Founded in 2015, dahmakan became one of Malaysia's most exciting Y-Combinator-backed food startups. In under five years, the company transformed from delivering home-cooked healthy lunchboxes to operating a massive food production factory with sophisticated logistics and several physical outlets, serving over three million orders across Klang Valley.

By 2020, as food delivery platforms proliferated, the ordering experience became bloated and monotonous. Users faced endless choices with little differentiation. Trying a new meal felt like Russian roulette. They bounced between apps hunting for better deals, while dahmakan's conversion and retention rates suffered.

Our goal was to make food exciting. We were also rebranding from dahmakan to Pop Meals, with a vision to create a digital cloud kitchen that brings you food in a single tap.

‍

I led the product design team starting in April 2020, working closely with engineering, operations, marketing, and founders to transform the entire brand and experience of food discovery and delivery.

When I started, there was no clear direction. COVID began, and we saw a massive spike in new visitors. We expected huge sales, but the opposite happened. Bounce rate was high, conversion was falling, and cancellation rate was climbing.

I tested the existing dahmakan app and reviewed old internal research reports to understand the challenges new customers faced.

‍

Our goals were to:

1. Reduce time spent making food decisions
2. Increase conversion and retention rates
3. Reduce late deliveries and cancellations
4. Streamline kitchen operations

‍

Discovery

After interviews, guerrilla user tests, and listening to our customer support team, we collected data and user feedback. We found similar patterns across all feedback.

‍Key findings:‍

1. "Too many steps" - Users are annoyed that there are too many steps to take to learn more about a meal.
2. "Too little variety" - Users are disappointed that the meal-offerings are too little. They expect to have more meal options.
3. "Menu is the same" - Users are bored looking at the same thing over and over again. They expect some personalization to recommend good food.
4. "Meal takes too long to delivery" - Users are annoyed and are unhappy with how long it takes to receive their meals. Productions are struggling to fulfill orders on time during peak hours.

Before we solve the problem, it is essential to lay out what's working and what's causing the problem stated earlier by our customer to understand the root cause.
‍
Before the redesign, checkout and low cancellation rate were the only metrics we tracked. These existing metrics couldn't determine if our food discovery and delivery experience was successful.

‍

We built an entire user journey map for both customers and delivery riders to determine which parts of the journey needed improvement.

Both discovering and delivering are time-consuming.

Users are hungry and do not wish to spend their time deciding what to eat. The problems that dahmakan's menu presentation consist of a lot of restriction, ... This causes the user to spend more time in the app trying to get the information they need to make a food decision, and these activities could be very repetitive, restrictive, and unexciting, which leads to frustration and wasted time.

‍

Apart from the app side's problem, the operation was also struggling to handle the volume and require a lot of manual hands-on work due to reliance on human involvement in the process. This causes a significant impact on the business as customers who receive their meal late would never return to order again.

‍

"Perfecting the food discovery and receiving experience."

Apart from the problem from the app side, operation was also struggling to handle the volume and require a lot of manual hands-on work due to reliance of human involvement in the process. This cause a huge impact on the business as customer who receive their meal late would never return to order again.

"How might we create an exciting food experience for busy people?"

‍

Gathering all the problem listed above, it's clearly obvious the problem is on discovery and delivery.

Dahmakan has always viewed food as more than just a necessity; it's an experience. We evaluate food based on its appearance, the buzz it generates, and its ability to captivate our senses. Our goal is to rekindle this experience by making food appealing through sensory engagement. This includes larger meal images, videos of meal plating, real-time feedback, and community interaction, allowing you to experience food in a new way.

‍
Alongside our rebranding efforts, we seized the opportunity to introduce a new menu layout that is both vibrant and engaging. The redesigned menu is large, informative, and dynamic, aiming to stimulate all your senses. Sight, taste, and more, to enhance your decision-making process.

A living, breathing, dynamic menu that changes based on local appetite

dahmakan personalizes your food discovery experience by showing you what other Malaysians are eating and trending. It's a living, breathing menu that changes based on local food trends and the more extensive meal presentation.

"What's good here?"

dahmakan personalize your food discovery experience by showing you what other Malaysians are eating and what's trending. It's a living, breathing menu that changes based on local food trends and the more extensive meal presentation.

Connecting food to drink and desserts

dahmakan not only shows you an image of the meal you're ordering but also offers you the meal's presentation. We want to take you on an adventure and move you closer to our meals and see how we plate them so that you can get more information about our meals.

"That sounds so good."

Since food is a social event, Malaysia, where most people rely on others to get food and often have lunch together as a group, we want to bring a sense of belonging on the app with the country's looming lockdown. This helps users to discover new meals through reviews, live stories, and social networks.

Eating in a restaurant is different from ordering a meal. Gone are the days where we order a meal because we are starving late at night. However, that has long changed when food delivery has quickly become a norm, especially during the pandemic.

As lunch and dinner have move into mobile, the experience of eating has not changed. Over an extended period, ordering from mobile is seen as a blessing or a privilege, but it all goes back to square one. We still crave the meal being prepare and serve directly in front of us.

