Savr Mobile App
Customer Problem
Users struggle to make their way through recipes because of confusing directions and/or cooking techniques, while having to constantly refer back to their phones in order to complete a recipe.
Role
Product Designer
Method:
Google Ventures Design Sprint
Programs:
Adobe Creative Suite
Sketch
Team:
Individual
Solution
Savr: cooking made easy
All recipe copy and image credit used in my final prototype goes to
//www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/patricias_holiday_fruitcake/
Click on category names to go to section and view full details.
Mapping and Understanding
the Problem
Sketch Your
Solution
Decide and Create a Storyboard
Protoype
Test
Ready, Set, Sprint!
Mapping and Understanding the Problem
Users are excited about learning new recipes and cooking techniques but are discouraged when the outcome isn't successful. This is due to unclear direction regarding preparation, lack of visual aides about how the meal should look at each stage, and having to constantly refer back to their phones for directions.
Sketch Your Solution
Lightning Demo
On Day 2, I reviewed other website recipe services to see how they make searching for recipes and meals accessible for users. I was particularly interested in filters, layout, and how the recipes were organized into larger buckets.
I thought the straight-forward design of Epicurious was effective in making it easy for the user to find meals and recipes.
I enjoyed the secondary options that enabled users to personalize their search, as well as the social/community based aspect of the "Create a Menu" option.
When looking through Tasty's website, I appreciated the variety of options they provided for their users, while keeping their buckets simple and easily digestible.
I also appreciated the way Pinterest was able to balance mass amounts of information, with easy to access filters, and giving the user the choice to choose which option speaks to them with no enforced hierarchy.
Crazy 8's (Sketching Exercise)
Final Sketch Solution
Decide and Create a Storyboard
Through my research with lightning demos, I really appreciated the clarity and ease of use of the filters that were included in a many recipe websites. In order to solve the problem of constantly referring back to one’s phone while cooking and uncertainty about how the meal should look, I decided to add videos for each of the steps. Another step I took was to emphasis cook time, prep time, and serving size at the very beginning, so the user has the freedom to change their mind and move on to another recipe as soon as possible.
Protoype
While working on designing my high-fidelity screens, I reflected upon how and how they could translate into design opportunitities.
How might we make the user easily search for recipes?
Savr allows the user to filter search results by dietary preferences, using highlighted features that allow users to customize meals/meal plans, and takes into consideration pet meals.
How might we set up our users for success when preparing a meal?
Savr attempts to make the user's experience as painless as possible when preparing a meal through step-by-step written and video instructions and the ability to message the chef with any questions.
Test
When interviewing users, some of my main takeaways were:
1) consolidation of categories on the footer navigation
2) small tweaks to personalization actions
3) freedom to filter recipes more
For the consolidation suggestion, one user noted that “Pet Recipes”, “My Recipes” and “Bookmarked could all go under a larger bucket of “My Recipes”. Another suggestion, in addition to consolidation, was the inclusion of a search icon in the header/footer. Users also noted that the “Save My Spot” action could be placed under more stopping points that the user may possibly pause at. Another takeaway that was included in the design was the inclusion of filtering recipes immediately under the hero image search bar, in order to make the filtering process more obvious.