XD Prototype
Year
2021
Project type
Deli & Restaurant Branding
Skills
Branding | Illustration
CHIKCHKA is a culinary revelation, merging the rich heritage of Russian cuisine with contemporary trends. Inspired by the absence of popular Russian restaurants in Israel, CHIKCHKA aims to offer a fresh and trendy dining experience that appeals to a diverse audience. In this project, I've created a concept for a restaurant & deli, designed a brand identity and visual language, including: logo design, icons, patterns and typography lettering. Additionally, I designed brand collateral, including package design for products sold in the deli, TA bags and website design.
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Through a thorough analysis of existing route planning apps and user interviews, the research identified that users were looking for more control over their routes and a more personalized approach to route planning.
To achieve this goal, the project had the following objectives:
Design a UI supporting and balancing different types of uses, allowing efficient daily use and full customization.
Provide users with additional data about their routes, improving their experience and giving them more control over their transportation choices.
The process began with a thorough analysis of existing route planning apps (Read more in CA research tab).Then, I conducted user interviews to gain insights into the pain points of the users and the problems of the existing solutions (Read more in Personas & User Flows tab).
The research concluded that most of the existing apps are limited in their ability to customize routes, leaving users with few options to optimize their route according to their preferences.
Daily use:
This is the basic, repetitive use of the app that is intended for everyday usage. It is designed to be efficient and quick, allowing users to quickly access the information they need, such as bus routes, schedules, and arrival times. This type of use is ideal for commuters or people who rely on public transportation on a regular basis, and need a quick way to plan a route.
Advanced use:
This is a more specific and customizable use of the app that allows users to plan and customize their routes. It is intended for users who want to make specific adjustments to their route according to their needs, plan combined routes or explore alternative options. This type of use is ideal for people who want more control over their route planning.
One of the main challenges was designing a user-friendly and intuitive interface that allows advanced route customization.
To solve this challenge, I introduced the route construction interface through a drag and drop function.Drag & drop makes the process of customization more intuitive and user-friendly, as it allows users to visually construct their route, provides users with a sense of control, and enhances the user experience by making the app more interactive and engaging.
Another main challenge was to design an app that caters to both daily uses and advanced uses. The app needs to provide a fast and efficient flow for daily/regular use, and a full customization flow for users who need to create a new route.
One of my approaches to solve this challenge is an initial onboarding stage, where users are asked to set their preferences on certain aspects of route planning. Using this data, the app is able to provide better and more personalized route suggestions, without the need for full customization, resulting in an efficient daily use experience.
The second approach to solve this challenge is the progressive disclosure approach, design that gradually reveals more information and features as needed, in order to prevent users from feeling overwhelmed. This technique can be used to support both novice and expert users, by providing a simple initial interface with advanced options available if needed.
In Yump, when a user searches for a route, they receive top suggested options based on their set preferences, as well as a tabs bar with general filtering options (Best option, fewest transfers, least walking). When a user wishes to further customize their route suggestions, they can select a suggested route and click "Edit". This leads to an advanced editing screen, enables users to easily construct their route by dragging & dropping, and adjusting various options.
One of the pain points I identified in relation to lack of control, is the lack of information provided to users about their routes.By providing users with more information, they can feel more in control of their decisions, and make educated choices when selecting from a few options.Which leads to another challenge - What information should the app provide, and how does it get that data?
Based on my research, I designed a set of features aimed at providing users with more diverse data about the routes.
These features included:
- Social data reports system: Live bus congestion level, Reliability of buses.
- Route live navigation and real-time arrival estimation
Live bus congestion levels
Based on a social report system, encouraging users who got on their bus to send live reports to help others, the app can provide real-time information about how full the bus is at a given time. Information that can help users who dislike very condensed bus environments choose a different route to their destination, or wait for the next bus.
Bus arrival reliability rates
Based on a social report system, encouraging users to send reports if a bus is running late or doesn't arrive at all, the app is able to provide information about how reliable a specific bus line is. Information that can help users choose a route that is more reliable over more efficient, to avoid the chance of the bus not arriving or being late.
that elevates the festival experience, capturing the attention and interest of the participants, while promoting environmental awareness and encouraging better habits, such as recycling and sustainability.
to support the needs of the participants during the festival, enriches their experience, and reinforces the event's eco-friendly approach by reducing printable materials.
To create a memorable experience for kids and their families, I began by developing a compelling theme and storyline for the festival. Drawing inspiration from various online computer games, I created an imaginary narrative centered around the planet of Laksy, together with unique characters I designed to help immerse participants in the story.
As an environmentally-conscious festival, I wanted to ensure that we minimize waste and reduce our ecological footprint as much as possible. With this in mind, I decided to create a mobile app that would serve as the primary point of interaction for participants. By offering features like the ability to purchase food and drinks, access the festival schedule, and get real-time updates on the activities and game progress, we could significantly reduce the need for printed guidance materials and minimize the overall impact. Additionally, I saw an opportunity to create a more immersive experience for the kids, who are often drawn to mobile games and digital interactions. By designing the app with a fun and engaging user interface, with features like points, leaderboard, team progress bar and more, I hoped to enhance their experience and deepen their engagement with the festival.
