Problem Statement
PRODUCT DESIGN
Epiq
Food Hall
Project Overview
A Culinary Oasis of Diverse Delights
Before delving into the wonders of epiQ Food Hall, let's first understand what a "Food Hall" truly encompasses. Picture a vibrant and bustling market, a culinary wonderland, where a myriad of local mini-restaurants, food vendors, and specialty shops come together under one roof. It's not just about food; it's an experience—an extraordinary social destination. In addition to a delectable array of cuisines, epiQ Food Hall brings together bars, a butchery, various activities, and live music, creating an ambiance that goes beyond just eating.
The epiQ Food Hall website was a vital project for us, driven by our vision and our mantra, "eat, drink, play, be epiq." As a startup in the food hall industry, establishing a strong online presence was a top priority. The website served as our digital storefront, aimed at introducing our brand and simplifying the customer experience. Our goal was not just to showcase our offerings but also to emphasize our commitment to customer satisfaction, a core belief at epiQ Food Hall. Through this project, we aimed to create a digital platform that reflected our brand essence, making it easy for our patrons to explore our culinary offerings and experience the vibrant ambiance of epiQ Food Hall from the comfort of their screens.
My Role:
Product Designer, Visual Designer
Team:
Product Design Team at Epiq Food Hall
Background & Trend Research
Trend #1: The Diverse and Social Dining Experience
While restaurants have a wide range of selections on the menu, as an example, it is hard to find one that will offer Asian, Jamaican, and Ethiopian on the same menu. Food halls allow consumers to experience a little bit of everything, all in one place.
Attention is paid to every detail. In traditional restaurants, it is imperative to take into consideration thoughtful spacing between tables. However in food halls, non-traditional seating arrangements are what consumers are looking for. Times are changing and consumers want social interactions.
Trend #2: Location
Food halls have great potential to shape the neighborhoods around them. They can connect a city by bringing in different neighborhoods and offering opportunities that were not there before. They have the ability to bring more developers and tenants to the area.
Trend #3: Seating
The trend in “decluttering” our lives and living spaces is affecting consumers’ preferences for their dining environments. Instead of elaborate furniture and lavish decorations, restaurant designers are paring down interiors and turning the focus to the architectural elements and locally sourced products in the space.
Unlike the usual layout of food courts, food halls offer smaller seating options such as counter seating, creating a more inclusive dining experience.
Bold statement pieces that define the character and tone of the space are replacing the visual clutter and small objects often seen in restaurants. Handcrafted pieces, produced locally, are incorporated into these spaces to create a comfortable and inviting atmosphere.
Consumers gravitate to food halls because they are a destination. They consist of local and small restaurants that offer unique foods from local chefs. The design of food halls is heavily influenced by the culture of the community. These restaurants are not simply cooking up great-tasting foods; they are attracting customers by delivering a unique experience and creating memorable moments.
By understanding the community as a whole, restaurant designers create interiors that attract more patrons by delivering an outstanding experience. Here are 4 design trends that tap into consumer behaviors and cater to the latest customer expectations.
Trend #4: Mobile and Digital Experience
The use of digital displays, such as LED screens, offers the opportunity to alter the atmosphere of the food hall interior at the touch of a button. Some food halls use these large screens to showcase pieces from local artists. This encourages conversation, creates engagement, and enhances the local presence.
RESEARCH
Designer: Subin Shin
Company: epiQ Food Hall
Goal: Launching Website
Client: epiQ Food Hall
Year: 2020
First, before I am talking about epiQ Food Hall, let me explain What The "Food Hall" is. A food hall is a sprawling market that showcases a variety of local mini-restaurants, food vendors, and one or two food-focused shops, all under one roof. You can also expect to find bars, a butchery, various activities, and live music.
epiQ Food Hall is a social destination founded on our shared culinary Passion & Dedication to great food, with 14 culinary partners providing a wide diversity of cuisines to savor in a fun and relaxing setting.
Website - Final Design
Finding Problems
DEFINE
At epiQ Food Hall, we faced a significant challenge due to the absence of a dedicated website to showcase our 12 culinary partners, bar, and cafe bakery. Despite the variety and excitement we offer, there was no accessible platform for people to easily access essential information about our menu items and what to expect upon visiting. This lack of a digital presence hindered our ability to effectively engage with potential customers and provide them with a seamless experience.
To address this issue, we recognized the urgent need to design and develop a website that would serve as a comprehensive and user-friendly platform for our visitors. The goal was to create a digital window to our food hall, allowing people to explore our diverse cuisines, enticing offerings, and vibrant atmosphere. The website would serve as an informative hub, providing details about our culinary partners, bar, and cafe bakery, along with essential information about our location, operating hours, and special events.
Overcoming the Challenge of Showcasing All Information
UX Challenge
At epiQ Food Hall, the absence of a dedicated website to showcase our 12 culinary partners, bar, and cafe bakery posed a significant challenge. Despite our diverse offerings and exciting culinary experiences, there was no accessible platform for potential customers to easily access essential information about our menu items and what to expect upon visiting. This lack of a digital presence hindered our ability to engage effectively with our target audience and provide them with a seamless experience.
