Foresice
Research, UX, Wireframing and UI
About Foresice
Foresice is a forecasting tool based on past data that give users the ability to better plan their future work flow. It allows restaurant and bar managers manage their staff, inventory, plan events and promotions.
Scope of the project
This was a feature we began to develop as part of an existing dashboard. We offered statistics and insights about the consumption of beverages and food in venue, and we wanted to give the users the value of being able to plan for the future. Whether on a weekly, monthly or yearly scope.
Research and testing
Since we didn’t not know what information was important to the users, we want to test if our idea gave value.
We used a high-fidelity prototype tested users who are bar managers or bar owners. We focused on these questions
1. Do users find this feature useful?
Most found it very useful
2. What kind of data is important to them?
to be able to know which days to invest their energy in, and how to plan for inventory and staff
3. How do they plan? strategic vs operational?
Depending on the scope, weekly or monthly was strategic yearly operational, but both were useful
4. What time range do they work with?
All were useful for different needs, they asked for a quarterly view
5. How to visually display forecast?
They did like the calendar big number view and preferred it on top, while still found use for the graph below
7. Mobile or desktop?
Desktop, as they usually manage these things from the office
8. Separate app, or feature of current dashboard?
Still to be determined
UX / Wireframes
Researched different companies that have forecasting tools from agriculture to flights, and developed an idea that I felt fitting.
While staying aligned to the existing design of the dashboard, I looked for a solution that could break away from a graph heavy dashboard while making the information easy to find.
The end result combined both the calendar view showing the predicted revenue and a graph with trends and more in-depth information such as weather predictions and scheduled events.
UI Design
Yearly view, shows the current year, and offers a prediction based on the month.
The graph view allows the user to see its revenue for the previous year while showing its prediction for the coming months. In the case that the month has already passed it will show the actual earnings for that month.
Users who tested found this view useful for their yearly planning, setting up goals and figuring out which time of the year they can boost their profits, as well as set into place promotions.
Monthly view, shows predictions per week of that month.
Users can plan a bit ahead, figure out certain logistics if working with outside vendors, or rationing out inventory.
It’s a great way for the manager to assess where they were last year at this time and what changes he can put into place to push towards higher margins.
The graph is viewed as a bar graph for each week, with the option to compare to previews period, and hover for more specific details.
Weekly view lays out the days of the upcoming week.
This view is helpful on an operational aspect.
Allowing the user to plan for the weeks staff and figure out what inventory he needs to order to prepare based on the weeks events.