Dinner Twist | Local, Healthy, Delivered

Dinner Twist is a meal kit service that offers convenience and health to Australia customers. Customers receive a box of fresh, seasonal and local produce along with matching recipes.

Outline

Dinner Twist was a small-scale start-up that had achieved great success in the absence of competitors in the area. However, with bigger, international competitors entering the market the client identified an urgent need to improve the brand and the website, both for customers and internal users.

Deliverables

Analyse and review the existing website, content, checkout process, tone of voice. Review customer subscription process, map out touch points and retention strategy
Conduct a competitor analysis to develop a market position.
Research demographics and user stories to determine primary and secondary users.

Develop unique market, brand identity and customer acquisition / retention strategies.

Prototype several website versions focusing on click through, conversions and customer satisfaction.

A/B test prototypes to develop an optimal design.
Create a high fidelity prototype to test nuanced user experience.

Create a high fidelity prototype to test nuanced user experience.
Design a high functioning back-end management system. Map the integration of dynamic content and the implementation of existing content into the new system.

Current Issues

Brand Identity Dated and poorly executed; the brand conveyed small and local but undermined the high price point and the intended target market expectations.
Usability Although traditionally structured, the content was difficult to find and customer requirements were not clearly defined.
Accessible The website was responsive however, it was not optimised for mobile use, which made up to 60% of its use rate.
Completed Actions High traffic with a large drop rate due to the confusing checkout process.
Credibility A lack of brand cohesion and awareness. There was also limited content such as articles and videos.
Dinner Twist web before 2
Dinner Twist web before 1
Dinner Twist CMS 1
Dinner Twist CMS 2

Existing CMS

The client was currently using WordPress to manage the accounts and Excel to manage orders. They wanted a bespoke back-end management system to automate all of the manual tasks he was currently performing.
  • Lack of Automation
  • Bloated/Irrelevant features
  • Lack of customisation
  • Slow load times
  • Lack of integration
  • Steep learning curve
  • Miss-labelling (using substitute labels)
  • High risk of user error
  • Lack of permission levels
  • Sensitive data risks
  • Missing Key Operations

Competitors

Having initially cornered the market for this type of service Dinner Twist they were now experiencing an influx of highly resourceful competitors.
Blue Apron
Gousto
Hello Fresh logo
Menulog

Primary Competitors

Offer the same service; fresh ingredients with recipes, in the same location.
Dietlicious logo
Weight Watchers logo
Lite n' easy logo

Secondary Competitors

Offer pre-made food delivered on a subscription basis with a healthy angle.
Uber eats logo
Deliveroo Logo
Delivery Hero logo

Supplementary Competitors

Offer food delivery from an assortment of local restaurants on an order-by-order basis.

Playing to your strengths

Dinner Twist had a unique advantage over its competitors: It was local. Not only that but it was based in Fremantle, widely known for its fresh, farm-to-table produce.

Working female image

Demographics
30 year old, female, mother/couple, working professional, renting, Caucasian, middle class, Perth resident, politically indifferent.

Psychographics
Ecologically concerned, highly open, medium altruism, nutritionally focused, life/work balance concerns. ESFJ.

Priorities
Children, work, partner, friends, immediate family, social – in that order.

Technology
IT – 40%, Software – 60%, Mobile – 80%, Social – 90%. Mobile – iPhone (Safari), Desktop – iMac (Safari)

Goals (with products)
Helpful, entertaining, motivating, aesthetic, safety, speed, reliable, and convenient.

Avoid
Poor design, unnecessary complication or control, commercialising/wholesaling, frequent contact, being too formal, lack of information or expertise.

Logo Redesign

Simple, clean and elegant. Usable as a glyph overlay but also as a complex visual.

The new logo represents restaurant quality, with little fuss with a sprinkle of an innovative tech company.

Dinner Twist Logo
DInner-Twist-brand-book-1

Brand Guides

Primarily neutral colour, the brand also heavily relied on imagery and allowed for vibrant spot colours, with orange as the primary. 

Dinner-Twist-Product1.1
Dinner-Twist-Product1.2
Dinner-Twist-Product1.3

Brand in action

Dinner Twist’s branding extended to numerous spaces. However, importantly for the brand, they always encouraged reuse first, and recycling second. The only waste, was what the kids left on their plates. 

Dinner Twist cars 2

Reusable Templates

All of Dinner Twists content needed to be created in a reusable format; they opted for Apple Pages. 

This could be used, and modified weekly by the staff to constantly stay connected with their customers. 

Diiner-Twist-Flyers

Invited home

It was imperative that the brand was aesthetically sensible and pleasing to the customer, since it will be visible in the intimate space of the home.

