McDonald's
Collaborative Family Ordering
year
2026
duration
3 months
role
Research
Prototype
UIUX
TEAM
6 members
PROJECT BRIEF
McDonald’s is a global quick-service restaurant (QSR) brand serving customers across both physical and digital touchpoints. As digital experiences increasingly shape how families discover, engage with, and return to restaurants, McDonald’s is continuing to expand its relationship with customers beyond the restaurant counter.
In this project, we partnered with the McDonald’s Family and Loyalty Program to explore how new digital touchpoints could strengthen engagement with families. The work focused on identifying opportunities to better support family needs across the customer journey and help grow McDonald’s share with family audiences.
METHOD
For this project, we followed an Expanded Double Diamond framework, which expands the traditional Double Diamond by adding a dedicated problem-framing and strategy phase before solution development, ensuring the team defines the right problem to start with.
INDUSTRY RESEARCH
The influence of digital tools on the dining experience continues to grow, from inspiration, to engagement, through to conversion.
FIELD RESEARCH
We visited 5 McDonald's locations across Chicago and 5 competitor QSRs to
Understand current service workflow
Compare store setups
Conduct on-site stakeholder interviews
From there, we synthesized the following themes:
Shared ordering and payment create coordination burden
In practice, one person becomes the decision-maker, coordinator, and payer for everyone else.
Safe autonomy for children
Child-accessible ordering and self-service signal safety to parents, enabling children’s autonomy and strengthening trust in the QSR.
Consistency across ordering touchpoints matters
Small frictions in ordering and payment compound quickly, undermining overall experiences and brand perception.
OPPORTUNITY
HMW make in-app ordering feel collaborative and low-stress for families and groups?
WORKFLOW
The team designed a Collaborative Family Ordering experience in the current McDonald's App, including three in-app features.
KEY SCREENS
🧑🧑🧒🧒 Group Order
- Set up family profile for recurring group orders - Invite guests into one-time group orders
🍟 Happy Meal UI
- Visual-first, reduced steps - Added interactive elements to make ordering easy for children
💰 In-app Bill Split
- Optional step for group orders - No more switching to bill-pay platform
VALUE PROPOSITION
We believe the newly designed app flow can bring the following value to McDonald's.
Increased AOV (average order value)
Enable customers of all ages to order independently without slowing or stressing the process
Shift McD from an individual, convenience-based visit to a group- and family-oriented dining choice
FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
Step: Saved Preferences
Streamline repeat visits by automatically remembering individual family members' favorite items and customizations.
Stretch: Teen Accounts
Grant teenagers safe purchasing independence by allowing parents to manage and store funds on dedicated profiles.
Leap: Family Campaigns
Utilize family ordering data to design targeted, in-app campaigns that incentivize collective group missions and shared rewards.