Savr Recipe Design Sprint

Problem:

• Users were excited about certain recipes but ended up being disappointed by their outcome as recipes are unclear, involve too many steps, and are not easy to execute.

Process:

• Initially I reviewed information provided by Savr such as user interviews, persona, and constraints to briefly map out a possible end-to-end experience.

• Before sketching anything I first completed lightening demos to get familiar and assess 3 current competitors

• I brainstormed several different ideas of formats using the Crazy 8s method and selected one. Then I utilized Savr’s persona, Nick, to keep his goals and frustrations in mind as I created paper sketches.

• Utilizing Sketch I created high fidelity mockups and a prototype to test for usability. Using the feedback and data from testing I iterated further on the design.

Lessons:

• I enjoyed moving through the process rather quickly as I think it kind of forced me to make decisions faster and stay focused on the overall goal.

• Brainstorming several ideas was a fun, creative, and helpful way to better visualize different ideas all at once.

• Having initial user research and Nick’s persona from Savr was extremely valuable as it allowed me to focus on designing a solution to address Nick’s goals and frustrations.

Day 1

Savr provided me with background information on their application as well as their user research such as quotes, an interview and their user persona for Nick. After reviewing all the information and listening to their user interviews I used Nick’s goals and frustrations in order to sketch out a map of a possible end-to-end experience. My main insights were that Nick’s frustrations were stemming from unexpected steps and not knowing how he was doing until the very end. His frustrations related directly to his goals so by trying to create solutions for his frustrations I believe we will be able to help Nick achieve his goals.

Day 2

Before sketching out some ideas first I completed lightning demos of 3 mobile apps of competitors with similar concepts. I looked at HelloFresh, Tasty, and Allrecipes.

Hello Fresh:

Tasty:

AllRecipes:

After completing the lightning demos, it was now time to sketch. In order to explore a few different ideas, I used the Crazy 8s method. These were done very quickly with just a piece of paper and a pencil. There were a few different types of ideas and formats I came up with.

Crazy 8s Method:

To wrap up for day 2 and get set up for day 3, I chose one of the crazy 8 sketches to be one of the critical screens. I then expanded a little bit more and sketched two ideas for the screen right before and right after the critical screen.

Wrap up 3 panel sketch:

Day 3

Out of the crazy 8 sketches I came up with on day 2 I decided on the top right screen as it included a section for previewing the upcoming step which was one of Nick’s frustrations was not knowing what was coming next. I also chose this screen because it incorporated an image/video which also helps to address Nick’s frustrations of not knowing if he is “on the right track” and disappointed when the recipe doesn’t come out as expected. By addressing his main frustrations I believe this will help empower Nick to create a dish that comes out as expected and have an overall more enjoyable cooking experience.

When sketching out the above screens I wasn’t as concerned with the first and second screens. This is because I knew that the negative feedback that Savr has received has been pointed at the actual cooking process and not at the recipe selection part. 

Aiming to help Nick:

• Not feel overwhelmed by seeing every step at once

• Be able to quickly view the ingredients & measurements needed for each step via the top drop down container

• Preview upcoming steps to help alleviate some of the stress that seemed to come from not knowing the next step

• End on a positive note of being told to enjoy his meal

• Quickly take an action from the end of the recipe i.e. saving, reviewing, taking a photo, or logging their meal

Day 4

Today was my favorite day because I personally love when ideas come to life and generally have the most fun creating high fidelity screens. The high fidelity screens below were based on my paper and pencil sketches and were then transformed into a prototype using InVision.

Prototype Link

In preparation for day 5 when I test my prototype, I mainly want to test its usability as well as validate if what I was aiming for from day 3 was successful. I would also like to learn from testing my prototype if users like Nick will be better able to achieve their goals and for his cooking experience to be less stressful.

Day 5

The 5 participants I recruited to interview all cook food at least once a week and have background context for following along with a recipe as I believe these were key criteria. I was also able to test all 5 participants in person which I have found in the past to have a bit more value than testing online.

First I asked my participants several questions about their cooking habits in order to gain some further insight and background context before looking at the prototype. I also explained to the participants some contextual information on this app and it’s purpose. Next I showed the participants the prototype and then gave them some tasks to perform and took notes.

Insights:

• Several participants stated that they initially thought because of the text that “upcoming step” was how to get to the next step

• Some participants stated that after they interacted with the drop down ingredients tab they then figured out that “upcoming step” was similar and not the way to get to the next step

• One participant stated they didn’t think that the upcoming step feature would be utilized and thinks that “people would just go back and forth between the two, especially if just swiping”

• A different participant stated that “upcoming steps would be useful, think I would definitely use that to save time”

• One participant pointed out that they thought the chef hat and the book icon both pointed to recipes and didn’t know what the difference was between these two icons

• One participant stated that they liked the ingredients tab because “you don’t have to scroll backwards to view the amounts of the ingredients”

Conclusion

I really enjoyed going through this modified GV design sprint, it was definitely quite the change from my previous capstone project that took much longer. I enjoyed moving through the process rather quickly as I think it kind of forced me to make decisions faster and stay focused on the overall goal. I believe that my prototype was successful at keeping Nick at the forefront of my decisions and that I was successful in helping Nick achieve his goals. 

Updating my prototype based on the testing from day 5 wasn’t a requirement for my design sprint project but I went back and made some slight changes anyways. Above you can see the few changes I made based on the feedback I received from my participants. Also changed the orange color slightly to try to make it a bit less harsh. The original colors are based on trying to theme the application similar to the information provided in the design sprint challenge by Savr and I believe it is important to acknowledge that the color contrast does not meet a contrast ratio that complies with web accessibility.