Yelp Mobile App
So where should we grab lunch today?
Over the summer in San Francisco, Yelp was probably one of the apps I used the most along with Uber and Lyft. So let’s take a look at its Android app, the one I opened atleast once every day this summer.
But before that, I should explain what I was looking for each time I used the app. Simply put, most of the times, it was one of the following two cases:
I am hungry now and need something nearby
OR
I am going to XYZ tonight. What’s good there?
So, the analysis ahead is based primarily on these two use cases.
Let’s get started
This is what we see first once the app launches. It’s pretty standard and covers most of what Yelp offers.
However, throughout the summer, I mostly found myself clicking on two of these options — Nearby or the Search for bar. At times, it was annoying that there was an extra step before I could see nearby restaurants and cafes. This is the first of the two cases mentioned right at the start — I am outside and just need to see what’s nearby. What would be helpful here would be to see a list of nearby places when the app launches with just the search box at the top. The search box addresses the second use case — if you are interested in checking out places for sometime later.
The other options such as About Me, Bookmarks, Recents etc. could be shifted to a sidebar that comes in from the left on a simple finger swipe. Many apps have adopted that approach — Uber primarily focuses on getting you a car with all other features like Payment, Settings etc. off to the side, Airbnb has a left sidebar as well etc. This sidebar works and is something that Yelp could play with as well.
Before moving on, let’s finally focus on the search bar at the top along with the Yelp word and logo. It’s simply too big and takes up a lot of screen space. Do we really need two rows for this task? Doesn’t the top row with just the icon and name at the center and rest empty just look out of place? A couple of others, for example, do this much more compactly:
Google Keep does search really well with simply an icon. Even Airbnb has a similar search icon. With the app name, logo and search icon all in one row, it looks compact, elegant and still has the same functionality
What happens when once clicks on the search icon can be done in multiple ways. For Google Keep, a textbox appears in the yellow navigation bar itself where as for more complex searches like in Airbnb, a new page appears with past searches and more fields.
For Yelp currently, the transition to the page on the left is pretty smooth. Being able to see past searches is useful. But once again, the two search boxes and the search icon just take up too much space. And, the size of the search icon button is obnoxious.
Picking a place to eat
This is possibly the most crucial step while using Yelp — picking a place to eat / drink. We’ll cover the listings page in the next section. However, over the summer, most decisions on where to go were made while on this page.
First, let’s see what information is available for each listing —
#1 Picture
#2 5-star based rating and number of reviews
#3 Address
#4 Price range (from $-$$$$)
#5 General Category of restaurant to know what kind of place to expect
#6 Distance from current location (when GPS is on)
This is pretty spot on! It has all the information I need to know to pick a place at a quick glance. Even the search bar at the top is more like what I’d like it to be in previous steps. So can anything more be done for this page?
Yes, the pictures can be more immersive.
The small thumbnail is just not good enough! There is no interaction with the pictures at all and they, currently, do not impact the choice I make in any way. Airbnb tackles this well in their listings page with a carousel of images. Not only are the images more immersive because of the size, but also by being a carousel, they also allow the user to see multiple images and get a good sense of the listing. While it maybe fair to say that a restaurant / cafe’s images do not have as much significance as a hotel room or Airbnb listing’s pictures, I am pretty certain a balance can be achieved between what Airbnb has and what Yelp has currently.
To end this section, let’s talk about a feature, or rather the lack of it, that has caught me out on a few occasions. By default, the app doesn’t tell me if the place is open or not? It makes me wonder why “Open Now” is not enabled automatically and needs to be set manually from the Filters section. It is bewildering because it is a quick fix and I am not certain why Yelp has decided against implementing it.
Talking about the Filters section, the button is very conveniently placed, as is the option to see a Maps view of the listings. Both features, Maps and Filters, are well implemented and work well (not getting into details here).
Let’s learn more about this place
Finally, let’s have a look at the page for a restaurant.
There is not much to complain regarding what you can see on the left. All the necessary information that one could possibly need is shown in a pretty compact and elegant manner.
The map is given its due importance and so are important ways in which we’d interact with the place — Directions, Contacting, Messaging etc.
However, once again, pictures are not highlighted well enough. Can you even see the image of that beautiful pancake on the left? (Hint: It’s behind the name). Yelp have a very neat trick to see images: Just pull down! It’s amazing but while pulling down is good to see full size images, I would like to see a carousel of smaller images instead of the faded single image that is present currently.
The parts below the image deal with reviews, recommendations and tips — all things that Yelp handles and displays well. I have rarely looked into in-depth reviews personally besides those written with pictures.
However, there is one row that deals with pictures. For me, that row never served a purpose as it was just 3 pictures with a click required to go to another page full of pictures. On the other hand, the carousel I spoke about earlier, would make a lot of sense either here or right at the top of the page where we could get a good idea of the place and the food by scrolling through images.
It’d be fair to say that the Yelp app does a very good job! I was heavily dependent on it all summer and 9 out of 10 times, I went away with a good experience. We can summarize from above that it can do a better job with aesthetics and design at certain places (the size of the search icon is terrible!), but when it comes to functionality, it is still the place to know where to grab lunch, have a fine dining experience or just explore a new neighborhood full of restaurants, cafes and pubs.