To tackle this issue head-on, we recognized the urgent need to design and develop a comprehensive and user-friendly website. Our primary goal was to create a digital window to our food hall, inviting people to explore our diverse cuisines, enticing offerings, and vibrant atmosphere. The website would serve as an informative hub, providing details about our culinary partners, bar, and cafe bakery, along with essential information about our location, operating hours, and special events.
Crafting an Immersive User Experience
RESEARCH
During the planning phase of the epiQ Food Hall website, I recognized the importance of extensive research and experimentation with various layouts. To gain valuable insights and inspiration, I delved into competitors' websites, studying their designs, and collecting diverse materials by searching almost all food halls in the US based on the document created by Cushman & Wakefiled which is a leading global real estate services firm. By carefully selecting and implementing the most effective elements, I incorporated the best practices into the actual design of the food hall's website.
Throughout the web development process, I consistently conducted tests and research to ensure that the final design aligned with user preferences and needs. Drawing from my personal experiences as a website user, I prioritized user-friendliness and user experience. It was crucial to me that the company's website served as the primary vehicle for showcasing their brand and products. This guiding principle kept me focused on creating a design that truly resonated with users and fulfilled the company's objectives.
I remain dedicated to maintaining the user-centric approach in my designs, always striving to provide visitors with an engaging and seamless digital experience on the epiQ Food Hall website.
Impact
The launch of our new epiQ Food Hall website has had a significant impact on our brand and customer engagement. With the intuitive and immersive design, visitors can easily navigate through our culinary partners' offerings, read their stories, and explore themed events and live music schedules.
The website has become a powerful tool for increasing awareness about our food hall and driving foot traffic to our physical location. It has also provided a seamless reservation system, making it convenient for guests to plan their visits.
As a result, our online presence has grown, and more food enthusiasts have joined us on our culinary adventure, experiencing the flavors, ambiance, and camaraderie that epiQ Food Hall has become renowned for.
Solution
At epiQ Food Hall, our goal was to create a captivating and engaging corporate website that reflects the vibrant and diverse experience of our physical market.
We wanted to provide a digital space where food enthusiasts could explore the range of cuisines offered by our culinary partners and get a taste of the unique atmosphere our venue offers.
The website needed to be user-friendly, visually appealing, and informative, guiding visitors through a gastronomic journey and encouraging them to visit our food hall in person.
Enhanced Engagement and Brand Awareness
PLANNING
EAT, DRINK, PLAY, AND BE EPIQ
I had the privilege to create a website for epiQ Food Hall, a realization of a longstanding dream. The vision was to establish a unique space that offered not only exceptional food and drinks but also a captivating ambiance, drawing patrons back repeatedly.
The website serves as a digital extension of this culinary haven, embodying the essence of a social destination where passion for great food and community converge.
With 14 culinary Partners offering a diverse array of cuisines, the website showcases the heart of epiQ Food Hall's commitment to authenticity and quality. Through the website, we extended an invitation to a celebration of flavors, quality, and togetherness.
As we embarked on this journey, the website served as a platform to not just share the experience but also foster growth and a sense of belonging within the community. Together, we embraced the spirit of being epiQ.
Primary Logo
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Secondary Logo
Tertiary Logo
Secondary Color
Primary Color
Body
Display
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Initial Design
During the initial stages of designing the epiQ Food Hall website, my primary focus was on creating a captivating landing page to announce the upcoming opening of the food hall. As the project was still in its early phases and being developed in collaboration with external website developers, effective communication between designers and developers became paramount. This process highlighted the significance of seamless collaboration and understanding each other's roles to achieve a cohesive and successful website.
The early design version showcased in the picture served as the first iteration of the landing page, aiming to generate excitement and anticipation among potential visitors. To bring this vision to life, I engaged in extensive self-study and research to ensure the design aligned with the food hall's unique ambiance and offerings.
Through this journey, I became more intrigued by the world of web development, leading me to explore coding knowledge to better comprehend the developer's perspective. This exploration allowed me to appreciate the technical aspects of web design and develop a deeper appreciation for the seamless integration of design and functionality.
As I continue to evolve as a designer, I carry with me the valuable lessons learned during the creation of epiQ Food Hall's early design. It has instilled in me the importance of open communication, flexibility, and continuous growth, which I believe are essential attributes in crafting exceptional digital experiences that truly resonate with users.
Initial Design
When I worked here, I did various things and one of my favorite things was designing and building up a website. When I was designing a website, the most important thing I thought was to create a company's brand. epiQ Food Hall is a new food hall that will be launched soon, so it has no brand image yet. Therefore, I wanted to make a brand for this place and imprint it on people. I first chose the color that the logo has as the main color and the second color to support it was yellow. The reason was that the company considered the bright and friendly atmosphere important.
