Level 7 — Presentation Preparation of Quisine and Final thoughts
Authors: Sharmaine Manalo, Jason Davies, Gabriel Gaddi, Susmitha Kalidindi, Isabelle Cabana, Connie Du
Review of low fidelity prototype
Note: The day before presentations, we decided to rename our app. Our App name is now called Quisine because we decided to make the name simpler and more memorable. The Q in the beginning represents the questions that we ask which is what the recipes the user finds are based on. We removed the “quest” part from our name because we decided that we didn’t really have that many game type of elements for our app besides the point based system (which we ended up removing in the end) and the design elements.
During the testing of our low fidelity prototype we discovered some elements of our application that needed changing. To start, our application was asking several questions to the user with no indication of their progress. This was frustrating for our testers and demonstrated to us that we needed to make clear to our users how far along they were in the process. We also had testers tell us that some of our questions seemed unimportant, vague, and impractical. We were told that there were a few questions that they found to be valuable and that the way we presented them was enjoyable.
Another issue our prototype had was the inability to go backwards to previous questions or screens. This mechanic was discussed but left out of the prototype and our testers noticed its absence.
Changes to the prototype (from the Final balsamiq to final invision)
To adjust our prototype, we removed and modified several questions from the Recipe-Assistance mechanic like, “What is your level of cooking experience,” “how often do you cook,” and “which of the following dietary restrictions do you have?” After doing this, we attempted to gamify some more of our questions to make them more interesting to answer. In addition, we cleaned up our icons, menus, and backgrounds to give the application a more inviting look. Finally, we added some new personalization mechanics, like being able to customize your profile theme, add guest profiles, and a shopping cart system that allowed for groceries to be bought for specific recipes!
Creation of screens (how collaboration of work on invision worked out)
To get our final invision prototype ready we each assigned ourselves a few of the screens and spent several late night communicating back and forth to improve them. We communicated on design choices and content revisions. We each then connected up our screens in preparation for filming the commercials for our final presentation and linked up the screens the night before and made adjustments if we needed to. Because we were all assigned different screens and worked on them ourselves, there was the issue of having our own design vision which sometimes wasn’t consistent with what someone else did, but in the end we managed to make the app look cohesive by sharing our elements and agreeing on common things. After filming, we had a serious discussion about the practicality of our application and decided to make a few changes. We renamed our application, Quisine, and eliminated the questing/gaming features because they lacked a strong incentive.
Presentation ideas (how we brainstormed how we want to do the presentation)
For our presentation, we wanted to discuss how to catch the users’ attention and present our idea smoothly. Most of the team felt that commercials were a good way to take a lot of the presentation time while effectively showcasing Quisine. We felt if we talked for the whole presentation, we would run in circles. Thus, commercials were a good idea for us and they allowed us to be more creative with our presentation by putting in humor and emotion. This is where our storyboards came to help. Our commercials were based on certain personas/situations that would help us show the features of Quisine in a fun way. By utilizing our storyboards from previous design iteration, we were able to come up with ideas for our commercials easily and showcase how Quisine solves the issues presented.
Recording for Commercials (process of recording and why we felt the commercials represented our app)
Commercial #1 — This commercial went over the search and personalization feature of our app. By allowing the user to have a profile that saves their preferences, when searching for a recipe, they are guaranteed to find a recipe that meets their criteria.
Commercial #2 — This commercial features a crucial part of our app, which are the sub-profiles and question filtering. These two features combined helps users find a recipe that they can make for themselves as well as the people they will be serving without the risk of the other people not being able to eat it. Example, being able to avoid making something that has gluten when one of the people is allergic.
Commercial #3 — This commercial showcase the app being used in real life. In this commercial we showcase a real life issue that could occur and applied it. For preparation for our presentation, we made Cake Pops and showcased how Quisine would be used in this situation.
App Description
Every cuisine begins with a Q, “What would I like to eat?” Just answer a few questions and Quisine will find a recipe just for you. Download Quisine and begin cooking.
Team Takeaways
Jason — After five short weeks, I have learned so much about how to properly market myself through my resume and online portfolio, explore needs to find a problem worth addressing, and successfully iterate on my ideas to develop something useful! I was surprised to find that during the needfinding process, I had a tendency to overlook problems of demographics other than myself. Considering the problems of those we might not identify with is an important way to discovering needs. Overall, I feel confident about graduating from UCSD next year because I now have a unique portfolio, compelling resume, and invaluable design experience.
Gabriel — Although I have taken design classes before, this one was the most heaviest on front end design, which is an area I am weak in. Due to this, I learned a lot within these 5 weeks. I was able to learn many front end skills such as learning editing and how to create assets such as phone screens. Also, being able to have my own portfolio completed is a huge accomplishment for me. I definitely feel my front end skills improving a lot from this class and being able to have a completed portfolio is proof of that.
Sharmaine — Throughout the span of five weeks, I can definitely say that I learned more than I expected I would in such a short time period! I wasn’t that familiar with the design process of creating personas and storyboards, needfinding, and then creating prototypes. In the past, I’d just open Photoshop or Illustrator and go straight to designing and I see now how that could be an inefficient way of creating a design that fully solves a problem. I was also glad that we were required to complete a portfolio at the end of the five weeks as updating my personal website was something I had been putting off for a very long time. All in all, I greatly appreciate that I can now put up some new skills and tools onto my resume as a result of this design course.
Susmitha — Over the course of five weeks, I have learned a lot about Quisine and the fundamental process of designing an app. Before this class, I always had trouble getting started and I always just wanted to start coding right away. This class helped me realized that it’s best to slow down and not try to jump into the code right away. The most important takeaways I learned were the art of creating prototypes, user testing, and need finding. These steps were crucial in finding out the needs of our user and what features we needed to include in our app to make it the most useful that it can be. I definitely have a better understanding of the app making process after I have taken this class. In addition, it provided me good design skills that I should always pay attention to and it gave me time to focus on my portfolio/resume as well and get feedback from the teacher.
Isabelle — Coming into this class an engineering major, I wasn’t familiar with any of the design aspects that this class would expect of me. In just 5 weeks I learned how to create a product based off of user feedback and needfinding that I conducted. I learned how to create low-fidelity and reworked it over and over until a high-fidelity prototype was created. I learned that designing is easier when you work on the front end first rather than the back end so that one doesn’t waste time making the first iteration look pretty when it will most likely not be the final iteration. I also learned that working with a group who all put in the same amount of time and effort as myself despite the differences in our skills makes group projects not as cringeworthy as most people expect it to be.
Connie — I’ve always liked design and I knew I could usually pick out good design, but I haven’t had any experience actually making anything. This class was a great intro to that. I worked with an amazing team and we created something really aesthetically pleasing. I’m really happy with what I’ve accomplished within the class and hope to continue designing with my newfound confidence in it. Additionally, I was made to work on an online portfolio that I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time now. I am so thankful given this opportunity to finally buckle down and get it done. I’m really happy with the results, too, as well as the short time it took to create something I’m really proud of. It gives me confidence that I can do things I might have thought once were impossible for me.
The Presentation
The Final Product
