Technology

Best UI/UX Strategies for Seamless Food Technology Platforms

By Aresh Mishra

Are you thinking about creating a food tech platform? Explore the best UI/UX strategies for an aesthetically pleasing and seamless platform

In every industry today, you will notice a rise in the use of mobile apps. The food industry is no exception. With the popularity of Zomato and Swiggy, many food tech companies are turning to apps to improve customer engagement, streamline business operations, and strengthen market presence.

However, creating an app is one thing and getting it downloaded and used is completely another. Did you know that around 77% of users leave an application within the first three days?

As such, you need to craft an app or platform that connects with users on a personal level, addresses their needs, and appeals to them. That's precisely what a UI UX design helps you to achieve.

Read on to understand what it means and explore the best UI/UX (user interface/user experience) strategies to create a seamless and attractive food tech platform.

UI UX Design: Best Practices for Food Tech Platforms

Have you ever wondered why some food tech platforms, such as Swiggy and Zomato, become runaway successes while others fizzle out? The reason for this is often design.

A poor design can be a huge turn-off and drive users to your competitors, even if you build a platform with the essential functionality. About 38% of users stop interacting with a mobile app because of poor design. Meanwhile, 88% of users are less likely to return to a business after a bad user experience.

Thus, food tech companies need to give importance to design and experience, i.e., UI and UX, when creating a food tech platform. That's the only way they will be able to come up with an attractive and user-friendly platform.

UI design focuses on the visual aspects of a page or app. This includes the colour, typography, icons, layout, and interactive elements users interact with. UI design aims to create an interface that looks visually appealing and ensures that users can effectively interact with the platform.

On the other hand, UX design is about creating an app to make end-users happy when they interact with it and deliver a greater experience. It involves everything that is a part of the user journey, from content and design to all the touchpoints.

With that said, some of the best UI/UX practices you can adopt for a great food tech platform are as follows:

1. Emphasise Simplicity and Minimalism in Design

Once a user opens the food tech platform, it will only take them a few minutes to determine whether it is what they need. While you may think adding multiple design elements and various functions to the platform will increase its appeal, it may not. The more cluttered your app is, the less users will prefer it.

As such, simplicity and minimalism must be at the heart of your UI UX design. With that, you will create an app for users with a frictionless experience. Some steps to take for creating a minimal design include:

Identify the core features and functionalities that your platform must offer and ensure they're accessible with ease.
Go for a colour palette – with two or three colours that align with your brand identity and evoke the desired emotional response from users. For instance, colours like red, yellow, and orange make people feel hungry and are good for food delivery platforms.
Select clean, legible, and attractive fonts that complement your brand's identity. To create visuals, consider combining fonts for body text, headings, and buttons.
Ensure you leave proper white space around text, images, and buttons. This helps to bring focus to the elements and ensure the layout doesn't look cluttered.

GrowthJockey houses experienced and expert UI/UX designers to create a food tech app with minimal design and superb functionality.

2. Focus on an Intuitive Navigation

Navigation is a vital part of the user experience. Users desire functionality, speed, and intuitive usability. So, you must focus on creating an intuitive and straightforward navigation system. Make certain that it is easy for users to operate your app. You can follow the given practices to achieve this:

Identify core features and list them based on end-user needs. Put the most vital functions where users can find them easily.
Organize content logically and clearly. Group related items together and use straightforward subheads and headings to help users find what they want.
Use Breadcrumb navigation – as they simplify backtracking and offer a simple way for users to navigate and get the hang of the platform's structure.

3. Optimise the Onboarding Process

Offering an easy, simple, and straightforward onboarding process is a must when it comes to delivering a good user experience. Everything must take place quickly, from signing up on the platform to getting acquainted with it. If a food delivery platform takes time to order food, the user will simply leave the app and move on to another.

The onboarding experience must be quick and include a few fields that enable users to start their journey with the application effortlessly.

There are several ways you can optimise the onboarding experience. These include allowing users to sign up with social media platforms or log into the app as guest users. In addition to that, you can add animated elements that make the process of entering information into the platform more fun and interactive.

4. Ensure Ease of Searching

Users must be able to find exactly what they're looking for quickly. It seems pretty simple, but a business in the food industry would probably have thousands of SKUs (stock-keeping units) and regularly update its inventory.

So, incorporating advanced search filters on the food tech platform is a great UI UX strategy that makes it easy for users to find what they want.

If you're creating a restaurant booking platform, having complete ease of searching for restaurants is important. A good platform will have a search bar, enabling users to search for specific restaurants. Also, different search categories must be provided based on location, ratings, and cuisine.

5. Consider Accessibility

An accessible UI design allows your food technology platform to reach a diverse user group. In particular, it enables people with disabilities to use and interact with your platform. This way, you will be able to demonstrate social responsibility, expand your user base, and improve your brand presence.

Some ways through which you can come up with an accessible UI design are:

There must be proper contrast between background colours and text to enhance readability for low-vision users.
Offer descriptive alternative text for images.
Enable users to resize text without causing the content to become unreadable or break.
Provide subtitles, transcripts, and captions for multimedia content.

6. Update and Implement New Design Elements

Periodically update your app design to keep your UI UX design at par with new trends. Over time, enhance your design by adding new components, modifying the app interface, and adding more functions. If this is neglected, your app experience will not evolve with the changing standards and appeal to users.

Regularly updating your food technology platform design can also help you to stay ahead of the competition. Adding the latest design trends, such as voice search and technologies, allows you to develop a cutting-edge platform that differentiates you from the competition.

Additionally, you must incorporate user feedback into your design. By making changes according to user suggestions, you can create a platform that lives up to their expectations better.

Also read our researched article: Shaping Digital Experiences: UI/UX Design Trends Across Sectors

Summing Up

Creating a user-friendly interface and visually appealing platform is pivotal in attracting and retaining customers in today's competitive market. By understanding your end user, focusing on their needs, and implementing the strategies above, you can come up with a platform that upscales your business.

You can hire an excellent app development company like GrowthJockey to ensure you get a fully functional and feature-packed application with ease.

At GrowthJockey, we are proficient at creating unique apps following the best UI UX strategy so that they meet the demands of the end users and increase satisfaction. Reach out to us today if you want an amazing app.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the key principles of UX design?

The key principles of UX design include conducting user research and understanding their needs. Apart from that, they involve creating user personas and designing wireframes. Continuous testing and iterating are also principles of UX design.

2. What is the difference between UX and UI design?

While both often work together, UI and UX both have different meanings. In digital design, UX focuses on a user's overall experience with an app or product. On the other hand, UX refers to the look, feel, and interactivity of the platform.