Introducing our latest iOS App Update
By Deepinder Goyal
This post was originally published on Zomato Blog on October 29, 2018.
The world around us is changing fast. And we see this pattern up close in our biggest market — India. More than one-third of the country’s population has access to the Internet now. Over 35% of the population have smartphones at their disposal with an average mobile data consumption north of 11GB per month. Our platform is also evolving at a fast pace — our Search & Discovery (S&D) service is currently available in 1472 cities globally while our food delivery services have reached 60 cities across 4 countries, including smaller cities like Raipur and Guntur in India. Our user base is getting more and more diverse and so are our product offerings: in the recent past we’ve launched several products, including Zomato Gold (currently present in 20 cities in 3 countries); Zomato Pickup has already taken off in 13 cities. Similarly, we made Hygiene Ratings available to merchants in 32 cities across India, UAE, Qatar and Lebanon. Piggybank has amassed over 1.5m members and has become synonymous with food delivery experience on our platform whereas Sneakpeek introduces a new way to know more about the brands you love.
So, given the fast changing ecosystem we are a part of, it’s only natural that our platform keeps pace with it all. It was the right time for us to re-think how we present our products to the users. We started working on this a few months ago and are very excited to bring the newly designed iOS App to our users. In the remainder of this post, you’ll get some insights into our thought process and how we went about it.
Before we get into nitty-gritties of the app, let me walk you through the design principles that we adhered to during the redesign process.
- Bottom navigation/Clear segregation of experiences — Tabs have been provided at the bottom of the app for faster and smoother navigation. This makes it easy for a user to switch flows on the app as and when needed. We also separated our offerings based on user intent — this should help users navigate the app better.
- Improved search & discovery — ‘Search’ gets a separate tab at the bottom for it to be uncomplicated & effortless for our users as they’d be able to search for their favourite restaurants, cuisines, dishes, etc., along with being able to discover other great food experiences.
- Power of visuals — The human brain can process images up to 60,000 times faster than words. We’ve added a lot more images on the new app keeping the same in mind. And that is exactly what’s going to help you make the right decision when it comes to deciding what to eat.
Similarly, we also remained faithful to these two engineering principles while building on the app update.
- Adhering to SOLID — One of the main challenges of rolling out a new app is the challenge of maintaining high quality engineering standards while still moving at near light speed. Adhering to ‘SOLID’ principles allowed us to do just that by providing a set of idioms that guided decision making throughout the process and allowed fast paced development without compromising quality.
2. Decoupling through the use of abstractions — Another area of focus for us was decoupling highly interconnected components using certain design patterns (Interfaces, Protocols and Facades) among other methodologies which helped us future proof the app to an extent — we’ll be able to build on top of this paradigm and add features to the App in an organized way.
So, what exactly does the app update entail? Let’s take a look.
One click, two options
We recently introduced the Pickup option to our users and it’s gaining momentum. So, in our latest app version, the Order tab helps our users with the two options for online ordering — whether they wish to get their food delivered to their doorstep or want to pick up food on their own. This particular twist will enhance the online ordering experience on several levels.
Where there’s a way, there are more ways
Zomato has always been synonymous with choice as far as food is concerned. The “Go Out” section of the app showcases ways in which you can discover great places to eat out. In fact, users will be greeted by a personalized curation of restaurants, cuisines, and events just to bring out the explorer in them. It’s also hard to miss the visual appeal we’ve added to these tabs — which makes it a breeze to browse through the options and simplify the decision making for our users.
Let’s be the royalty…
Zomato Gold has been around for over a year now and it’s much more than just “1+1 on food and 2+2 on drinks”, something we wanted to emphasize in our latest app update. We are introducing Zomato Live, which includes some of the coolest events happening in your city and what’s more — Zomato Gold members get a sweet deal on those too. The perks of being a Zomato Gold member have never been better!
Lost and hungry? Not anymore.
The search experience in our latest update has completely been re-engineered. To begin with, our full screen map view now gives a clearer route to both Chili and Chile — it really depends on what you want. ;)
Users can also search using the often used navigation filters that have been added to the page. We are still testing different versions of the search experience, so this tab in particular might change according to your preferences as you continue to use the app.
For the connoisseur in you…
We now have a separate tab for profile and users can unlock their dineline to see what’s in store for them on their page. Not revealing anything else here — login to know more.
It’s never been easy to break something down and put it back together, but what’s really exciting is the journey; the journey of making the platform more usable for our users and make the only food app you ever need work better for you!
Lastly, to all you Android folks reading this post, rest assured we are hard at work on getting this to you at the earliest. Stay tuned, it’ll be out soon :)
As always, if you have suggestions on how to help us improve, feel free to drop us a mail at help@zomato.com
If you are an iOS engineer who loves challenges and is keen on working with Zomato, do check this out.
