OVERVIEW
A service that helps find recipes you can make using the ingredients you have at home. The app is to targets people who are cooking from home to help them utilize all the food in the pantry. The app will help keep track of what you have in the pantry and what you have already used, then find recipes with what is in the pantry. The app could be linked to the grocery ordering app and has a food item's scan ability once it is used.
Roles
User Experience Design
User Interface Design
Wireframe
Prototype
Concept Development
Ideation
Research
User Interface Design
Wireframe
Prototype
Concept Development
Ideation
Research
Duration 5 months
Software
Figma
Miro
Adobe Illustrator
Photoshop
Miro
Adobe Illustrator
Photoshop
Empathize
Process
● Talked to potential users to gain insight into ingredients to recipe apps
● Looked at 4 apps that have useful functions for ingredients to recipe apps
● User reviews on the 4 similar apps to gain useful insight
● Looked at 4 apps that have useful functions for ingredients to recipe apps
● User reviews on the 4 similar apps to gain useful insight
Interview Takeaways
Joe:
I always have ingredients left in my cupboard that I don't know what to do with.
I always have ingredients left in my cupboard that I don't know what to do with.
Danielle: Taking a picture of the items you would want to use would be beneficial if no barcode is not available to scan.
Aaron and Sydney:
I am so tired of scrolling through someone's life story to get to a recipe
I am so tired of scrolling through someone's life story to get to a recipe
Britt: I think some useful functions would be to input not only the items you have but filter results based on the type of dish and taste preference (spicy)
Competitive Analysis
Supercook:
This seems very cumbersome and takes time to use. ex. filters
● Manage your pantry using your voice
● Shopping List that talks to your pantry
● Filters and Diets to discover dishes
● Collect favorite recipes
● External links to recipes
● Filters for video and non-video
● Shopping List that talks to your pantry
● Filters and Diets to discover dishes
● Collect favorite recipes
● External links to recipes
● Filters for video and non-video
Foodwise:
A very basic app that only lists food and expiration date. The expiration date feature seems simple to use
● Monitor which food you already have
● Expiration Date
● Expiration Date
GreenBites:
This app is an all-in-one kit and the design is not user-friendly. The function of taking pictures of your ingredients to get recipes seems promising
● Scans your last grocery receipt or scan barcodes
● Get notified if there's a food recall
● Take a picture of ingredients at home and get personalized recipe suggestions
● Timers to be notified of your expiring food
● Get notified if there's a food recall
● Take a picture of ingredients at home and get personalized recipe suggestions
● Timers to be notified of your expiring food
Yummly:
This app is an all-in-one kit and the design is not user-friendly. The function of taking pictures of your ingredients to get recipes seems promising
● Scans your last grocery receipt or scan barcodes
● Get notified if there's a food recall
● Take a picture of ingredients at home and get personalized recipe suggestions
● Timers to be notified of your expiring food
● Get notified if there's a food recall
● Take a picture of ingredients at home and get personalized recipe suggestions
● Timers to be notified of your expiring food
Define
Process
● Analyze the observations of the potential users to define the core problems
● Write a user story statement that fits with users needs
● Write a user story statement that fits with users needs
User Insights
●Most users want to be able to add ingredients and find recipes quickly
●Having preference filters helps cater to dishes that the user wants to see in the results.
●Having intuitive functions to help with items that are in the users' pantry when it deals with quantity and converting measurements of ingredients in recipes
●Having preference filters helps cater to dishes that the user wants to see in the results.
●Having intuitive functions to help with items that are in the users' pantry when it deals with quantity and converting measurements of ingredients in recipes
Ideate
● List of ideas gathered from user interviews and competitive analysis that would be helpful in the functionality of the app.
● Wireframes
● Wireframes
Prototype
● Figma for prototyping the app
● Two drafts of the prototype. The first draft had too many features making it cumbersome to use.
● Two drafts of the prototype. The first draft had too many features making it cumbersome to use.
Features Added
Settings
●Have the ability to list allergies, food sensitivities, likes, dislikes, and cuisines preferences to filter unwanted recipes.
Favorites
● Categories for favorite recipes in one area as well as recipe history.
Add Ingredients
● The camera can quickly add ingredients to help find a recipe.
Recipe
● The user will be able to pick from a list of recipes from the available ingredients in the pantry.
Shopping List
● The user will be able to a shopping list for ingredients they may not have available in the pantry. The user will then be guided to a third party to shop for items.
Testing
The users were first tasked to add Dietary Preferences. Then they were asked to add ingredients to the pantry with the camera feature; after that, they were to take those ingredients to the pantry list. Once in the pantry, the users were to look at recipes and add missing ingredients to the shopping list that is then taken to the shopping cart and check out process.
Main takeaways :
● The app should have friendly descriptions of why you need allergies and food preference information.
● Is that most users want simplicity in adding the ingredient function.
● Each page should be able to guide users with helpful descriptions and tips on how the app works.
● The more intuitive, the better the overall confusion level will be in adding
ingredients to the pantry.
ingredients to the pantry.
● It should be quick to add ingredients with a camera and manual
typing.
typing.
● The bubbles with ingredients made the users assume that they already had
these ingredients added because the bubble had a small x on the right-hand side.
these ingredients added because the bubble had a small x on the right-hand side.
● Some of the buttons were too far from the navbar.
● The ingredients should also list the quantity of what you have in the pantry, what you will add to the pantry, and what will be added to your cart in the shopping list feature.
Solution
