Mellow Mushroom + UserTesting

For over 40 years, Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers have been serving up fresh, stone-baked pizzas made to order in more than 180 restaurants in 21 states across America.

Visual arts are ingrained in the chain’s culture. Its restaurants are predominantly locally-owned and operated and all locations feature artwork by local artists. Their online and mobile ordering app, however, lacked the same visual and engaging experience. Additionally, they were not intuitive to use.

Given that today's customers increasingly expect flawless digital experiences when ordering, Mellow Mushroom knew that it was imperative for them to close these experience gaps to keep customers coming back happy.

Together with their partners at The Coca-Cola Company, they went straight to the company they knew could help—UserTesting. They needed fast feedback and actionable human insights to inform their decisions on what and how to fix the digital experiences for their online and mobile customers.

Working with UserTesting’s Professional Services team, the Mellow Mushroom and Coca-Cola teams conducted a series of moderated studies. Each study was created, launched, and completed within a matter of hours, providing fast feedback to address Mellow Mushroom’s specific needs across every key aspect of its online ordering and delivery process.

Among the key insights they discovered was that ordering from a mobile device was time-consuming, too text-heavy, and didn’t align with Mellow Mushroom's unique brand identity.

Study contributors struggled to understand options in the ordering process, or even if their location accepted delivery or curbside pickup.

The user insights helped shape Mellow Mushroom’s redesign of its digital experience to be more visual and intuitive, making the ordering process faster and easier to navigate.

For example, ordering online previously at Mellow Mushroom took a minimum of 16 keystrokes. On the new platform, guests can complete an order in as few as four keystrokes.

A follow-up UserTesting study found the new design fit contributor impressions of Mellow Mushroom as a fun and whimsical restaurant.

Since launching the new platform, Mellow Mushroom has seen mobile orders double, and customer satisfaction scores increase.

Mellow Mushroom is also using the improved digital experience as a cornerstone for its largest-ever branding campaign, the “Art of Mellow.” Ordering online enters customers in sweepstakes to win a piece of signature art and other prizes.