Stakeholder Map and Competitor Analysis
For the Stakeholder map, the website focuses on helping Singaporean ‘Foodies’ better decide on places to eat and food bloggers (not necessarily the more established bloggers but the up-and-coming ones). Thus, the focus is on these two users that can help create a community of people who appreciate good food and provide unbiased reviews.
Internal stakeholders would include the Marketing and Public relations team, as they may need to help maintain the website’s reputation if there are potential mishaps from bad reviews or complaints from external stakeholders (e.g — food store owners). As the website is community-driven and provides unbiased reviews, we have to be ready to tackle any negative feedback received from external stakeholders. There is also the opportunity for collaboration with government agencies that seek to promote Singapore’s hawker culture [e.g — Our SG Heritage and National Environment Agency (NEA)].
The App and Website development team will also play a part by incorporating feedback from our users to improve our user’s experience.
Competitor Analysis
For the Competitor Analysis, I took a look at other websites and apps that provide similar services to the current project by conducting a Beginner’s Mind Scan and thinking from the user’s perspective. The search terms utilised for this scan include ‘food review singapore’, ‘food recommendations singapore’ and ‘food blog singapore’.
The most relevant results came from the search term ‘food review singapore’, that showcased the top websites in Singapore for food reviews that include EatBook, Burpple and other local key opinion leaders (KOL) for food reviews.
The websites that I used for the competitor analysis include EatBook, Burpple and The Dining Advisor, as they provide food reviews with ratings and specifically for Burpple and Dining Advisor they have community posts. Thus, I would like to understand the user experience of using these sites as well as what can be improved on.
EatBook Review
EatBook’s website features food from around Singapore through articles and videos on YouTube. The landing page showcases their latest articles as well as a search bar that allows users to find the kind of food they are looking for based on location, price, and ratings. This is good for users who have an idea of the kind of cuisine they’re looking for and they also have the ability to choose their budget for dining out.
The website’s navigation is simple and they organise their content through headers such as ‘Food Reviews, ‘Food Guides’, and a few others. We’ll be taking a look at the ‘Food Reviews’ section to understand how their reviews are done and what can be improved on.
The Food Reviews page is also organised based on recent articles and still has the search bar available on the page. From there, I took a look at the most recent article to understand how the food is rated and whether there is community engagement.
In the article, we are able to see the writer’s opinion on the food and what they had tried at the establishment. The ratings and summary of the article only comes at the end, and they had also included a line saying ‘This is an independent tasting at Donburi Maruya’, which implies the article isn’t sponsored or paid for.
Another thing I noticed was that there was a lack of community engagement from EatBook users below the review summary with only 19 Shares on Eatbook’s social media. This shows the lack of community reviews and that the website’s focus is on featuring new foods to try but did not incorporate its community feedback or ratings.
Therefore, this is something that can be considered for the project to help reinforce whether a food place is worth trying.
Pros:
- Website has many articles for readers to find what they are craving
- Simple navigation and search bar
Cons:
- Lack of community engagement
- Some articles may be sponsored or paid for
Burpple Review
Burpple’s landing page also included a search bar similar to Eatbook’s and featured written articles that showcases new restaurants and deals. When first arriving on the page, users can expect to find food guides and also decide on places to eat at based on different categories.
There is also Burpple Beyond, which is like a premium membership that allows users to enjoy discounts and vouchers when using Burpple’s services or app. Thus, this shows that there are collaborations between Burpple and many different food places that incentivises users for using Burpple.
Next, I took a look at the website’s ‘Burpple Guides’ page to understand how Burpple organises places to eat at. It features different places to dine at around Singapore and allows for its users to leave reviews of the place. What’s done well is that they put an approximate price on how much a visitor may spend when dining out. This allows users to better plan their budget when visiting. Additionally, the number of reviews can also be seen which allows the user to better gauge how good the food establishment is.
Burpple is quite community-driven and allows users to leave reviews for places they have visited. This allows other visitors to gain an understanding of the place they would like to visit and whether they will have a good experience. The ability to incorporate photos of the food also gives the website visitor an idea of what they can expect of the food when visiting.
Burpple also creates a community experience by incentivising people who use their app through vouchers as well as using a ‘level system’ based on the number of reviews Burpplers leave. As seen in the below image, the reviews are done by a Level 8 Burppler, that implies the person reviews places they visit often and this helps increase engagement on the website and return visits by the user to use Burpple.
However, when navigating the website to find places to try under ‘Neighbourhoods’ and ‘Categories’ the website gives many options and may seem daunting to users. I feel that this can be improved by implementing these options in the search bar or visuals to allow users to search for the exact location they want.
The current search bar’s prompt is ‘Search places, lists & users’, Burpple could have incorporated the broad search term ‘cuisine’ to give users the ability to search the type of cuisine they want to try (e.g — Japanese, Korean etc.).
My takeaway from Burrple is that, the community-driven aspect of Burpple makes food reviews feel more authentic and believable compared to sponsored posts. They also provide many options and food guides but have not considered aspects such as price, location or ratings of the places people want to try in the search bar. Thus, finding the perfect place to dine out at may require users to spend more time on their website.
Pros:
- Community Driven reviews left by users
- Features and articles for Burpplers to visit new places
Cons:
- Difficult navigation under ‘Neighbourhood’ and ‘Categories’
- Premium membership to enjoy incentives
The Dining Advisor Review
The last website that I reviewed was The Dining Advisor, which features food reviews from Singapore’s top food bloggers. The food featured on the website tend to be on the premium side probably due to the collaboration with UOB Cards as seen in their logo.
Navigation on the website is simple and they provide reviews, guides and deals on food around Singapore. In addition, they have a search bar on the top right that allows users to narrow their food search down to location, cuisine and other terms.
On their ‘Reviews’ page, we can see reviews done by Singapore food influencers such as Ladyironchef and other big names. And the page also allows users to customise their search at the top. As the website tends to feature the more premium dining establishments, it leaves out the hidden gems and cheaper options that some users might search for. However, this may be due to the website being geared towards people looking for more premium foods in Singapore and having higher spending power thus, it is understandable. Additionally, the reviews are done by food connoisseurs so the reviews do feel more reliable and justified.
On a review page, the user experience is quite unique. Unlike the normal website top-down scroll, the page allows users to have a special scrolling experience. The reviews are also quite extensive and allow users to see the kind of food to expect and the experience is well-described by the food critic. The ratings and other details are given at the end of the review with a promo using UOB Cards to enjoy discounts when dining at the restaurants.
However, similar to Eatbook, the website does not have user reviews that will help reinforce the establishment’s popularity or whether it’s worth trying. The UOB collaboration may also implicate the review’s authenticity, and also that subscribers of the website are incentivised to dine at these places.
There is also a ‘Get Featured’ page, which allows restaurants to get featured on The Dining Advisor’s website and be visited by the featured food critics. This allows for collaborations with food establishments for the brands but also brings up the question of whether the reviews are authentic.
Overall, The Dining Advisor’s website is quite well-done and caters to the more premium dining spots in Singapore and are reviewed by well-known food critics in Singapore. The navigation is simple and the user experience is enjoyable. It could be further improved on by creating a community of users that leave reviews for cross-referencing so website visitors can make better judgement on whether the places are worth visiting or perhaps peer-reviewed by other food critics as well.
Pros:
- Unique user experience
- Aesthetic website
- In-depth and reliable reviews from Singapore’s top food critics
Cons:
- Website catered for pricier food establishments and UOB card holders
- Lack of user engagement and reviews
- Restaurants can choose to get featured on the website