Swiggy vs Zomato(Delivery), A Heuristic Evaluation

Swiggy and Zomato have grown to become India’s giants for food delivering and ordering. Personally, while ordering I tend to switch between Zomato and Swiggy now and then. It’s on one of these days that it occurred to me that a quick heuristic analysis might help me choose better. Here is a quick comparison of the 2 apps based on Jakob Neilsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics.

#1: Visibility of system status

Zomato and Swiggy have visible system status at all times as far as I have observed.

Zomato includes 2 toggle switches for veg and non-veg whereas Swiggy has the “veg only” toggle which filters food choices.

The items in the cart, if any, are always visible as a card at the bottom of the screen. The menu shows “+ ADD” if the item isn’t selected else it shows the count of the item with the “-i+”.

While Zomato’s cart is visible even on exiting from the selected restaurant, Swiggy’s cart isn’t visible once we exit the restaurant, and is visible only on selecting a restaurant again or while searching for a dish/item.

#2: Match between system and the real world

Both the applications have labeled icons and offer simple and understandable phrasing to the user.

#3: User control and freedom

In both applications customize orders, repeat previous customizations, provide instructions to restaurants, choose a tip amount, select an offer that may apply, and choose any payment method and delete an item from the cart.

Zomato allows users to opt-in for cutlery with the message “please select if completely necessary”

Swiggy, since the pandemic, allows users to opt for no contact delivery.

order flow for zomato (1)order flow for zomato (2)Order flow for Swiggy

#4: Consistency and standards

Swiggy and zomato have the following typefaces and color palette which is maintained throughout the application.

Typeface and color palette for Zomato and Swiggy

#5: Error prevention

Here, let’s consider the case when we quit the app and open it again to continue ordering or trying to order from 2 restaurants at the same time.

When I tried this on Zomato, if I add an item from a different restaurant that isn’t currently in the cart, it switches the restaurant order without a warning and the previous order is lost.

For Swiggy, the cart’s restaurant is present always while browsing through restaurants, and on trying to order from a different restaurant, it provides a modal box warning with an option to switch restaurants.

#6: Recognition rather than recall

Both the applications perform well here as they have well-labeled icons which guide the user through the ordering process. The user profiles in both the applications have well-labeled icons too and each has a specific call for action.

#7: Flexibility and efficiency of use

Both the applications are flexible and efficient as it allows freedom to:

1. Choose to tip any amount or choose not to tip
2. Choose from any coupons from the list of offers

One of my favorite features of the application is “Recent Orders” which allows us to order our favorite items again.

REORDER OPTION

#8: Aesthetic and minimalist design

Swiggy and Zomato have one of the most aesthetic and appealing designs in modern UI layouts.

Zomato’s icons are filled whereas Swiggy uses outlined icons. Zomato’s menu icons are more rounded than Swiggy but both the applications have a high signal-noise ratio without a lot of distractions ( except the offers they have in the respective applications )

As the application needs to present images of varied hues and shades, the white background allows the design to be minimalistic.

Their landing pages are pretty similar in the structural breakdown too.

#9: Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

Here, I’m considering the use case of canceling an order after placing it. Zomato doesn’t allow cancellation of orders with refund and it provides this information in its red color while placing the order whereas

Swiggy allows cancellation of order for 60 seconds after placing it and has a dedicated section to explain its cancellation policy which keeps its user well informed.

#10: Help and documentation

Zomato has a section named ‘ Online ordering help’ in the user’s profile which is a virtual personal assistance bot. The navigation to this help menu wasn’t very intuitive as it did take me some time to know that the default user profile mug image would guide to user’s profile screen.

Swiggy’s help and documentation are clearer by intention as the user profile icon is present on the navigation bar and on-click, help option is visible distinctly with diverse subsections which helps guide its user better.

Through the process of evaluation, I was able to understand the UI of both the applications in greater detail and got a fairer sense of Jakob’s Heuristic principles. Do let me know your feedback in the comments.

You can reach out to me on LinkedIn :

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahana-ramesh-1822a81a0/