi Hub stores.
Generate more online sales and quality leads.
Challenges
Convoluted navigation menu and lack of health information, such as nutritional and dietary information.
Missing blogs/news pages as a result of incoherent user experiences. e.g. users were required to go to Facebook to check the latest promotions or events.
The website was not responsive, and could only be accessed on the desktop experience.
Users having trouble locating the nearest Sushi Hub store, whilst Google business information is also not up-to-date.
Combining the existing eCommerce platform with the new brand refresh site into one.
Solutions
To design a well-structured product category containing relevant product information.
To integrate external delivery services with the eCommerce platform.
To introduce a Blog/ News pages that allows the Sushi Hub Marketing team to upload their promotions or events on their website.
To create a location search function to help users identify takeaway/sushi go-around stores across Australia.
My Contribution
As the project's UX designer and lead UI designer, I worked closely with Sushi Hub stakeholders and users to identify their pain points, mapped out user personas and user journeys. I’ve also scoped project goals and conceptualised design solutions from wireframing to high-fidelity. I collaborated with the Meld Design development team to implement my designs and provided design QA support up until the launch of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) release.
Design Process
Observation & Understand
Methods Used
Market research
Competitive analysis
Client Workshops
User Interviews
We arranged a UX workshop with the team stakeholders to understand their business structure, objectives and project vision. I constructed a survey to send out to the targeted user groups through a marketing campaign, it reached out to over 100 customers. The feedback we received provided clear insights into the underlying issues with the current website, and it helped me understand the demography of the site's users and their main frustrations/pain points when interacting with the site. I also conducted user interviews by reaching out to five interviewees who were existing and new business customers of their website.
Success Metrics: The success metrics for the project will include an increase in website traffic, an increase in online orders, an increase in promotion participation and positive feedback from users.
POV & Ideate
Methods Used
User Personas
User Journey
User Flow Diagram
MVP Scope Prioritisation
I created user personas and defined each target group's goals and needs from the collected insights.
Personas 1: Office worker
Sam is a highly skilled software engineer who works for a tech company in the Sydney CBD. He enjoys staying up-to-date with the latest technology trends and is constantly looking for ways to improve his skills. In his free time, he enjoys trying out new restaurants and cuisines around the city.
Persona 2: Busy Mom
Sarah is a busy mom who wants to provide her family with healthy and tasty meals. She loves sushi but has difficulty finding time to prepare it at home and needs to know the nutritional information for each dish and make sure that is right for her child's lactose intolerance. She also enjoys trying new things and is interested in attending the sushi-making workshop with her kids.
From there, I mapped out user journeys tailor-made to the recognised personas. To prioritise project deliverables, I also used a prioritisation matrix to help break down website features and prioritise the high-impact and low-effort deliverables within a reasonable timeframe.
Prototype & Testing
Methods Used
Low fidelity Wireframes
High fidelity prototype
Usability Testing
Preference Testing
I prepared the usability test plan and the scripts. I then conducted the usability tests on 5 participants based on the user personas on both mobile and desktop experiences.
Concept Present
Highlights from testers
Navigation is very clear and easy to use
Love the new colour palette, looks more fun.
Cute illustrations with the iconic little characters
First time knowing Sushi Hub has dine-in stores, would definitely go for a try.
I’m vegan, it is very helpful to know all the ingredient details on their website before walking into the store.
The landing page and all the illustrations look impressive.
Lowlights from testers
Some of the fonts on the bright background look a bit too light to read.
Wish it can have all prices and promotion tags on all the products instead of clicking into the ordering portal.
It’s good that it is a responsive screen. However, it seems to work a little better on mobile devices. On the tablet, it is a bit odd and still needs to be improved.
Refining Design & Present
I incorporated feedback to enhance the design, focusing on a mobile-first experience and easy navigation, while prioritizing visual hierarchy. I restructured the product category to showcase relevant product information and purchase links, and implemented a location search function to help users find nearby Sushi Hub stores. I then collaborated with the Meld Design development team to implement my designs and ensure it’s tested thoroughly before its release on the market.
