Quinn KesslerMarketing student
“Tap to pay really blows not having it. Physical card is a big downside.”
Taps to pay about 99% of the time and once couldn’t pay without a physical card, so a stranger covered him. Also: “Their hours are hit or miss.”
Andy’s Food Truck
Andy’s serves a chicken katsu its regulars swear by, from a truck with no signage, a handwritten menu, and no tap to pay. We designed a mobile ordering app that lets students order ahead, pay the way they already do, and know when their food is ready, without losing the truck’s homemade feel.
- My role
- UX researcher & designer on a team of four
- Timeline
- Fall 2026 · IDM 215
- Partner
- Andy’s, a family-run food truck by Buckley Green, Drexel
- Methods
- Field observation, user interviews, affinity mapping, persona, journey map, sketching, task flow storyboards, paper prototype testing
- Tools
- Figma, FigJam, Qualtrics
Paper-tested · mid-fi prototype built · usability test next
The problem
Great food, easy to miss
Andy’s has loyal regulars and friendly owners. But the truck has no branding, the menu is a small handwritten sheet of green paper you have to stand at the window to read, there are no set hours or online presence, and it only takes cash and physical cards.
The owner wants more customers during the lunch rush. Our brief: find out what’s keeping people away, then design an app that fixes it.
Our goal: help Drexel students order ahead, pay the way they already do, and know when their food is ready, without losing the truck’s homemade feel.
01 · Observation
Fly on the wall
Each of us watched the truck during a different part of the day. I took the 2:15–3 pm slot, after the lunch rush.
- Regulars walked straight up without looking at the menu. First-timers hovered for up to three minutes trying to read it.
- With no app or website, every order was said out loud at the window.
- One customer tried to pay with his phone. The owner pointed at the “no tap, no payment apps, no Zelle” sign and he had to dig out a card. A moment where Andy’s could lose a sale.
- Orders came out in five to seven minutes, called out the window by name.
02 · Interviews
Three regulars, one order
I interviewed three Drexel students who eat at Andy’s once or twice a month. Every one of them orders the chicken katsu.
Sports business student
“The truck is ugly but has character.”
Comes for the value and the owners: “Good food, good people.” Pays with Apple Pay everywhere else, and thinks an eye-catching poster alone would bring in more people.
Data science student
Wants to go more. His only complaint is the hours.
Orders DoorDash every day because it saves time. The food isn’t what holds him back, the uncertainty is.
- Payment is the biggest pain pointAll three use iPhones and two of three usually pay with Apple Pay or tap. No tap to pay is costing Andy’s business.
- Hours are unclearTwo of three named the hours as their main complaint.
- Heavy delivery-app usersAll three pay for Uber One or DashPass. They expect deals, speed and saved payment in one place.
- Charm, rough lookThey love the mom-and-pop feel, but the truck reads as run-down and is easy to walk past.
03 · Synthesis
Affinity map
We put every observation and interview finding on a sticky and grouped them three ways: what customers need, what they’d want from an app, and where Andy’s loses to its competitors. My notes fed the value props, user needs, payment and competition columns.
- Make the menu readableShow the full menu, with photos and the sauces and add-ons everyone loves but nobody can find.
- Order ahead, know when it’s readyA pickup ETA and a text when the order is up, so students between classes can plan around it.
- Hours and location, liveOwner-editable hours, location and menu updates.
- Pay without a walletA secure card on file, so “no tap to pay” stops being a dealbreaker.
- A brand worth noticingAn identity that makes the truck recognizable from across Buckley Green.
04 · Persona & journey
Lilly Jones is a busy Drexel student with 20 minutes before her next class. The team mapped her through an ideal visit with the app, from discovering Andy’s to eating on the green.
- How might we…let students order ahead between classes so they don’t wait at the window?
- How might we…make paying as fast as the apps they already use?
- How might we…make the menu, hours and location easy to find before they walk over?