The main need points the app tackles are:
Onboarding upon arrival and introduction to the festival
Food and drinks purchase
Individual and team game progress tracking
Live guidance through the festival's games
Home page
Leader Board
Login
Onboarding
Food purchase flow
Drinks purchase flow
App Prototype
Festival Posters
Festival snacks & drinks packaging
Made from recyclable ecological plastic and paper.
Festival Flyers
Introduction Cards
Stickers & Visual assets
This project sparked from this single simple question.
It made me wonder - why are there amazing Italian, Indian, Japanese, Arabic, Mexican and even Georgian restaurants, but no popular Russian restaurants?
Why do most of the Russian restaurants in Israel appeal mainly to the Russian crowd?
This question inspired me to explore and research the need for such a restaurant, and eventually to create a concept answering that need.
My goal was to design a modern and trendy Russian restaurant & deli, that appeals to the younger audience and offers an inviting and fun experience.
Through a visual language that communicates the blend of tradition, quality, and contemporary flair, combined with originality and uniqueness of flavors and aesthetics.
This project sparked from this single simple question.
It made me wonder - why are there amazing Italian, Indian, Japanese, Arabic, Mexican and even Georgian restaurants, but no popular Russian restaurants?
Why do most of the Russian restaurants in Israel appeal mainly to the Russian crowd?
This question inspired me to explore and research the need for such a restaurant, and eventually to create a concept answering that need.
My goal was to design a modern and trendy Russian restaurant & deli, that appeals to the younger audience and offers an inviting and fun experience.
Through a visual language that communicates the blend of tradition, quality, and contemporary flair, combined with originality and uniqueness of flavors and aesthetics.
In order to understand how I can create something that feels authentic and traditional, but also modern and trendy, I had to dive deep into research of Russian design and explore the question of - why don’t Russian restaurants and delicatessens appeal to most people, and especially to younger audiences?
I dove into the research with a design oriented approach, realizing most Russian restaurants and products are designed in a very old and unappealing style. Humans are very visual creatures, and now more than ever we buy stuff with our eyes. Through my research, I explored traditional Russian design, which is characterized by many dense patterns of folk art.
In order to understand how I can create an experience that feels authentic and traditional, but also modern and trendy, I delved deep into research about Russian design. Recognizing the power of visual appeal in today's world, where our purchasing decisions are heavily influenced by aesthetics, I sought to uncover why Russian restaurants and delicatessens often fail to captivate broader audiences. This exploration revealed a wealth of dense patterns and intricate folk art that characterizes the rich tapestry of Russian design heritage.Taking a design-oriented approach to my research, I discovered that many Russian establishments and products remained in a traditional-outdated old style, which may not be as appealing to young people and broader audiences.
As I delved deeper into my exploration, I couldn't help but be mesmerized by the breathtaking beauty of Russian patterns. Each individual element held its own allure. It became clear to me that to overcome this challenge, I needed to reimagine these illustrations and patterns in a modernized style. However, this posed a new dilemma: how could I infuse minimalism and cleanliness into the redesign while preserving the essence of tradition and authenticity? And thus, the foundation of CHIKCHKA's brand identity took shape.
By combining the elements and colors from Russian traditional patterns with a modern, unique, and clean approach, I crafted three key elements that perfectly encapsulate the essence of the brand.
To balance out the colorful and lively pattern elements of the brand, the chosen logo had to be very clean and minimalistic. Furthermore, the name choice was not easy as it had to represent a Russian young and trendy brand.
Out of all the different sketches in my sketchbook, I came to a realization: the perfect logo for CHIKCHKA would be one that exudes a hand-drawn, typographic charm. By opting for a typographic logo, I created a design that allows the illustrations and patterns to stand out, seamlessly blending together. This choice enables the captivating visuals to take center stage, while the typographic logo complements and enhances them.
Taking inspiration from the Russian language, I incorporated "CHIK" and "CHKA", russian suffixes used to make objects sound cuter and smaller, to create the name "CHIKCHKA". Accompanied by the tagline "Beyond Borscht," promising a different and fresh experience beyond your expectations. The logo is versatile, available in two forms to accommodate both width and length formats, and can be used with or without the tagline, adapting seamlessly to various contexts.
Moving to my next challenge - creating eye catching and modern looking, packages for CHIKCHKA’s deli products, while maintaining the Russian feel. Using the elements I created as a part of the brand language, I designed a series of Russian snacks with original tastes called “Sirochik”, and a series of special soups called “Soupchik”. The name CHIKCHKA and its logo were planned to be the base of its product series, which will all end with CHIK or CHKA, according to the Russian grammar. One of the challenges I was facing at this stage was the lack of illustration and pattern variation for the products, therefore I expanded my toolkit and created more illustrations to accompany the main ones.
Sirochik is a frozen cheese dessert covered with chocolate, available in 3 different tastes: Strawberry-Mint, Lemon-Mint and Dark Chocolate with plum-blueberry.
To produce the 3d package, I created custom-made templates.
Soupchik is soup in Russian, this series of 3 soups is available in 3 special tastes:
Sour lemon-mint soup, Sweet and sour carrot soup and Special edition borscht.
Designed to perfectly fit CIKCHKA’s products, to purchase and carry safely home.
The website of CHIKCHKA present’s the brand’s story, as well as the restaurant menu, explanation about the deli and it’s products.
Created on Webflow
© 2023 by Heli Markman