ASL in the McDonald’s
Drive Thru
How can we make the drive thru a more accessible and inviting experience for Deaf customers while minimizing impact to important service-tracking metrics?
Duration
Oct - Dec 2025
Client
McDonald's
Services
Challenge
Deaf People Hate the Drive Thru
They can’t order from the speaker
They throw off the sequence of orders
Employees are frustrated with them for messing up order metrics
Design Challenge:
How can we make the drive thru a more accessible and inviting experience for Deaf customers while minimizing impact to important service-tracking metrics?
User Journey
Satisfaction Decreases with Time
Background
Using Aira in the Drive Thru
Aira ASL provides on-demand American Sign Language interpreting services to Deaf customers:
30 interviews measuring sentiment
5 US cities (emphasis on high Deaf population)
Assess the efficacy and viability of this drive thru solution
Research
Strategic Approach
Initial Findings
Large Learning Curve
Aira ASL provides on-demand American Sign Language interpreting services to Deaf customers:
30 interviews measuring sentiment
5 US cities (emphasis on high Deaf population)
Assess the efficacy and viability of this drive thru solution
Tension
They Can't Hear Me!
Deaf people skip the speaker, so many didn’t know where to hold their phone.
Some forgot to disconnect from car bluetooth which impacted interpreter communication.
For many, ASL was their first language, so all instructions should be bilingual.
Designs
Onboarding Improvements
I worked with another UX Designer to:
Introduce a tips page for proper use with feedback implemented
Redesign the home page to make the McDonald’s partnership clearer
Results
UX Fixes Resolved the Learning Curve
By the fifth city,
the first Aira use was rated nearly the same as the second
the second Aira visit was rated 20% higher than the control
Impact & Learning
40% Improvement in Satisfaction
Findings were brought to McDonald’s Executives for review at the start of 2026.
Still waiting to hear to what extent our service will be implemented
McDonald’s user research team has been hopeful
We are still waiting on metrics for overall business impact once it has gone to a widespread release.
This project showed me the importance of visually communicating key concepts -
Users have different levels of fluency, so designs should be obvious without captioning
Future improvement: Test the employee experience and track those metrics to build a better business case for buy-in.