Meal Match
Expertise
Platforms
Deliverables
Website
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Project timeline
6 weeks
Problem statement
A young adult who feels overwhelmed and unmotivated by the task of cooking dinner each night wants to add greater variety into their dinner options but finds existing websites, and food meal box services are difficult to follow and laborious.
Research methods
Competitor analysis
Conducting research on industry and market trends, competitors, comparable experiences and reviews of competitors to gain insight into problem and find any opportunity points.
- Taste - Australia’s #1 food site and is home to more than 50,000 recipes
- Marley Spoon - food delivery box service that makes weeknight cooking simple with recipes/ pre-portioned ingredients delivered to your door
- Cookpad - UK Tech company that aims to make everyday cooking fun through a social food sharing platform
Survey insights
- Distributed to: friends, family, colleagues, Facebook group - Sydney Startups.
- From the collective data, the target demographic age from was 25 - 29 (34.4% of respondents).
- 50% of respondents who found cooking laborious were full-time workers.
- 68.7% of respondents recorded low motivation to cook dinner daily (Score of 1 or 2 out of 5).
- 64.4% of respondents want to add more variety & interest into their dinner experiences
- 50% of respondents spend 1-3 hours on social media per day
Interview insights
- Interviewees selected based on target demographic from quant. surveys: 25 - 29.
- "By the time you get to the end of the day, you've made thousands of decisions. If you then have to decide what you're going to cook, what you have to buy and then cook and clean up, it never gets done." (female, 25, Dietitian, lives with partner)
- "What I like about Hello Fresh is that you don't have to prep!" (female, 27, Senior Designer/Art Director, lives with partner)
- "I am time-poor so the last thing I want to do is have to make a decision on what to cook...It's hard to agree on a dinner" (male, 29, Product Manager, lives with parents)
- "There is no incentive for me to make different dinners" (female, 29, teacher, lives with partner)
Diary study insights
- A shared Google Document & Calendar reminders were set up between myself and the participant for fast and efficient documentation
- Diary Study Timeframe: 4 days diary logging (due to the limited project timeframe)
- Prompts: Participants were asked to fill in a table based on their daily behavioural patterns and thoughts associated with their dinner experiences/routine
Problem statement pivot
After the research (Comp analysis, Surveys, 1:1 Interviews & Diary Studies) the problem pivoted with a recurring theme/issue emerging. The problem pivoted from the general task of cooking being laborious to the decision making process of what to cook is the pain point.
Define
Affinity and empathy maps
Synthesising research data to discover key themes in the affinity map, and then interpreting the data on an emotional level to better understand our user group.
Key pain points
- The decision making process of what to cook is a pain point
- It's difficult and frustrating for households to agree on nightly dinners
- Recipe websites provide too much choice and are overwhelming
Personas
Customer journey map
How might we?
- Help Ally decide on what to cook for dinner, so that she can make less decisions during the day, and reduce her mental fatigue
- Improve communication between households in an engaging way, so that Ally can quickly and efficiently plan her meals for the week
- Create an engaging social environment, so that Ally is more motivated to cook a variety of meals throughout the week
Develop
Ideation workshop
Generating creative solutions in relation to our HMW statements.
Session details:
- Rapid brainstorming (Crazy 8s - 1 idea per minute)
- Fist-to-five voting
- MVP (mapping out desirable and viable ideas)
MVP
Generating creative solutions in relation to our HMW statements.
Storyboard
Card sort
- I conducted an OPEN CARD SORT with 4 Allys (Miro)
- Next, I generated an IA based on formative results from open sort
- Then, I tested the IA concept by doing a CLOSED CARD SORT with 6 Allys (Optimal Workshop) to validate my open sort & IA.
- Finally, modifications were made to my IA
Information architecture
User flow
Deliver
Wireframes
Usability testing (moderated)
3 Allys tested the wireframes (via zoom)
Tests:
- Onboarding
- Navigation icons
- Open questions and directed tasks
Results:
- 3/3 Allys wanted to have the option to skip the last two steps of the 'Create Account' Section so that they didn't have to set up their account details right away.
- 2/3 Allys wanted the navigation icons to be highlighted to show which section of the app they are in.
- "A rating system might be helpful to help me decide"
- "I like that the week of meals is automatically planned out from your matches"
- "The fact that there's only 20 meal options on offer each week is helpful because it will limit my choices"
Modifications made:
- Added a 'Skip Step' button on the last two screens of the 'Create Account' section.
- Added a solid fill to certain navigation icons to show what section of the app you are in.
- Added a star rating system to help Ally feel more confident about selecting meals.
UI Design (GEL)
Low/mid fidelity prototype
Usability testing (unmoderated)
7 Allys tested the low/mid fidelity prototype (on Maze)
Tests:
- Onboarding
- Navigation icons
- Housemate profiles
- Open questions
Results:
- 6/7 Allys (85.7%) had direct success in navigating through the onboarding process, while 1/7 Allys had an indirect success rate (14.3%)
- 4/7 Allys (57.1%) had direct success and found it easy to navigate through the app using the nav icons, while 3/7 Allys had an indirect success rate (42.9%) - see Heat Map on the right
- 7/7 Allys (100%) had direct success and understood how to match on meals
- 7/7 Allys (100%) had direct success and found it easy to use the 'Schedule' section of the app to plan weekly meals
- 6/7 Allys (85.7%) had direct success in using the 'Housemate Profiles' section , while 1/7 Allys had an indirect success rate (14.3%)
Modifications made:
- Confusion around the bottom navigation icons - Added text labels to bottom navigation for easier accessibility.
- The Allys inquired about button interactions for the bottom nav bar (to indicate where they clicked) - Added highlighted icons.
- Log in process too long for the Allys - "can the app remember me?" Take away phone number steps (remove log in screens) - once signed up app now remembers details.
- Once in the Profile section, the Allys didn't know how to search for their housemates!- Added 'Housemate Search'.
- Change this section from 'Profile' to 'Settings
High fidelity prototype
Final modifications
Final prototype
Next steps
- Further usability testing - to track how satisfied the Allys are using the app
- Add-on features - do the Allys find enough variety in the 20 meals/recipes on offer each week or do they require more options? Could this be an additional feature Ally can unlock?
- A/B testing - to test Ally's behaviour patterns while using the app, and also to find out if the Allys respond better to more or less meal options/recipes
Feedback & quotes
"Excellent work, Lauren! Congratulations on a powerful design project, which is not only flawless, but went beyond expectations. You chose a very well covered area of research and brought to life new insights that would be incredibly valuable to a culinary brand. Your work to do effective diary studies in order to discover the real pain points for Ally and your pivot was of the quality that I would expect for a professional research team that had been in the industry for 5+ years."
"Not only was the research effective, but your UI and visual design shows a high degree of professionalism and storytelling. You validated everything perfectly and never let go of Ally throughout the presentation. The concept alone was excellent and that it presented great value to your Ally’s made it clearly a successful design project. Your psychology in the food photography for the colour palette, usage of video for your testing and the heat map were also big standouts in this amazing work!"
"Exceptional work from end to end, Lauren. This is a high watermark for excellence in design work and you should be very proud to present this to a UX team. You’re going to have a brilliant career in this industry in any area of HCD, from research to delivery! WOW!"
- Hayden Peters (Academy Xi Mentor), November 2021