Foodler was Boston’s premier online food ordering service, later acquired by GrubHub. Connecting thousands of restaurants and menus to online customers, Foodler earned loyalty through reliable service and a smart rewards program that earned $ off of future orders with every purchase.

My Role: Consulting Creative/UX Director for Brand and Product Design. I was the only creative resource, partnering closely with the co-founding engineers and one iOS and Android engineer.

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The Foodler App

The original Foodler website.

Mission

Design iOS and Android mobile apps that exceed the established web experience to meet the demands of thousands of hungry customers.

Launch a lovable new brand expression through the experience design.

Challenges

  • No brand concept or assets

  • Complex features and workflows

  • Thousands of existing desktop users

  • Smart founders, but without brand or product design experience

  • A new, lean, and agile team

Defining Success

  • Completed orders, no service disruptions

  • Convert web customers to app customers

  • New customer signups via the app channel

  • Customer affinity for new brand expression

A Tasteful Upgrade

Sign-in, home, and restaurant listing app screen views.

Restaurant detail, live order tracking, group ordering feature intro.

Foodler’s overall business doubled in less than 6 months after launch. Loyal customers were happy, and thousands of new customers poured in via the App Stores. Following a massively successful MBTA campaign, Foodler was acquired by GrubHub.

UX Considerations

Designing the app meant guiding the founders through a new process of understanding and serving their audiences. We examined and defined unique user types, their mindsets and needs at critical touchpoints. This was foundational to roadmapping and feature design.

Below: User type, lifecycle, and user needs explorations.

Brand + Campaigns

Early Foodler ads weren’t universally appetizing. No real brand vibe, hard to read, and generic food photography.

Mission

Bring a new Foodler brand to life  through inspiring and memorable MBTA and YouTube preroll campaigns. Send a clear message: Foodler and the Foodler app is the best way to order online and satisfy your hunger.

Increase app store traction and conversions and grow the customer audience.

Challenges

  • Stand out in a crowded market

  • Make it inclusive; Foodler is for everyone

  • Capture attention at actionable moments

  • Don’t turn people off with food imagery

  • Make it scalable: should look great as a digital ad or when wrapped around an entire train or bus

Defining Success

  • Increased app store traffic and app downloads

  • New user signups through the app

A Captive Audience

Foodler’s app store numbers soared. MBTA Takeover campaigns reached hundreds of thousands of hungry commuters every day, and the campaign’s bold, colorful, and inclusive emphasis on the relatable “first bite moment of joy” was just the ticket.

MBTA Gallery

  • MBTA - Park Street

  • MBTA - Park Street

  • MBTA - Park Street

  • MBTA

  • MBTA

  • MBTA - Green Line

  • MBTA - Green Line

  • MBTA - Green Line

  • MBTA - Digital

  • MBTA - Harvard

  • MBTA - Red Line Wrap

  • MBTA - Turnstiles

  • MBTA - Bus Wrap

  • MBTA - Bus Wrap

YouTube

Targeted YouTube preroll ads reached and converted thousands more by introducing Foodler to new customers outside the city boundaries.

I wrote, storyboarded, voice-casted, and directed these videos, and wrote and produced the music, too. Since I designed the campaign around vector-based art, all of assets were directly transferable from print, to digital, to motion.

Storyboard for Foodler YouTube Preroll ad

Website

Eventually, the website caught up with the newly-branded app. This provided a warm and helpful landing for new customers, as well as familiar and consistent workflows for app users.

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