Design Sprint for Savr App

Timeline

June 2021 (1 week)

Location

Vancouver, Canada (remote)

My Role

UI/UX Design (solo)

Platform

Mobile

The Project

How do we help users feel confident learning how to cook? Savr uses voice recognition to help users do two things: provide meal inspiration based on their dietary preferences and find recipes based on the ingredients they already have in their kitchen. Each recipe provides video instruction, a list of ingredients (letting them know what they have and don’t have), and outlines the cooking process in an easy-to-follow format. I conducted this modified GV Design Sprint in one week by myself in Vancouver, Canada, doing the research and producing the UI/UX by myself.

Day 1: Map

Design Problem and Insights Gathered

Savr is an app that provides quality recipes for at-home chefs to learn. Unfortunately, users have expressed concern over poor instructions resulting in a stressful cooking experience. Users' experiences did not go as expected because some recipes require ingredients users do not have.

Our primary persona, Nick, is eager to learn to cook and try new recipes. He wants to try cooking complicated dishes, therefore, the instructions need to make difficult recipes easy to follow and make him feel confident that he can cook new meals.

Map of the possible end-to-end user experience

Day 2: Sketch

Get Inspired:

The lightning demo provided inspiration for me to view creative solutions that have already been implemented in other designs. The three apps chosen solve the user’s problem in a creative and efficient manner. I chose Shazam because the innovative voice user interface streamlines the recall process for the user.

Taste Made presents high-quality videos of the cooking process in a simple and visually appealing way. Finally, DoorDash provides an easy solution for hungry customers: by making meals easily accessible.

1. Shazam recalls the music for the listener. Within a few short bars it figures out the song that is playing.

2. Taste Made shows a video of a recipe’s cooking steps with the ingredients listed to the right, followed by simple instructions to follow below.

3. DoorDash facilitates feeding people in real time when they are hungry.

Crazy 8s Method for Critical Screen:

Crazy 8’s Exercise

The critical screen was chosen because it simplifies the cooking process by giving the user everything they need on one screen. It also incorporates voice recognition if the user wants to change the recipe if they don’t have the ingredients required.

Create a Solution Sketch:

Solution Sketch

Day 3: Create a Storyboard

The storyboard needed to merge the app’s two main features: providing meal inspiration for the user to give them ideas about what they would like to cook, and to provide recipes based on ingredients they already have. When following a new recipe, I wanted to give the user the option to remove ingredients they don’t have, and then be given alternative recipe options based on ingredients they do have.

Storyboard

Day 4: Build a Prototype

Day 5: Validate

User Interviews

All five usability tests were conducted remotely with people between the ages of 25-31 either working in North America or abroad in Asia. The goals for testing the prototype were to see if the users found value in this app, if they found it helpful and easy to navigate.

• All grew up in Western countries
• Educated
• Currently working full-time
• Enjoy cooking as a hobby

My Experience Interviewing and Testing

Each person had different needs, desires, and preferences when it came to what they would find helpful in a cooking app. Repeating comments and behaviours helped me identify patterns in the design that worked or needed adjustment.

Findings From My Interviews

The Usability Test:

Severity Rating Scale

Usability Evaluation

Final Wireframe Iteration

Reflection and Learnings

• The design was well-received. Three users said they could see themselves using this app.
• Users thought the app was helpful, they thought navigation was simple and they enjoyed the two features: recipes inspiration and recipes given based on what is currently in their kitchen.
• The Solution Sketches are a fragmentation of the entire design. They will evolve after speaking with people and reassessing the design to make the changes necessary to improve usability.
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• A fine balance must be struck: users require a sense of agency when moving through a design, however, they still need to be guided by so they don’t feel overwhelmed or lost.
• If I were to move forward with this project, two areas would need to be addressed: testing constraints for voice recognition and improving standard usability on iOS. The navigation patterns would need to be reworked because the menu and tab bar were misused. This can be fixed by creating a system that uses subpages and sub-levels to improve navigation.