To be hear you have to be an extension of the customer. 

Staying in touch

One of the most regular touchpoints for DT was emails.

We created dozens of branded email templates that could be populated with regularly updated content. 

Dinner Twist email
Dinner Twist devices

Website Design

Both the front and backend of the website were redesigned. Fully responsive, the design was clean, and accessible with a focus on clarity in both visuals and message. 

Design Goals (User-Facing Website)

  • Simplify & streamline checkout.
  • Convey brand values and USPs.
  • Convey the service and value proposition.
  • Make use of dynamic content in multi-platform touchpoints.
  • Make content shareable and recommendable.
  • Design a simple website that avoids purchase barriers.

Content Mapping

Dinner Twist would now offer three models:

  • Weekly Subscription
  • On-Demand
  • One-off Orders
Three box options for 2, 4 or 6 people:
  • Family Box
  • Vegetarian Box
  • Foodie Box
  • Add-ons such as fruit & toiletries

Also offering retention options:

  • Gift Cards
  • Gift Boxes
  • Referral Discounts
  • Loyalty Program

User flow and IA

Dinner Twist had a very niche user base, so the website could be highly tailored to their preferences and habits. Acknowledging that you usually only get one chance to acquire a new customer, we structured the content to account for different states of mind.

i.e. Passing glance, passive curiosity, goal-oriented, inquisitive, sceptical.

Conversion

The way the user engages with the brand is very important. How they react can often be predetermined by their mindset before coming to the website. We attempted to not only account for this, but also influence it.

“Passing Glance”
Time-poor, low trust, indifferent to outcomes.

Response
Large, high-quality, engaging imagery. Interesting parallax effects, human faces & testimonials.

“Passive Curiosity”
Time-rich user, medium expectations, indecisive.

Response
Rich engaging content, simple value propositions, flexible options.

“Goal Oriented”
Time-poor, high expectations, decisive, impatient, motivated.

Response
Checkout from landing page (above fold), auto- populated checkout, 3 step process.

“Inquisitive”
Time-rich, medium expectations, positive mindset.

Response
Testimonials, about us page, recipes and Chefs section, positive tone of voice.

“Sceptical”
Time-rich, very high expectations, negative mindset.

Response
Flexible options, suppliers section, quality description $per meal breakdown.

Initial Designs

The first approach I took was hyper-simple with bold, unforgiving colours explaining the service in 3 steps. This focus on clarity quickly became obsolete when the consumers became familiar with competitors, so we went in another direction.

Local Produce | Simple Selection | Free Delivery | Call to Action

Revised Designs

After reviewing feedback from our test users we realised we weren’t accounting for enough variability in the user’s objectives.


We built each panel of the previous design into separate pages. This goes into more detail and provides greater conversion opportunities.

Dinner Twist website
Dinner Twist retention

User Retention

The user dashboard has been optimised for mobile, as we found the vast majority of account holders would change their account settings from their phones. We also set up a number of mechanisms to maintain user experience.
  • Retention emails
  • Preview of other box subscriptions
  • Optimised mobile user interface
  • Share & rewards program
  • Push notifications – with opt-out
  • Clear scheduling with calendar view, with the option to pause individual weeks
  • Simple linear navigation
  • Uncluttered and clear content structure
  • Up-sell placed next to edit state with 1 click add.
  • Pause instead of cancelling
  • Dynamic preview of next week’s recipes with
  • Instructional videos by celebrity chefs
  • Dietary preferences settings
  • Simple billing breakdown with tax summary PDF
  • Competition announcements and prompts for social

Management Dashboard

The dashboard mimicked WordPress to decrease the learning curve. But the navigation and content structure was tailored specifically for their processes.

  • A consistent search and filtering system across each relevant section.
  • A modular recipe/box pairing system.
  • New permissions and accountability for change management.
  • A secure third-party manager for sensitive information.
  • Automation for order management and processing to the warehouse.
Dinner-Twist-dashboard

Final Outcome

The market, internationally, has become saturated, but Perth’s Dinner Twist has the advantage of being local and the first mover.

The website launched with huge success: they have retained their customer base with the capacity to scale.

We feel that the anti-chain and local approach will resonate with people going forward. 

Dinner Twist Final Image

“Michael is hands down, one of the most impressive design professionals I have ever worked with. His approach is grounded in logic, data and problem-solving and works relentlessly to get under the skin of the customer to ensure that his solution is the best possible.”

Holly Dawson

Let’s start right now!

We have experience at every level of brand development; building many of my client’s identities from conception to market saturation.

Talk to us about strapping a rocket to your roadmap. 🚀

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