Taste
Cooking made easier, and made with what you got.
Background
As busy young professionals who view cooking as a necessity rather than an enjoyable activity, we don’t always have the motivation to get in the kitchen and cook new and exciting things. So the problem we face is how do we make cooking easier, more enjoyable, and engaging.
Logistics
Team Size: Two People
Timeline: 1 Month (February-March 2022)
Contribution
I was responsible for:
Survey Creation, User Interviews, Data Analysis, User Persona, User Flow, Sketching, Wireframes, Design System, High-Fidelity Prototyping
Project Goal
Create a platform that encourages more people to cook more frequently as well as share their creations to inspire their communities to cook too.
User Research
Approach
To learn more about the motivations and habits of people in the kitchen to understand how technology could better encourage them to cook more often. Additionally, find out how technology already integrates into their cooking experience.
Methods
Semi-structured interviews and Surveys (via Google form)
Findings
User Interview Findings
Our interview data was consolidated into an empathy map which showed us that people need a product that allows them to be more confident in the kitchen and make cooking more enjoyable.
Survey Findings
Our survey data aimed to find out how people already incorporate technology into their cooking lives and smartphones are the predominate companion in the kitchen.
Additionally, social media has become a large component for inspiring people to cook new recipes that are approachable to the novice home cook.
Additionally…
Our participants were more more motivated to try a new recipe when they know they have most of the ingredients already
Our participants are encouraged to try recipes they see from social media influencers
Design Implications
This platform needs to…
Adapt to the user’s life and conform to what they have to cook with as well as the individual’s skill level.
Be design around a mobile interface that would be most desirable to the user’s cooking preferences.
Incorporate a level of social interaction that encourages sharing with their communities.
Time Constraint
2 Weeks
Prototyping
low-fidelity
Approach
Prototyping was an important part of not only this project but our course requirements so both my teammate and I came up with our own designs then convened to decide which we liked best.
Methods (in order)
Sketching, Information Architecture, User Flows, Wireframing
Time Constraint
1 Week
Sketches
Both my teammate and I did some rough sketches (mine on the left, my teammate’s on the right). We took two different approaches when trying to decide how to ideate this platform where I looked at different ways to layout the content whereas my teammate looked more at how different features would be included. In addition to layout I also looked at alternative ways the app could be implemented from 3d views to dating-app like swiping.
Our sketches provided us with valuable ideas for moving forward, inevitably we went with a timeline style feed to display content.
Information Architecture
Information architecture was done on my own to get a high level view of the app’s organization also thinking about what types of menu sections we will be including and how that information relates to one another.
This step provided a good stopping point to make sure certain information wasn’t getting lost in the information flow.
User Flow
The user flow was taken on by my teammate in order to conceptualize how a user might navigate the app.
Wireframes
Building off the sketches and our information architecture I took on the majority of the wireframes so that our team may receive feedback on the concept before moving forward into more high-fidelity designs. I focused a lot on the onboarding portion to see if it was getting too lengthy. My teammate did the wireframe for what a recipe might look like which gave us a good idea of layout.
Prototyping
high-fidelity
Approach
Moving into high-fidelity prototyping we had to first establish our design style guide, create our assets, then assemble it all together.
Tools
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
Time Constraint
1 Week
Design System
In starting the high-fidelity prototypes my team had to first contend with the design assets and style we were going to use. I started this process by creating the first set of assets shown in the first image.
Due to a time constraint my team decided in order to meet our deadline that we should use an existing design system within Figma and we landed on Pegasus Design system (seen in the second image) to speed up our prototyping process.
High-Fidelity Prototype
first-pass
Onboarding
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Home
Where it all begins
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Onboarding Survey Prompt
Initial survey to personalize the app experience for the user.
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Food Preferences
Personalize what foods you like so that the recipes may reflect your personal palette.
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Skill Level
Estimate your skill level so recipes may be tailored to what you can do.
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Food Influencers
Do you love watching cooking content as much as we do? Tell us about what influencers you would love to see recipes from.
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Time To Get Cooking!
Main Screens
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Personalized Recipe Feed
A curated feed of recipes personalized to what you want to cook and what ingredients you have to cook with. With the filter menu you can change the parameters of this feed with a touch.
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Your Saved Recipes at a Glance
Refer back to recipes you have saved to give you some inspiration for your next meal.
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A Pantry of Ingredients Ready to Cook
Keep your cooking life organized with a well stocked pantry that allows the app to provide you with recipes that you can cook right away.
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All the Tools You Have At Your Disposal
The tools you have in the kitchen can make or break a recipe so keeping inventory of what you can use makes finding recipes for the beginner cook easier.
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Helpful Skills to Help You Cook
The only thing more important than the delicious meal you create is the skills you learn along the way. Refer back to these skills whenever you need a refresher.
Recipes
Two different ways to navigate through a recipe for two different types of cooks.
Standard Scroll
For people who like to cook more free form, using the recipe as merely a guide rather than a set of strict instructions. Also allows for a recipe to be browsed through before committing to cooking.
Dynamic Scroll
For people who like to cook with a strict set of instructions that will walk them through a recipe step by step. Tailored towards a beginner who wants to take things one step at a time. Starts with prepping everything before cooking then allows the user to use a swift swipe up to continue to the next step.
Conclusion
Evaluating the Results
Addressing the Project Goal
With this project my team was able to create a platform idea that encourages more people to cook based on our initial user research through the following:
Providing a way to find recipes based on ingredient accessibility
Showing recipes based on the user’s interests, skill level, and current inventory of tools and ingredients
Enabling multiple modes of recipe interaction to address different types of people in the kitchen
With this we were able to accomplish half of what we set out for our project goal.
Limitations and Constraints
Due to the timeline of this project we were not able to do testing of the application post-creation of our high-fidelity prototype other than one iteration based on feedback from our project presentation. Additionally we did not put as much emphasis in the design on community engagement, something that we could address in further iterations.
Future Work
In continuing with this project I would need to move forward by testing the current iteration of our prototype in order to prove how affectively it addresses our goals. Additionally I would do more work looking into the community aspect of the application which due to time constraints wasn’t possible in the project timeline.