People like going to the restaurant and the reason being is the experience. Being in a restaurant gives you experience. The kitchen smell, the sound of the plate and cutlery clattering, waiter making suggestions for you and seeing what other people are having.

This begs the question. Why do we, even after we have the privilege of getting a meal directly from our smartphone, still crave going back to a much simpler time?

‍

1. How do we bring that dine-in experience into the mobile experience?
2. What kind of consideration do people take before making a food decision?

Bringing all those determinant together

Since food is social event here is Malaysia, whereby most people rely other opinion to get food and often time have lunch together as a group. With the looming lockdown of the country, we want to bring a sense of belonging on the app. This helps users to discover new meal through review, live stories and social network.

Drawing inspiration from what's already familiar

Instead of thinking of something fancier or futuristic, I've decided to go back and look at what's working by having a reality check. So I stepped back and started exploring and observe what's working. I went to the nearby shopping mall and watch how people look at food, how they react, and how they discuss themselves. One thing that I notice is that users spend the longest time before getting their meal are by looking at the menu. With a little eavesdropping, I also quickly trace back their pattern similar to mine. Users tend to look at the image first, then the price and the name later.

Level of consideration:

1. Sight- How does the meal look like? Does it look good? Does it look like something I would eat?
2. Cost - I wonder how much would it cost? Can I afford this? Is there a lunch/dinner set that comes with this meal? Is it worth it?
3. Detail - What kind of meat is this? I wonder what else comes with the image? I hope I can pronounce it correctly when I let the cashier know what I'm eating.
4. Confirmation Is this place really good? Let's see what google says. What does my friend think of this place?

Bringing all those determinant together

Since food is social event here is Malaysia, whereby most people rely other opinion to get food and often time have lunch together as a group. With the looming lockdown of the country, we want to bring a sense of belonging on the app. This helps users to discover new meal through review, live stories and social network.

Bringing you closer to your meal

Referring back to our previous design, some of the findings we get is:

1. Most users do not get to favorite their meal, and there are accessibility and usability concerns with the user accidentally tapping into the dish detail.
2. Small image meal presentation. 75% of new users tap into the meal to see a larger image of the meal. Creating additional steps
3. We show ratings, but it is not clear to the users what does the rating mean. We do not have a review page to show those reviews in detail.
4. The price is too small. Malaysian are sensitive to meal pricing, and intentionally hiding it causes the user to realize they can't afford it in checkout and go back to change their order.

‍

The issue here is that the meal presentation wasn't too clear to the user. So we trace back and take a fresh new look from a perspective of a first-time user who is entering the restaurant and run through their thought process. This is what we got:

‍

1. Larger meal image made for a more effortless glance or scroll experience at 60% larger
2. Highlighting the rank of the meal, so the user knows what's popular at a glance. 85% of the user during the user test are familiar with this due to the association to "top 20 meals."
3. Pricing information is concentrated at the bottom with much more visible pricing.
4. The rating title is changed to "order again" to signal that people have been repeating this order or a way to signal that people are recommending this meals.

Introducing this format is to simulate the behavior and their thought process when going through the meal.

Smooth menu flow and feast your eyes

We also optimized the menu and design to impress:

1. A very minimal amount of user changes their address, but it takes up a lot of space in the screen
2. Very little interest in this section from the user and takes up a lot of space
3. Meals are unintentionally hidden; most user scrolls vertically. Hardly scroll horizontally to the end
4. The meal begins at the bottom, CTA is hidden on load

‍

Here are the significant changes that are being worked on the menu:

‍

1. Address and time selection has been moved up and takes up minimal space. Serving as an information rather than a focus
2. Users who want their meal faster can turn on the express to alert the kitchen to prioritize this order
3. Meal image has increased in size and contain more information.
4. The floating tab bar will automatically hide to gives more space for a meal to show up more

Bringing all those determinant together

Since food is social event here is Malaysia, whereby most people rely other opinion to get food and often time have lunch together as a group. With the looming lockdown of the country, we want to bring a sense of belonging on the app. This helps users to discover new meal through review, live stories and social network.

We were visiting the kitchen, where we get to see how we have been preparing. I was surprised that we do not have a system in place to manage incoming orders. There was no notification system to notify other teams of a meal status. An example would be no alarm or a status screen to inform the logistic team what order was ready. Every order that came in has to be printed from a printer, and the order sheet is hand over to the rider who was waiting outside.
‍
There was a lot of yelling, back and forth, and wrong deliveries. Many things are disconnected, and this disconnection is why our customers are getting their order late. It's time to propose a blueprint service to tie everything together and bring some order into chaos.

Visiting the kitchen where we get to see how we have been preparing. I was surprised that we do not have a system in place to manage incoming order. There was no notification system to notify other teams of a meal status. An example would be there is no alarm or a status screen to notify the logistic team what order was ready. Every order that came in have to be printed from a printer and the order sheet is hand over to the rider who was waiting outside. With one person going outside the production factory to handover the order sheet, it's one less person managing the order. There were a lot of yelling, back and forth, and wrong deliveries. A lot of things are disconnected and this disconnection is the reason why our customers are getting their order late. It's time to propose a service design blueprint to tie everything together and bring some order into chaos.

