Timeline
March - June 2023
Project Type
Class Project
Role
UX Designer
Interaction Designer
Visual Designer
Eating healthy can be challenging especially when the process contains frustrating user journeys. FlavorLabs aims to provide a pain free recipe posting, saving, and sharing experience as an attempt to remove one more roadblock towards healthier diets.
Challenges
Support social functionality in the recipe discovery process.
1.
Redesign recipe posting with a focus on limiting typing.
2.
Support meal planning, dietary, and allergen user needs.
3.
Create experiences that promote healthy diets.
4.
Timeline
Mar - Jun 2023
Role
UX Designer
Interaction Designer
Visual Designer
Project Type
Class Project
My primary motivation for this project was the universal human experience of interacting with food, and how that could be improved for better health. By following the UX design process, my first step was conducting research to better understand this problem.
Competitive Analysis
A competitive analysis was conducted based on seven value scenarios I discovered through preliminary research. Each service was ranked on a scale based on if a value scenario was supported, partially supported, or absent in their product.
Competitive analysis of comparable platforms
Recipe services depend on third-party mechanisms for social engagement, complicating the user journey in the process. Additionally these services don't support dietary restrictions or meal planning. The combination of these pain points drove the following question.
Personas
An important step was making sure user needs are prioritized, so any redesigns were grounded with the following personas.
Primary Persona
Name: Sarah
Age: 57
Occupation: Teacher
Sarah is an aging mother with lots of cooking experience. She has always wanted to share her recipes online for her children as well as anyone interested in trying her cooking. Having a pain free method that enables this is a top priority for Sarah since she plans to post multiple in the future.
Secondary Persona
Name: Travis
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Travis is an incoming college student who has just started living independently. His biggest struggle is eating healthy since convenient food is commonly unhealthy. However in an attempt to fix his diet Travis frequently tries to find healthy recipes online that are quick, cheap, and easy.
From the research insights and problem statement, two major design directions were selected for implementation into FlavorLabs. Other opportunities such as revising the recipe posting experience was considered in the process.
No social implementation in designs
Integrate social media-inspired designs such as adding friends and messaging.
Dietary needs are unsupported
Have a resource for users to see which diets are supported in a recipe.
Recipe posting not always offered
Enable recipe posting, and make the process easier for users.
Information Architecture
Having an organized hierarchy was a guiding step through this process. A structure inspired from social media apps was used for familiarity with users and social implementation.
IA Diagram
User Flow Diagrams
A recipe discovery and sharing user flow diagram was created to plan out each user journey. Each flow was simplified in an attempt to not overcomplicate the navigation process.
User flow for recipe discovery
User flow for sharing recipe
A low-fidelity prototype was made to test the current user flows. The primary focus for this was to test the basic structural components and interactions early on to test the usability of the app. User testing was conducted to gather insights for iteration.
Wireflow of sharing a recipe
Iteration
Throughout testing, four pain points in the user journey were revealed. Revising the following for improvement in the high-fidelity prototype is a key step towards making the user experience as pain-free as possible.
Limited Visibility
Some of the font sizes were too small for users to clearly read information.
Visual Clarity
Iconography wasn't very intuitive for users, especially the messaging icon.
Lacking Familiarity
Messaging location felt out of place and meal planning lacked familiar features.
Usability Issues
The current home feed confused users. A vertically scrolling screen seems preferred.
After accounting for the feedback from the low-fidelity prototype, a high-fidelity prototype was created. Each challenge was addressed and reflected in the final designs
With the implementation of features such as social media profiles, messaging, and user generated content, FlavorLabs cultivates a social recipe sharing experience.
By using a prompt-based design, users no longer have to rely on writing out each individual word. Users can select an action and a potential ingredient that the recipe typically calls for.
Users can read the nutrition information underneath a recipe where it communicates which diet the recipe supports. Additionally, user can create a meal plan and select which days it applies to.
By promoting different categories of 'healthy' diet users can select which category applies to their dietary goals most. This creates a more holistic experience when discovering new 'healthy' recipes.
This project was an extremely fulfilling experience due to the problems my redesign attempts to address. My designs still require more improvement, however, this was out of the project's scope. In the future, I would like to possibly continue user testing for further iteration and possibly launch this design to test the actual impact it has on users!
