“It's the sense of what family is at the dinner table. It was the joy of knowing our mother was in the kitchen making our favorite dish. I wish more people would do this and recall the joy of life. “
Paul Prudhomme, world known chef.
Paul Prudhomme, world known chef.
UX Case Study
From the Idea to High Fidelity Prototype
Overview
Practically every family have a grandmothers notebook with unique handwritten recipes that survived through history. These recipes have been perfected over generations and carry a unique emotional value. In order to preserve these recipes, they need to be digitized in an easy to use format so they can be accessed and shared in today's world.
Challenge
• Help users to preserve memorized and handwritten traditional family recipes
• Provide the tool that can digitize and format scanned recipe notes along with family stories associated with it
• Make this tool able to share family recipes in private family groups and among friends on social media
• Provide the tool that can digitize and format scanned recipe notes along with family stories associated with it
• Make this tool able to share family recipes in private family groups and among friends on social media
Goals
To create a mobile app using user-centered design principals to record old recipes with easy to use intuitive and uninformed way and share it with family and friends.
Target Audience
Large families that live in different places and rarely get together. Groups of friends that like to cook and share their cooking experiences and exchange recipes.
User Research
For User Research I approached various cooking enthusiasts groups on Facebook asking for permission to become a member and to post Screener Survey for my research. After analyzing 14 surveys 9 participants were selected and 4 of them got interviewed via Facebook messenger audio.
Research Summary
Competitive Analysis
To recognize pains and gains of existing products I downloaded three most popular recipe management apps, got familiar with them and ran the heuristic analysis based on 3 heuristics:
Visibility of system status
Consistency and standards
Recognition rather than recall
Heuristic Evaluation
Empathy Maps And Personas
Based on user research 3 personas that represent most of the people interviewed were created to better formulate a user-centered design. Their empathy map digs deeper into the personas by providing additional context to their decisions.
Defining the MVP
Staying with UX principles and with the development of personas and empathy maps, the next step was to make MVP and user stories.
Minimum Viable Products
Information Architecture
Card Sorting
Site Map
Interaction Design
User Flows
Wireframes
Wireframe Flows
User Testing
Low fidelity prototype was produced based on wireframes and wireframe flows. Three users were tested the My Family CookBook App. Ranging in age from 27-55, female. They came from various backgrounds including Textile Design, Business Student, and Education. The testers all came from large extended families with cooking traditions. They all are medium to heavy iPhone/iPad users and use recipe management and cooking apps.
User Testing Goals
• To assess the usability and functionality of the My Family CookBook app for iOS
• To test navigation of the app
• To test all app functions
• To test communication information through the app
• To pinpoint all miscommunications and confusions users might have
Tasks
1. Scanning handwritten recipe for the first time as a first time user of the app. (Including creating an account)
2. Receiving shared recipe, saving it and replying to message
3. Creating a new Family group and inviting people
4. Create a new recipe and share it with a family member
2. Receiving shared recipe, saving it and replying to message
3. Creating a new Family group and inviting people
4. Create a new recipe and share it with a family member
Summary
Overall the testing went really well with users able to accomplish the given tasks without issue. There was apparent confusion with assigning first scanned recipe to the family group that has not been created yet. Vocabulary on “Recipes” screen needs to be addressed. (“New” and “Add New”). The “Home” screen does not give an option to create a new recipe only to scan. One of the participants mentioned that the “Home” screen does not look “striking and inviting” and looks like secondary pages.
Areas Identified for Improvement
Improvements and Solutions:
Branding
A style guide and logo were created to maintain design consistency through the experience.
Style Guide
High Fidelity Prototype and User Testing
As the final step of the project, high fidelity prototype was created based on low fidelity testing prototype with all improvements and solutions applied. The prototype made using a produced style guide and main functions of the app interconnected.
High Fidelity Interactive Prototype
Next Steps
• Conducting Usability testing of the high fidelity prototype.
• Iterating possible design solutions for the pain points found during usability testing.
• Finalizing the design solutions.
• Iterating possible design solutions for the pain points found during usability testing.
• Finalizing the design solutions.
