Recipe App

UX/UI Design & Conception

‍
About Project
Many people like to cook for themselves or for others. Be it daily or for a special occasion. They like to try something new or different. With Daily Dish you can find new cooking inspirations and save time. With the search and filter options, you can always find the right recipes very quickly. You are guided through them with clear instructions and detailed information to the perfect meal. The Daily Dish app is also a useful feature when shopping for fresh food.
‍
Task
Create an app for users with special preferences that serves as a source of inspiration.
Date
• April 2021 
Role
• UX/UI Design & Conception
Tools
• Pen & Paper, Sketch & InVision
Design Process
User Research & Personas
I started my project with a user research that helped me to gain insight into the lifes of users and their needs and wants. By doing so I used the Research Learning Spiral (RLS) which is a five-step process to help me gather knowledge about my user and their needs. During the RLS I conducted interviews with 3 people that represent the target group. I wrote an interview script with 7 open questions about their preferences for the app and some additional ones about themselves and their interests. After conducting the interview I synthesized my research findings. 

I discovered the following needs and goals of my participants:
‍
•   Need a safe and high quality source
•   Get inspiration and motivation
•   Learn new recipes and expand culinary skills
•   Learn more about healthy food
‍
From all results, I pulled out the information to create three different personas. The personas helped me to identify who I am designing for. 
Competetive Analysis
I did a SWOT analysis because it’s important to get a feel for what kind of issues are related to the problem I’m investigating. It also helps me to identify underserved opportunities in the market and gives me the possibility to make better-informed decisions about my overall strategy to ensure I can create sustainable competitive advantages. I fully analyzed the apps Kptn Cook and Kitchen Stories to create my competitor profile.
‍
User Stories & Requirements
Based on my personas, the research and the competitive analysis, I summarize needs, goals, and necessary functionalities in the words of users. In addition I defined a list of corresponding features.
This process helped me to figure out exactly what to design for which persona.
‍
Story 1
Feature Requirements
As a novice cook, I need informations and instructions about ingredients and measures, for a correct implementation.
‍
‍
Story 2
As a vegan person, I need to get healthy recipe ideas, so that I can cook things that are good for my body.
‍
Story 3
As a person who loves clarity, I need clear design, so that I can find anything quickly.
‍
Story 4
As a person who likes new recipes, I need a search function, to find new healthy recipes.
‍
Story 5
As a person who likes to remember their favorites, I need to save my favorite recipes, so that I can cook them again.
‍
‍
Story 6
As a person who compares, i need a comment section, to get and give my feedback.
‍
‍
• Informations
• Shopping list - ingredients
• Measures
‍
Feature Requirements
• Healthy & fresh recipes
• Vegetarian & Vegan
‍
Feature Requirements
• Clear layout, structure & features
• Not overloaded
‍
Feature Requirements
• Search function
• To find new delishes recipes
‍
Feature Requirements
• Saving favorite recipes
• Profile feature
• Own cookbook
‍
Feature Requirements
• Comment section for feedback
‍
User Flow Diagram
The user stories helped me to come up with the user flows. I created a user flow for each user story and combined them into a single user flow diagram. The combined user flows below details all the screens and steps that make up the different paths the users can take to get from point A to point B.
Rapid Prototyping
Rapid prototyping gets users involved early on in the design process to ensure the designs are suitable for them and are solving their problems. Turning my solutions into prototypes helps me to think beyond static screens and more how users will interact with my screens and navigate through the product. Doing so, I started with the Crazy 8 methodology to generate ideas for my user flow diagram.
Usability Testing
To validate my design decisions of the rapid prototype I did an usability testing. The goal of the testing was to get a better understanding of what my users like and don’t like about my prototype. I directly observed another’s behavior and interaction with my prototype to evaluate their ability to actually use the product successfully. For that I picked the best wireframes to create a digital prototype in InVision by connecting screens using hotspots. I wrote a usability test script and defined the 3 following scenarios.
Scenarios
1. You get hungry and want something sweet.    
    Find a suitable recipe.
2. You would like to define your selection in more detail.    
    The best way is that you get recipes without meat.
3. You have now found your favorite recipe and would like to save it.

After creating the test script I conducted usability testing with in-person testing using the low-fidelity prototype I developed in InVision.
Results Synthesis & Error Rating
I synthesized my observations into concrete issues, ranked the issues using Jakob Nielsen’s error severity rating system and proposed solutions for my design, based on the test results.
Initial Wireframes
Preference Test
Final Design
Based on my testing I just updated my wireframes and started to design the final screens in Sketch.
Moodboard
To get a better feeling about how the app could look like, I created a moodboard that shows suitable colors, forms, styles and imagery of inspiration.
Style Guide
I also designed a style guide to visualize all important UI components of the product.
UI Design
To get a better visual understanding I created some mockups of my Daily Dish app.
Instagram
SOERENMARKUS.COMLINKEDIN