01 - Getting started
Hypothesis
I believe that people don’t use recipe apps on a daily basis but more for special occasions when they want to impress guests or cater for guests that have specific dietary requirements.
I believe most people don’t have much time to cook so resort to quick and easy foods over well thought out interesting meals. I think that current sites offer an over whelming amount of choice and like a restaurant it is hard to choose.
I believe there will be occasions outside of this where chefs want to be inspired beyond their daily cooking routines and that they will have certain criteria they are bound by on this hunt. For example, what is in the fridge or what they are allowed to eat because of dietary requirements.
02 - Target market
Personas
Louise
“I never know what to cook when I get home!”
Interests: Reduce mental load of cooking, Speed up food prep time
Tech frustrations: Ugly, boring designs, Pop ups
Job: Social advisor
Nationality: Danish
Location: Vejle Denmark
Gender: Female
Age Group: 20-30
Relationship: Married
Kids: 1
Bio:
Louise is a fun woman with a twinkle in her eye and a good sense of humour. She enjoys socialising and tells things straight. She doesn’t cook too frequently as her husband is the main chef in the house but when she does she uses an app to give her inspiration.
Food is a passion of her and her husbands and they both enjoy spare time after work to spend with the kids or to make a nice meal.
She enjoys going to gigs and concerts with her husband although says it happens all too infrequently these days and would like it to happen more. Music is a fairly large part of the couple’s life and the husband is in a band and plays regularly.
Will
“I love cooking but I'm just so busy”
Interests: healthy food, Fun to cook, Destress time
Tech frustrations: Sprawling article, Time wasting
Job: Head of design
Nationality: British
Location: London England
Gender: Male
Age Group: 40-45
Relationship: Married
Kids: 2
Will is an eccentric introvert as he would describe himself. He love his music and good food but not so much the outdoor. He has a good job and works hard, often long hours and evenings so doesn’t always get the time to cook a full meal but when he does he enjoys taking his time and doing it properly. Will has meal boxes delivered in the week days so increase inspiration and efficiency.
Will enjoys socializing with friends on a night out or inviting them over. He has a passion for cars and has a collection in his garage. He is a perfectionist and enjoys spending time making thing clean and just right.
Will enjoys his food and fashion as well, spending money on quality ingredients are rare designer clothing.
Research gathering
Interviews
| Questions | Participant 1 | Participant 2 | Participant 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
How often do you cook?
|
Often | Sometimes | Most nights |
|
Do you enjoy cooking?
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
|
How often do you use recipes vs freestyle cooking?
|
Rarely | Mostly freestyle | Recipes mainly |
|
When would you be most likely to follow a recipe?
|
Special occasions | Weekends and special events | Mostly using recipes but I freestyle when I'm in a hurry |
|
Where would you get recipes from?
|
Internet | Books and internet | Books and internet |
|
How would you get inspired when thinking of something to cook?
|
instagram or search | Search online | Books search and instagram saved items |
|
How much time would you allocate to cooking an evening meal each day?
|
1 hour | 30 mins | 1 hour + |
|
How do you find recipes sites our app in usability terms? What’s good or bad?
|
Not bad but it can be hard to follow a recipe when it waffles on poetically | Hate them, food never turns out how it should and the recipes should just get to the point | Great, I find it easy to follow them and think the sites are pretty usable |
03 - Define
Requirements
Following a series of interviews with users to establish how the cooked, why, where and when I was able to create a set of requirements for the brief in order to pin down and focus the features needed.
- Who is the user? People who enjoy food and want to cook good food
- When will they be using it? Weekends and special occasions
- What major goals and tasks will users want/need to accomplish? Cook good food simply and quickly
- What will the product do? Provide user with a catalogue of recipes that are easy to follow based on ingredients search criteria
- Where will the product be used? Kitchen primarily
- What kind of information will be created, entered, or featured in the product? Entered = ingredients Created = recipes, simple and direct Features = saved ingredients
- What particular business goals are you trying to achieve with this product launch? Referrals and advertising
- How do you find recipes sites or apps in usability terms? What's good and what's bad?
04 - Mockups
Testing
As part of early development i mocked up wireframes on pen and paper and use Marvel app to prototype them into a usable test mule. I wouldn’t do it again as it was troublesom and not as fast as it could have been but the idea of getting some feedback quickly was a good one.
There were a total of 5 test participants who all gave valuable input to the basic design lay out. There was some confusion in the process though as a result of using such a rudimentary prototyping tool so there was a degree of interpretation to be had with the answers. Sometimes the users inability to carry out the task was not the fault of the deisgn.
Testing
Feedback
| Name | Age | Location | Errors/feedback |
|---|---|---|---|
Thomas |
30-35 | Vejle Denmark |
|
Gary |
40-45 | Halifax UK |
|
David |
35-40 | Vejle Denmark |
|
Marie |
30-35 | Vejle Denmark | Could not get home |
Louise |
25-30 | Vejle Denmark |
|
02 - Design
Wireframing
06 - Feedback
Preference testing
- Categorised ingredients 14%
- Uncategorised ingredients 86%
- Single display 0%
- Multiple display 100%
08 - Wireframing
High fidelity
Having gathered a body of evidence to back up my deisgn and design decisons I was able to move confidently on the high fidelity creations and begin adding colour and final tweaks to the design. I was not finished at this stage as the work still needed review from users oce it had more life and they could navigate it more easily
Feedback
Feedback
Following the high fidelity wireframe I sought the opinion of some designers and user to get to outside input on the work done so far. There were various critiques and praise for the wokr I had done and I sifted out the non constructive criticism to retain the praise and useful feedback that I could take inspiration from and improve the product from.
- The timer on the first page looks awesome, I wish I could pull off something like that Maybe the shadow could use a little blur but I love it either way
- Your logo is great, fits it perfectly
- I like the little touches like the outlined veggies at the bottom of the pages, it's a neat attention to detail
- Your icons and images both have a clear and consistent style to them and fit the app well
- I like the colors and the way the app looks.
- The style corresponds to the overall mood.
- I like the fonts you used. Especially the one in headings. Looks very nice, is easy to read, and is aesthetically pleasing to read.
- The CTA feels a little pale. It stands out because of size but I think swapping those greens could make the CTA pop
- I'm not sure if the timer icon in the search results is necessary, I like how you have it in the favourites section. It gets the point across without drawing as much attention
- I like the Fry, Boil, etc designators for the steps of the recipe but the font feels really big compared to the step directions
- Also in the search results, I think shortening the time requirement to "4 hours total" would read a little easier than "is how long you need"
- There isn't a big difference in your enabled star ratings vs disabled, maybe the disabled could just be outlined instead of the paler green?
- Pictures frames don't fit this app, I would change them, and give them shape.
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