I teamed up with a group of colleagues designers/friends to design a cooking app that will allow users to find and share recipes, it provides a recipe generator based on ingredients in your home, as well as an expiry date tracker.
My Role and Responsibilities
USER
EXPERIENCE DESIGNER
Timeline
3 weeks
Year
2020
Problem
Being able to make 1 meal/ week using ingredients already in their home Forgetting what food is in the fridge Lack of inspiration & skill around what to make
Goal
To provide a solution that helps our users keep track of the groceries they’ve purchased so that they are able to get a better cooking habit and so that they don’t waste food, time, and money
Tools
Figma . Miro . InVision . Google Slide . Photoshop
A recent study shows that the global food waste issue has not been alleviated despite the fact that food and beverage companies have reduced waste during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One interesting finding from Hellmann’s Canada in 2021 explained that a couple of key reasons behind this phenomenon are that people are forgetting what food is in the fridge and that people lack inspiration and skill in regards to what to cook.
We believe that this app will allow users to find new and interesting recipes that fit their needs by utilizing the ingredients that they have at home, as well as keeping track of the expiration date of the food. As a result, we believe this app will also help cut down on the general food waste of society
Proto Persona
We created a proto persona, to help us to understand our users, to get a better perspective in the user’s everyday lives. We planned and conducted interviews and the findings led to the definition and ideation of the solution. Which we prototyped, tested and iterated to for the final design.
As a team, we planned to conduct 5 interviews and 25 surveys with users in Canada. At the end, we clearly identify their need in everyday lives. Then determined steps to solve them.
25
Survey Responses
05
Users Interviews
Data Analysis: Affinity Diagram
We analyzed the research data that we had gathered by using the affinity mapping technique, and assembled 6 categories:
Cooking Process
Grocery Process
Enjoyment / Skill of Cooking
Food Waste / Way to prevent
Health and Nutrition
Demographics
Cooking Process
Grocery Process
Enjoyment / Skill of Cooking
Food Waste / Way to prevent
Health and Nutrition
Demographics
Problem Statement
We believe generating recipes based on the food people have in the fridge for busy professionals will result in people wasting less food and finding new, quick, quality recipes to add to their repertoire.
A recent study shows that the global food waste issue has not been alleviated despite the fact that food and beverage companies have reduced waste during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One interesting finding from Hellmann’s Canada in 2021 explained that a couple of key reasons behind this phenomenon are that people are forgetting what food is in the fridge and that people lack inspiration and skill in regards to what to cook.
We believe that this app will allow users to find new and interesting recipes that fit their needs by utilizing the ingredients that they have at home, as well as keeping track of the expiration date of the food. As a result, we believe this app will also help cut down on the general food waste in society
At this point of the project, we had a more understanding of our users’ need. Thus the creation of our user persona, Rachel James. Knowing her pain points and goals we began to work on the App design that that assists users minimize food waste
User Persona
Storyboard
User Insight: Point of View (POV)
Rachel James needs help with meal planning because she has a busy schedule and doesn’t want to waste money or time buying groceries every day.
After receiving our responses from the survey and the interviews, we discovered that the majority of the users do not have sufficient time to cook intricate meals or buy quality ingredients on a frequent basis. Users also actively try to spend the least amount of money possible on their groceries.
Therefore, we believe that people accidentally throw food away because they lose track of the things that they have and that we might be able to help if they can keep track of the food they have and what they can make with it.
Based on user insight and research, we can help users not waste food or money by helping them keep track of what food they’ve already purchased and generating recipes for them based on what they already have.
Brainstorming
After studying our competitors, learning the DO’s and DON’Ts and having a good understanding of our users needs. As a team, we conducted an ideation and brainstorming session using the “I Like, I Wish, What If” method*.
*I Like, I Wish, What If: Is a constructive design thinking activity that help to gather information or ideas. This encourages participants to share ideas openly (I Like), before discussing about what could be improved (I Wish), then elaborate on what other features or elements that could take the project to next level
I Like...
I Wish...
What If...
Feature Prioritization
Competitive Analysis
Direct Competitors (5)
Indirect Competitors (2)
SWOT
(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)
After completing the prototype, we conducted usability tests. We discovered some words were too small to read, Users were confused between buttons & graphics. Few buttons were confusing, also not visible and Users didn’t the onboarding.
