Empowering people to cook with what they’ve liked

Recipe is a game and lifestyle app that empowers people to cook more by exploring, organizing and revisiting what they’ve already liked.

Project: MVP Application

Role: UX Designer

Tools: Figma, Loom, Google Meet, Zoom

Context

Ingredient 1

Ingredient 2

Potential

Ingredient 3

Research

Recipe was conceived based on the shared experience of navigating and using online recipes.

Create a subscription-based platform that allowed people to see food content from digital food creators.

I conducted a competitive analysis and user interviews to support the validity of this “problem”.

However, the results of these two methodologies proved otherwise.

While the competitive analysis was useful for my initial “solution”, the results of the user interviews were far more insightful.

What people said:

“Whole folder on Instagram where she saves recipes”
— Michaella B.
“Liking a lot...bookmarked or folder on TikTok with recipes she wants to try”
— Jesika T.
“Actively adding...considers it a digital recipe book at her disposal...feels like she can reference it”
— Michaella B.
“On Instagram, they have a shared album they save recipes from different creators”
— Jasmine M.
“Instagram has a saved folder, organized to save them...realized she saved too many”
— Jessica B.
“Saves or likes recipes on TikTok”
— Michael M.

Ingredient 4

Findings

The interviews revealed that:

  1. People don’t want to pay for exclusive or ad-free food content.

  2. People enjoy watching digital food content.

  3. People learn from watching food content.

  4. People enjoy saving, liking and organizing the food content they watch.

Pivot

Ingredient 5

These revelations presented a new problem:

The lack of organization for food content people liked or saved online prevents them from discovering and using potential recipes.

Ingredient 6

Solution

Ingredient 7

User Insight

Recipe is a game and lifestyle app that empowers people to cook more, by offering tools to organize and revisit food content they’ve saved or liked.

Before I began designing, I wanted to understand both the brand and user a bit more. Several deliverables were created to assist with this process:

  • User Personas

  • User Stories

  • User Task Flows

  • Sitemap

  • User Flow 1

  • User Flow 2

  • User Persona 1

  • User Persona 2

Ingredient 8:

Design System

Throughout the design process, one of the main design challenges was creating a logo that resonated with the brand and its brand values.

Ingredient 9:

The MVP

Here’s what I prioritized:

  1. Game Interface and Features

  2. User Survey

  3. Folder/Organization System

  4. Basic App Features

The MVP

  • Landing

  • New Account

  • Log In

  • About

  • Survey Preview

  • Surey Q1

  • App Features Preview

  • Welcome Message - Existing User

  • Home - New User

  • Home - Default

  • Home - Used Recipe

  • Home - Recipe Hover/Selected

  • Folder - Existing User

    Folder - Existing User

  • Time Filter

    Time Filter

  • 30 Minute Filter

  • 30 Minute Filter Applied

  • Completed - Existing User

Ingredient 10

Results

Ingredient 11

What worked:

  • Brand Logo and UI Elements

  • Game Features

  • Filter Bar

  • General Navigation and Usability

What didn’t work:

  • The function of each UI element described in the “App Features Preview screen”.

  • Pop-up Message/Welcome Screen interfered with user understanding of navigating the rest of the tasks (and screens).

Iterations

Original
Original
Original Addition
Updated
Updated

Simplified Information

Per user feedback, I simplified and condensed the information shown on this screen, so that this screen acts more as a “preview” than informational.

Updated “Welcome Message”

I removed the original welcome message screen from the user flow as it caused a lot of confusion for people testing as “existing users”.

Instead, I created a new welcome message screen that only appears for new users.

Tutorial for New Users

Following the design pattern of a mobile game, I created a tutorial for the UI elements of the home page (for a new user).

This inclusion stemmed from the feedback and inisghts I gathered from the usability tests.

Final MVP

  • Landing

  • New Account

  • Log In

  • About

  • Survey Preview

  • Surey Q1

  • Survey Q2

  • App Features Preview

  • Welcome Message

  • Tutorial

  • Tutorial

  • Tutorial

  • Tutorial

  • Tutorial

  • Tutorial

  • Tutorial Completed

  • Home - New User

  • Home - Default

  • Home - Used Recipe

  • Home - Recipe Hover/Selected

  • Folder - New User

    Folder - New User

  • Folder - Existing User

    Folder - Existing User

  • Time Filter

    Time Filter

  • 30 Minute Filter

  • 30 Minute Filter Applied

  • Completed - Existing User

Here’s your Recipe (prototype)

New User

Existing User

Conclusion

At the core of Recipe is the transformation of a common behavior into an application that encourages, empowers and reminds people to use the recipes they’ve liked.

Instead of forgetting, searching or discovering new recipes, why not use what you’ve already liked?

Personal Takeaways

Re-direction is necessary:

One of the most pivotal learnings from this project is the importance of re-direction during the early stages of a project. This meant conducting research early to clearly grasp the needs and pain points of users. If I hadn’t conducted the user interviews, I wouldn’t have learned early on that my idea wasn’t viable or useful to the people I interviewed.

The solution may not be obvious

Although the idea for this project began with a shared experience between others and I, in speaking and listening to people, I realized that the real problem at hand is their desire to cook more.

The solution then is how can we leverage people’s engagement with food content to encourage them to cook more?

If I had more time...

I would have explored more questions regarding people’s organization habits, experience with mobile games and cooking apps.

Thank you for reading, check out my other projects!