And since the main color, red, has a slightly dark feeling, I thought it would make it bright. I also read that yellow has a positive effect on people psychologically. Therefore, it was determined that the yellow color would go well with the company's main color, and the two colors were mixed. Also, the red color was placed on a white background at an intersection so that people could imprint the brand color. Since it is not open yet, all the photos are stock photos, but I tried to choose bright and lively pictures as much as possible.
FInal Design
Research & Study
Website - Initial Version
When I was planning the design of this website, I thought that I should try various research to see and use many layouts. This is because I thought it would be the best study to visit and explore the website that is currently in operation before I make the website. So first I started collecting various website materials using Pinterest to see the design of various websites. I selected some of them and followed the design, and applied the parts that I thought were good for the food hall website to the actual design.
I constantly tried to test and research my design when it led to web development. The reason is that I have my own history based on the good points and improvements I found when I used other websites. It means that users' use should be the most important, and the company's website should be the most important product and brand that the company wants to sell. At first, I thought it was too obvious. However, there are moments when I get lost when I focus on design, so I tried not to lose that point.
I was in charge of marketing as well as design at this time, so I needed to use the website more. I went to all the food halls' Instagram and websites with a list of food halls in the United States. It was a time when they learned a lot about how to manage and use the current food hall on the website. Usually, websites were mainly run for online orders, and it was basic to advertise through social media.
However, I tried to focus more on melting our food hall's brand by neglecting that our food hall is an unknown brand that is newly starting. When people first came to the website to visit the food hall, I wanted to create a website where they could fully recognize the food hall's brand.
The design above is an early design version. When I made this version, I only needed a landing page to announce that the opening of the food hall was scheduled soon because it was still before opening. Therefore, the first landing page was produced is that design shown in the picture. Until then, I was working with outside website developers, so various discussions had to take place after designing. Therefore, when I prepared this design, I needed a lot of study and research on my own. In this process, I could learn that communication between designers and developers is important. Therefore, I became interested in coding through this opportunity to understand the developers' work a little more and started learning it little by little.
The design above is an early design version. When I made this version, I only needed a landing page to announce that the opening of the food hall was scheduled soon because it was still before opening. Therefore, the first landing page was produced is that design shown in the picture. Until then, I was working with outside website developers, so various discussions had to take place after designing. Therefore, when I prepared this design, I needed a lot of study and research on my own. In this process, I could learn that communication between designers and developers is important. Therefore, I became interested in coding through this opportunity to understand the developers' work a little more and started learning it little by little.
Designer: Subin Shin
Company: epiQ Food Hall
Goal: Launching Website
Client: epiQ Food Hall
Year: 2020
When I first designed this app, I didn't even know how to design it. So I downloaded and used apps from other food halls that had their own apps, and I downloaded apps from restaurants that were not food halls, which were intended for food delivery. When designing an app, we investigated the layout we needed to know and tried various designs (Sketch/Wireframes), which enabled us to complete these designs. I didn't even know exactly about UX design at this time. But I instinctively conducted various surveys to get to my end, which were the methods of research conducted by UX designers. While designing this app, I could learn many things, which is the result of my decision to learn UX design.
Navigating Design Challenges for Website Pre-Launch
SUPPORT
During the process of designing the food hall website, we encountered a unique set of challenges. As the food hall had not yet opened its doors, we faced the obstacle of limited assets, such as food and venue images, to incorporate into the website. To overcome this hurdle, I collaborated closely with the marketing team to devise a strategic approach. Our primary objective was to inform people about the upcoming grand opening while providing enticing glimpses of the culinary delights and entertainment they could soon enjoy at the food hall.
By partnering with the marketing team, we carefully crafted the content to create a sense of anticipation and excitement among potential visitors. The website's design and layout were optimized to showcase the food hall's vibrant and inviting atmosphere, despite the absence of actual venue images. We used creative graphics and illustrations to represent the diverse cuisines and entertainment offerings that awaited patrons. Additionally, we included engaging text and catchy headlines to build intrigue and curiosity, prompting users to look forward to the food hall's launch.
Through this collaborative effort, we successfully developed a captivating and informative website that effectively communicated the food hall's value proposition to the target audience. Despite the initial limitations, our strategic approach enabled us to generate buzz and anticipation for the food hall's opening, setting the stage for a successful launch and a memorable dining and entertainment experience for our visitors.
At that time, there were many difficulties when I designed this mobile app UI. Because there were few food halls with mobile apps. The conclusion was that food halls generally place orders through websites when ordering online, and use external delivery companies separately, so there is less need to use the app. At the time, however, the owner of the company was passionate about developing mobile apps. Therefore, I started planning and did research like this. First of all, I wanted to use existing apps that are currently run by food halls or in other F&B industries.
However, mobile apps owned by existing food halls were relatively poor in the rain for apps currently in other F&B industries. But as much as I could, I looked into what features the apps had. In particular, I tried to identify their good points and improvements. In addition, I could study various mobile app layout designs using Pinterest, and based on this, I could get many ideas. Like web design, I have created wireframes for some of the ideas, and if there are practical ideas, I have used them in real design.
Mobile Delivery App - UI Design
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