Fuse: Make the most of your ingredients
This was my debut
UX Project!
2-week Learn & Work Sprint
@ GENERAL ASSEMBLY UXDI COURSE
2-13 AUG 2021
CHALLENGE
Conduct User Research and create a Mobile App
TOOLS
Miro
Figma
ROLE
UX Designer
UX Researcher
Background
As I started to cook more during the lockdown, I noticed a certain level of planning and coordination required to ensure my ingredients do not go to waste.
I was interested in finding out how other home-chefs are managing this and how a mobile app can help improve their process.
Design Process
DISCOVER
User Interview
DEFINE
User Persona
Problem Statement
DESIGN
Ideation
Sketching
DELIVER
Mid-fi Prototype
Next Steps
User Research
In trying to understand how a typical Singaporean contribute to food waste in their cooking process, I interviewed 8 Singaporean adults who cook on a regular basis (3-4 times a week) to understand their habits and perspectives. After the interviews, I transcribed them and used affinity mapping to identify common trends.
💬 Discussion Topics
Motivation & Influences
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Why do they cook?
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What do they like and dislike about it?
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Sources of inspiration
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How do they decide what to cook?
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How often do they try new dishes?
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Thoughts on food waste
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How do users feel about food waste
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Do users consciously act to avoid it?
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Habits & Processes
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Frequency of cooking and level of planning involved
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Planning process
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Are users methodical or spontaneous when planning for what to cook?
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What is their grocery shopping process and preferences?
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Organisation of ingredients
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How they organise and keep track of groceries
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What are some challenges they face in this aspect
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🔎 Key Findings
🔎 Smaller Trends
After 5 users, responses were starting to get repetitive. However, I did manage to identify some secondary trends that could come in handy for solutioning.
Defining the Problem
While synthesising the findings into a user persona, I created 3 context-based scenarios as a point of reference during solutioning phase.
Problem Statement
People who do not like repeating meals needs to know what else they can do with their ingredients so that they can have a variety of meals everyday with their groceries.
Solutioning
To enable homechefs to create a variety of recipes, the app helps them search for a variety of recipes that they can create with the recipes they have on hand. Additionally, they will be able to learn about ingredients, such as alternatives and storage tips that help maintain the quality of various food items.
Sketches
Wireframes
Demo & Final Prototype
Next Steps
✅ Usability Testing and reiterating
Test, flesh out all relevant pages, and reiterate based on feedback.
📍 Location-based integration
Better integrate the app with local supermarkets near users by showing them which supermarket has the right portion for the recipe they need
🔗 Social feature
Allow users to share ingredients with friends and neighbours to further reduce food wastage
Thoughts & Reflections
📝 Learning about User Interviews
I started out by conducting 10 user interviews, and then realised that I didn't have sufficient time to transcribe them and do affinity mapping within the time frame. I also realised that I might have focussed on too many topics at the start, which prolonged my interviews and research synthesis time.
Working on this project gave me a better idea on how long it takes to synthesise user interviews. My learning would be to keep topics of discussions as focussed as possible to maintain efficiency, especially in instances of timeline constraints.