Introduction
Background
Food is a concept that many folks (if not all folks) can relate to on a day-to-day basis. The complexity and art of cooking brings people together and builds depth in every culture. Whether you’re a home chef or a simple food-lover, one can find common ground with others within any cuisine. Some folks love to seek educational culinary online materials to better their cooking skills, while others love to consume entertaining food-related content.
Problem
There hasn’t been a notable product in the market that centralizes all food-based content. For instance, when seeking recipes to cook, one tends to search on Google and pick a recipe based on what looks best. It takes a bit more digging to find a recipe from your favorite home cook or well-established chef. All social media apps that are currently popular aren’t usually food-centric and are generalized for all kinds of content.
Goal
The goal for my end-to-end product is to create a community-based social app that also produces food-related content. This product is not only for folks to connect with one another through food enthusiasm, but also to consume quality-produced media. I want to eventually elevate the app to a paid version that enables streaming and cooking classes.
Research
Research Goal
I would like to explore ways to help food-enthusiasts who are interested in seeking food content to stay updated with their favorite chefs, influencers, or celebrities, since this can provide them an avenue to diversify their social circle.
I would also like to explore ways to assist beginner home cooks who don’t know many dishes to easily seek new recipes, because it will create a space for them to improve on their culinary skills.
Food for thought:
How might we build a more seamless social media platform for folks to learn about food?
How might we create an easy and fast recipe-seeking platform for beginner users to use on a cadence?
Objectives
Identify popular online/digital recipe resources users tend to use to seek specific recipes
Discover current most-used social media platforms and what is missing in the social food space
Define the perspective, needs, and priorities of music streamers
Focus Areas
What methods of research do recipe-seekers tend to use when planning to cook a meal?
How long does it take?
Ability for customizations?
How many resources do they go through before deciding on one
What methods of research do food-enthusiasts use when seeking food-specific content?
What platform(s) do they gravitate towards first?
How long does it take?
Methodologies
User interviews
Gather knowledge on users’ thoughts and feelings of their previous social media experience
Looking out for users’ needs and wants (or what they’re missing that can help provide a comprehensive experience)
Participants
Social media users
Food-enthusiasts or food content seekers
Cooks, home chefs, and aspiring professional chefs
Competitive Analysis
Persona
Define
Sitemap
User Flow
General Pain Points
On average, users take about 30 minutes to narrow down a final recipe they would like to use
Users tend to seek through approximately 5 different recipe resources before having to strategize making the meal
No option to customize ingredients through search engine
Social media content are usually not niche towards food — users must seek food content and follow accordingly
At-times, social media can be personal within one’s social circle and doesn’t have much outreach
Design
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
High-Fidelity Wireframes
Test
Methodology
Prototype usability testing was conducted on 5 various participants — each person took approximately 20 minutes to go through the task flows as well as provide constructive and positive feedback. Testing was presented in 2 different task flows – (1) seeking a recipe and (2) finding a user profile page.
Usability Task Flows
Seeking a customized recipe
Finding a user profile page
Success Metrics
Task completion
Users were able to complete the tasks within the same time frame
Task flows were super simple, so no errors were reported
Feasibility
Users reported that app was easy-to-use and smooth
The simplicity in design allows for participants to find things easily
Enjoyable Sentiment
Users loved the idea regarding an app that builds a social food community while also providing a space for additional practical usage
Overall User Feedback
Task flows were seamless and easy-to-use
Loved the prominent use of green and yellow, aligns with food symbolism
At times multiple colors stand out so there’s no focal point
Buttons are consistent with usual design patterns
Recipe page is easy-to-understand and all necessary information we included
All features are in alignment and symmetrical
Blurred out images when search bar is used is creative
Choose a brighter hue for the “Follow” button on a user profile page
Create a better color scheme for the search bar
Conclusion
Prototype
Task Flow #1
Task Flow #2
Final Thoughts
Building CookSpace from the beginning was such an immensely eye-opening experience for me as I was able to learn the design process from top to bottom. It definitely pushed me towards improving as UX designer both in skill and knowledge (albeit there’s much more to learn!). It was also personally enjoyable for me as I was enabled to create a community-based product I was seeking for quite some time.
A centralized platform for all food-niche seekers can bring unity in the food community and provide a cohesive space for cooking content and other culinary educational materials. CookSpace is a product that allows its users to flourish in many avenues as it connects people through either social diversity or culinary learning objectives.
As a UX designer, I learned quite a ton from this case study! I understood the organization and prioritization it takes to cultivate a design project’s timeline as well as fulfilling every objective needed. I also grew to understand what kinds of problems in the digital space that hasn’t been solved by thinking outside of the box and tapping into specific niches. Overall, I’d like to continue my design mindset with empathy and research.