05 · Sketches
Three pages of my own thumbnails, about 30 screens: menu, tracking, payment, receipt, specials, “order ready,” hours, reviews, past orders, favorites, an Our Story page, and a map with directions.
06 · Priorities
Order, pay, pick up
We scored every idea on whether it was New, Useful and Feasible, then focused the first version on three jobs.
Order
A digital menu with categories, prices and descriptions. Customization and add-ons. Guest checkout, with an optional account for rewards.
Pay
Apple Pay and saved cards. A quick checkout with as few steps as possible. An order confirmation and receipt.
Pick up
Choosing a pickup time. Order status from received to cooking to ready. Today’s hours and location.
Saved for later: reordering favorites, allergen info, menu search and featured dishes.
07 · Task flow
My flow: tracking & pickup
Each of us storyboarded one task on paper. Mine follows a student between classes from the cart to the window: payment, confirmation, live tracking, walking directions, pickup, and rating the order. Then I tested it with a Drexel student.
- Merge two screensTracking and On the Way showed nearly the same thing. One tracking screen that keeps updating, with Get Directions built in.
- Clearer status stagesReceived, preparing, almost ready, ready, instead of two vague steps.
- Say when things changeNotify the student if the pickup time moves.
- A bigger order numberIt’s what they show at the window, so it should be readable at arm’s length.
08 · Paper testing
“Did it go in my bag?”
Each of us ran a moderated test of the full paper prototype with one participant, using a script I wrote for the team. Mine ordered the katsu and found his profile without much trouble, but he tapped Add to Bag and asked whether it had worked. On paper, nothing changes when you tap. That was my moment: without a cart badge or a confirmation, people lose their sense of progress.
Patterns that showed up across the team’s sessions, and what we changed:
- “Did it go in my bag?”Add a confirmation and a cart badge when an item is added.
- Mistook “Create new account” for sign inMake Sign in go to sign in, and keep guest checkout clear.
- Couldn’t tell buttons from labelsGive buttons a distinct, consistent style.
- Skipped picking a pickup timeMake pickup time its own step and show it on the confirmation.
- Expected Apple Pay at the top of checkoutPut quick-pay options first.
Note to self for next time: let participants get stuck before answering their questions, and watch how they recover.
09 · Deep dive
Rethinking payment for a cash-only truck
Our first checkout said: “Payment will be taken in person. Cash or card only.” It pushed payment back to the window, the exact friction we’d seen in research. I took on the payment screen.
Why it had to change
- ObservedA customer stuck at the window with only his phone.
- HeardTwo of three students usually pay with Apple Pay or tap.
- TestedMy participant expected quick-pay at the top of checkout.
What I changed
- Apple Pay firstThe fastest path goes at the top.
- Saved card as the defaultSelectable, so returning students pay in one tap.
- New card only when neededCard entry stays out of the way until someone asks for it.
- Keep pay at pickupSo cash customers aren’t left out.
The tradeoff: Andy’s has no point-of-sale system, so a real build needs a payment processor. Pay at pickup stays as the fallback while that’s phased in.
10 · Prototype & test
Mid-fi, then measure
We rebuilt the flow in Figma as a mid-fidelity prototype: start and hours, menu, customizing an item, cart, pickup and payment, and the order confirmation. Each of us owned a set of screens.
- Six tasksFind where the truck is today and whether it’s open. Create an account for rewards. Add and customize an item. Change a quantity in the cart. Check out for a 2:45 pm pickup with Apple Pay. Check rewards points.
- Post-test surveyI built it in Qualtrics: the 10-question System Usability Scale, four Andy’s questions tied to the tasks, and two open-ended questions.
11 · Takeaways
Design for the real constraints
A cash-only truck with no point-of-sale meant phasing payment in, not pretending the backend exists.
Feedback builds trust
“Did it go in my bag?” showed that every action needs a visible response, especially around orders and money.
Watch, don’t just ask
Observation caught payment friction that people downplayed in interviews.
Next: high-fidelity UI with the Andy’s brand, order status notifications, and running the usability test to iterate. This page will update as the project moves.