Visiting the kitchen where we get to see how we have been preparing. I was surprise that we do not have a system in place to manage incoming order. There was no notification system to notify other team of a meal status. An example would be there is no alarm or a status screen to notify the logistic team what order was ready. Every order that came in have to be printed from a printer and the order sheet is hand over to the rider who was waiting outside. With one person going outside the production factory to handover the order sheet, it's one less person managing order. There were a lot of yelling, back and forth, and wrong deliveries. A lot of things are disconnected and this disconnection are the reason why our customers are getting their order late. It's time to propose a service design blueprint to tie everything together and bring some order into chaos.

Visiting the kitchen where we get to see how we have been preparing. I was surprise that we do not have a system in place to manage incoming order. There was no notification system to notify other team of a meal status. An example would be there is no alarm or a status screen to notify the logistic team what order was ready. Every order that came in have to be printed from a printer and the order sheet is hand over to the rider who was waiting outside. With one person going outside the production factory to handover the order sheet, it's one less person managing order. There were a lot of yelling, back and forth, and wrong deliveries. A lot of things are disconnected and this disconnection are the reason why our customers are getting their order late. It's time to propose a service design blueprint to tie everything together and bring some order into chaos.

Visiting the kitchen where we get to see how we have been preparing. I was surprise that we do not have a system in place to manage incoming order. There was no notification system to notify other team of a meal status. An example would be there is no alarm or a status screen to notify the logistic team what order was ready. Every order that came in have to be printed from a printer and the order sheet is hand over to the rider who was waiting outside.

‍

There was a lot of yelling, back and forth, and wrong deliveries. Many things are disconnected, and this disconnection is why our customers are getting their order late. It's time to propose a blueprint service to tie everything together and bring some order into chaos.

Breaking down at my experience in the kitchen, I manage to mark down some of my findings and reasoning why the current processes are not working. My conclusion is also echoed by the product team and the kitchen team.

These findings are:

1. Staff are too reliant on self-reminder - There is no accountability or a reminder for the team to begin working on the order. Once the staff thinks orders are coming in, the staff are expected to go to the laptop, refresh the screen to check if there is any new order.
2. There is no meal ingredient tracker - When the staff enters the refrigerator, they rely on a piece of paper to collect the ingredient for cooking. Often, the team would collect a bunch of them and put the extra back into the refrigerator, causing a lot of wastage or food going bad.
3. There is no meal status tracker - Staff does not know the status of each meal. Rider waited until they are called to collect orders, and kitchen staff is too busy to keep track of all demand for dispatch and often leave for delivery late.

These findings gave me an epiphany, and I ask myself, what if I bring back the inspiration I had for the customer app ago to production, which is to utilized sensory stimulation to help the staff work better.
Instead of refreshing the laptop and being physically close to the computer to take action, we trigger sound. So once the staff hears the notification, they will react instantly. With a physical screen with meal status being displayed, it helps the team see what needs to be prepared and minimal interaction.

Once the kitchen receives an order, the meal status screen will be updated with the latest order, and with a visible timer, it will keep the staff accountable to prepare the meal at a given time.
‍
I also placed a checkpoint for each step of the way. This includes refrigerator, cooking station, packing station. This checkpoint brings clarity to the dispatch team to anticipate when the orders are ready. Once a bag is fully packed, we will send a notification to the riders to be called in automatically by their rider app to collect their order and start their route.

By setting a checkpoint system, we also give the production manager new trackable data to figure out which area to improve and further increase efficiency.
‍
After implementing this feature and undergo a few simulation tests, workshops to educate the manager to manage this new system, we finally arrive at a scalable and repeatable version.

With the success of turning the kitchen production efficiency and forming a repeatable and scalable system, we can bring those processes into launching our outlet.
‍
We launched our first trial outlet in Sunway to test the system I designed together with my team, gather a lot of learning, and figure out ways to improve those processes. Those designs have gone through multiple iterations, and with much more involvement from teams from other departments, it further sharpens our product. Our outlet currently can handle both delivery and dine-in.

After launching both platforms on the customer front and to the kitchen, we started seeing improvement in our entire operation. Checkout time has reduced significantly, meaning the customer takes much lesser time to make their food decision. This led to an increase in conversion rate by 60% overall. Accompanied by a faster and more efficient delivery, our retention rate also increase.

‍

The new menu layout and meal presentation with video helps increase the conversion rate by 60%

‍

The new production workflow and design increase on time performance by 27%

‍

The cancellation rate has dropped to less than 15 cancellations per day, all-time low

‍

What's next?

Looking forward, I hope we would have more time and budget to further work on the menu screen and further optimize the experience. With the looming plan of expanding our outlet all around Malaysia, we are also starting a new design focus on the in-person experience. This included interface and experience design for customers entering our store, interacting with screens that would automate the ordering and service aspect. This is a new experience for me but an exciting one because this allows me to complete the entire food experience.