The Big Mac UX Design Story
How Bun, Patty, Veggies and Sauce teach you how to create greatness.
Quick and dirty History
Richard and Maurice McDonald moved in late 1930s to Hollywood and created in 1940s the first industrial age related food principle with higher efficiency and eye-catching appearance until in 1954 Ray Kroc started to establish a franchise concept. The McDonalds quick serving restaurants were born. Home of fries, burgers, soft drinks and adiposis.
On the way selling hamburgers led to new recipes and finally to new products, markets and customers. People got used to the system and started to get addictive for fast food.
Big Boys love Big Mac
One of the leading products of all times is the Big Mac: (bun + patty + salad + sauce) x 2.
Built to convince and timeless like gentlemen, the Big Mac was the most addictive dish I ever ate. I think my first Big Mac was with 12 years and it was kind of advanced stuff. I remember starting with a hamburger in a time going to McDonalds was something special. Like the holy grail of marketing the happy meal was nearly everywhere and the most attractive influencer in food industry. After being officialy promoted to maturity I rescanned the market for opportunities and after some short relationship to McRib finally found the Big Beef Buddy.
The Big UX Mac
Before the “It’s just a burger” and “it’s bad for your health” mentality the Big Mac was just a legend. But why?
1.Workflow/Market
The doubledecker is quickly prepared with the ingredients nearly everybody likes. Doesn’t mind exotic stuff and stay as basic as you need to satisfy your customers’ needs and convince with simplicity.
2. Usability
Order single or with fries and drink. Open the cardboard box, keeping it longer warm than a simple foil. Wrap your hands around, lead them to your mouth and bite it. Easy right! The Big Mac is probably the best big burger to handle, because of the simple recipe. Always keep in mind:”Good Design means Good Usability.”
3. Design
That leads us to the design. Puristic “bun meets patty” liason and timeless sauce creation. Dieter Rams would be amazed by the simplicity with huge impact. Prevent the unnecessary and focus on the functions.
4. Scalability
The handsome design makes the Big Mac a good boy for scaling. Add another patty, resize to bigger buns or change something else. But face the truth, you don’t have to. You should never change a winning team. Think about the Whopper. Just too many adjustments to be a legend dish. The ability to be scaleable without ever get rescaled again means you can change if you want but don’t need to. Jackpot!
5. Recognition
Cheeseburger? Everywhere! Fries? Standard! The Big Mac? Unique! Create a brand and stick to the principles you defined at the beginning. It’s not about creating the holy grail. It’s about understanding your customers’ needs and than supply them with exactly that.
Summary
The Big Mac is a tasty piece of crap and if you feel attracted to often you’ll get serious health issues. But it is a nice example for marketing rules and UX standards. In former days fast food satisfied the needs of millions of people.
Think about the products you worked on, the ones you’re currently shaping or your future plans: Will it satisfy your customers needs? Is it scalable, flexible and modular? And is it as tasty as the formula (bun + patty + salad + sauce) x 2?
Experience means to expect, discover and grow further.
