Zomato has been the go to choice for many people, especially for bachelors who are staying away from family for the sake of job, new lifestyle and getting out of their comfort zone. Just like Maggi which has been the primary savior of people during late night cravings/ no urgent delicacy availability, Zomato also has stepped up for the same cause.
But there are some good as well as bad features of Zomato and for which I’ll be performing the Heuristic Evaluation of the App by following Jakob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics of User Interface . I would be rating Good, Average and bad against each feature.
1. Visibility of System Status — Good
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on with the system through appropriate feedback within a reasonable amount of time.
- The App provides real time updates of the order one has made. Starting from transaction being successful to Restaurant has accepted your order then Food is being prepared and so on.
- When the coupon code isn’t entered, the APPLY button remains inactive. That shows the availability of action for the user.
2. Match between system and the real world — Good
The system should speak the user’s language with words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user rather than using system oriented terms.
- The App uses daily understandable English language.
- It also follows the order of operation procedure and what it means is one can choose one food item, add quantities and can proceed to check out. If the customer is not interested in between, he can also remove the food item from the cart.
3. User Control and Freedom — Average
Users often choose system functions by mistake and need to be able to get out of the state that they’ve gotten themselves into. Through a clearly marked emergency exit or something similar.
- While one can easily add and remove addresses, sometimes the proper location when typed isn’t showing on the map. Though the App provides drag and drop option in the map, it isn’t as convenient as original google maps (even though Zomato uses google maps).
- Rest all features like deleting or adding food items are good enough.
- Another good point to note here is the option “Add more items” and “View Details” while checking out. It helps the customer in quick decision making if he/she needs to add more while not worrying about an already existing order being canceled.
4. Consistency and Standard — Good
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Also, it’s important to follow platform conventions.
- The App is consistent throughout with the labels, font and the icons and the language used in it.
- Search bar is also at top and checkout button is at the bottom following all the platform standards.
5. Error Prevention — Good
Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
- Error prevention messages are good. If a restaurant is unavailable, it’s shown prior to selecting it.
- For any error during delivery, a voice record option for the address is also added so as to help the delivery person in easy access.
6. Recognition rather than Recall — Good
One wants to minimize the user’s memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. And instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
- While there’s an image for every food time against it for the user to remember it easily, restaurants could use their own image of the food rather than the google images.
- One can check the “Your Previous Order” for better recognition while selecting any restaurant.
- Edition Wallet to add money for easier transactions without using OTP.
7. Flexibility and Efficiency of use — Good
For not so new users, this is very helpful while navigating through the app. While new users might not recall the process, old or frequent users are acquainted with it.
- “Reorder” option in the history option is very handy for repetitive actions.
- “Your Previous Order” for particular restaurants is also one of the good features.
- Saved card/ UPI details for easier checkout.
- Various options on the landing page like Fast Delivery, Likes, Coupons etc. make it easy for users to navigate quickly.
8. Aesthetic and Minimalist Design — Average
Dialogue should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue or on a screen competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
- While the App does pretty well in keeping it minimalistic, it lacks a major thing of providing written feedback under each food item. It’s considerable that to keep it minimalistic, they haven’t added the customer review to it, but it also shows less desirability about the food and the ratings might not cover it up.
- Share option of the food isn’t as important as the review will be.
9. Error Recovery — Good
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors. Error messages should be expressed in plain language, no codes, no programmer’s speak, precisely indicate the problem and constructively suggest a solution.
- No error as such for the app while ordering food. If UPI transaction isn’t working it’s well mentioned below it to avoid paying through it.
10. Help and Documentation — Good
Though it’s better if the system can be used without any documentation, it sometimes may be necessary to provide help and documentation.
- Easy to navigate for any help by contacting the customer service over chat.
Conclusion
So my conclusion will be that it’s good to use Zomato and any novice who is exposed to the internet and apps can easily navigate through it.
Zomato as it is today, is doing good and its customer experience is also doing great. The few things which could make it better is mentioned in the above heuristics and if the app can work in slow internet as not many parts of the city has proper availability of internet bandwidth.
