overview
Markel Food Group comprises three independent companies, all working to engineer high-quality food processing and bakery equipment and to innovate on the processes involved in food production. These companies provide machinery for food producers and bakeries from large, industrial scales down to small businesses. My team researched the bakery and food production space to create a mobile app that would create value for Markel Food Group while also providing value to their customers.
the problem
How might we introduce a native mobile app that can bring value to both Markel Food Group and their customers?
After some research into Markel, we created a value flow map to understand how stakeholders interact and where it might be valuable to introduce a service.
Based on our observations about how Markel and its smaller, individual companies interact with different stakeholders, we were beginning to see opportunities for introducing a native mobile app to support a new service.
insights
These key takeaways from our initial research helped us decide that augmenting Markel’s support for smaller bakeries would be a good investment and building a mobile app could leverage some existing services and provide a single point of entry for bakery owners.
the solution
AMF is a part of the Markel Group focused on providing innovative equipment solutions for bakeries both large and small.
We focused on AMF specifically, as they have the clearest product line aimed specifically at bakeries, and with a clear emphasis on providing equipment for both large and small bakeries. We could see in our research that while larger, industrial bakeries would have staff to handle specific issues and relationships with manufacturers like AMF, smaller bakeries might have a harder time with this. In addition to the takeaways from our research, we decided to introduce a solution for small bakeries to assist in opening a bakery, getting support for machinery from the manufacturer, and helping to reduce friction in the customer service experience.
Initial brainstorming of what our app should do and the goals of a potential user.
We began by brainstorming what the app might do and sketching early wireframes. We were careful to imagine how built-in smartphone functionality might be useful, including GPS, cameras, and motion sensors.
Initial sketches of the onboarding process for a user opening a new bakery.
Early wireframes allowed us to quickly imagine the onboarding experience for a small business owner looking to open a bakery and plan features that may be helpful. As we finalized features and flows of our app, we moved to digital design tools to get an idea of the interface design.
Some of our medium-fidelity designs that helped us imagine what our app could look like.
Our next step was to refine and focus the features and flow of our app, ensuring that we still meet the needs we identified earlier while remaining uncomplicated. For our next iteration, we changed the visual style to a more bold, professional look and simplified by removing some features that we determined were out of scope and would still meet the needs we identified, like finding a location.
Our final design involved the creation of a splash screen that opens to a landing page for small bakery owners, where they can see information about their store, any AMF equipment they own, orders they’ve placed for new equipment (if they’re just opening their first location or branching out to a new location). Users are also able to swap the home page between bakeries they own using a popup menu.
Navigation includes a shopping tab for users to purchase equipment from AMF, as well as support to easily find answers to common questions and be connected virtually to customer service and potentially technicians.
Onboarding is a simple and straightforward experience that allows users to select preferences for their new bakery that can be included in build-out services as AMF assists in connecting them with resources.
Users can feel empowered knowing they have the support of AMF even before they open their first bakery.
Using cameras in mobile phones also allowed us to leverage AR technology to allow users to scan their bakery space to provide data for AMF to help in planning what equipment will fit and how the blueprint should look.
By creating an app that will support users through opening a bakery, ordering equipment, and requesting service, AMF can reduce the time and energy investment needed on the part of an already-overworked small business owner, help that small business owner feel empowered in their venture, and lessen the impact of service and technical requests on AMF’s end.