Small Changes With Big Impact
Cooking at home shouldn’t be hard. The grocery store shouldn’t be mystery, and it shouldn’t be impossible to navigate a recipe on your phone. EasyCook is an app that let’s you do all of these things with ease.
In an attempt to learn more about Human Computer Interaction, on a fateful evening in October 2015, I signed up for Coursera’s Human Computer Interaction Specialization.
Since then, not only am I pleased to say that the finish line is a mere blog post away, many major life milestones have been accomplished. But today, I want to focus on the HCI Capstone Project- EasyCook App.
The Inspiration and Needfinding
I am an avid home cook, and as much as a restaurant visitor. My phone is actively involved in all food decisions- from finding the restaurant, to what I want to eat and when I want to eat. Through the course of the specialization, I noticed that this was a fairly common trend amongst my peers. During further discussions, I found that many of them prop their smartphones or computers to view the recipe and steps when they cook at home. I also found that my frustration at the lack of easy navigation through these multiple step recipes was shared. Another common thought was the inability to find ingredients easily at the store. I was surprised, and glad, that these were the two big problems that extended beyond my little world.
With these things in mind, the creation of EasyCook began. I use several recipe resources like AllRecipes.com, Yummly, etc. on my phone. My familiarity with the ‘ok’ user experience with these helped seeding the idea. From there, the beast was unleashed.
Brainstorming
I interviewed and had conversations with several people ranging different countries and ages, and what technology was available to them. Through these interviews, I aimed at learning about peoples’ eating habits and how they enabled that trait. Many of the people I talked with said that they ate at home as much as possible with an aim to be healthier, and to save money.
From there, the conversations floated towards the ease and or difficulty of the process of eating at home. Cooking, for many, was a time consuming effort which made it unattractive. The second aspect was that they thought the prices of take out, in their mind, wasn’t too unaffordable given the convenience factor.
The next grievance that came up frequently was that sometimes, it was difficult to find or price ingredients. The participants thought found themselves willing to cook, but suddenly apprehensive about ingredients and their availability.
The conclusion was that an app that could help locate items in a store or market, and that could be easy to navigate while cooking, would be extremely helpful.
A lot of websites and recipe sources already show the calories per serving, so including that bit of information was a given. However, not a lot of resources show savings. I thought a good way to add to the feel good factor of home cooking would be to show price comparisons of similar dishes from nearby restaurants.
Storyboards
After brainstorming, I developed a couple of storyboards.
The first scenario dealt with with a user needing to buy groceries based on recipes they chose to cook. The idea was to use the location and store map provided by the store, in conjunction with inventory, to help the user find everything they need. The idea was inspired by IKEA’s technology that promotes self help and requires minimal struggle to find products in their warehouse.
The second scenario revolves around a budget oriented user, that has no inclination towards cooking. I pictured the user being able to select food based on budget, cuisine, and a couple of other ‘nice-to-have’ options.
Paper prototypes and feedback
The paper prototype run throughs were extremely helpful in indicating the key problems with both.
The first prototype, Ready To Eat?, was received with some confusion about the purpose of the app. The users seemed to have a clear understanding
of its function…until the end rolled around. The confusion was regarding whether the app lets you place an order, or simply keep a list of what you’d want to eat there. Once I did tell them that it was more of a “discovery” than “order ahead” app, the reaction leaned towards being disappointed. They appreciated the “discovery” aspect, but expected more assistance in seeing their discovery through.
The second prototype, EasyCook, was generally met with a lot of enthusiasm. Aside from minor feedback about adding and removing certain things noted in the previous pages, the purpose of the app was clear, and thought to be extremely helpful.
Both apps could use better exit strategies, and some help in resolving the purpose of it all.
Prototypes and User Testing
After receiving feedback on both paper prototypes, I made the decision to move forward with prototype 02- EasyCook. The application of the app was far more than Ready To Eat? and it stood at a better progress point than the other as well.
UserTesting.com graciously provided credits for 4 user tests. There were a few key differences between the two versions of the app that were tested, mostly in terms of CTAs, and organization of information.
Here are some key feedback points that were taken in to consideration for the final development:
The preparation/cooking flow is what seems most provocative to me about this app, so I am hoping to get to try that out! Also, I’m wondering if I missed something in terms of how the app could let me group together items from multiple recipes’ ingredients list into one shopping list.
The above response gave opportunities for future developments, for example, individually selecting ingredients to add to a cumulative list.
I felt like overall, the app was very clean. The recipe feed had very similar info in between recipes. The hamburger menu is very clean and doesn’t have an overwhelming number of items. I really liked the lettering and felt like the options were very streamlined, minus the rating. I like the header font that they used. I was able to do most of the tasks and didn’t end up anywhere I’d expect to be. I was really hesitant about the the Favorite Recipe lists, didn’t think that I’d see them under My Lists.
I appreciated the comment on the aesthetics of the app. It provided a good indication towards the appeal of it.
The Finished Product
I spent a few days reviewing feedback from the 4 users, and got some more opinions from friends and family.
Based on the feedback, I added an onboarding experience to clarify the purpose of the app. I also added a couple of notifications to explain what stage of a flow the users were at. I had a friend revisit the app after implementing all the changes, and voila! Success!
Now, go ahead and check out the fruits of labor, aka prototytpe, here!