Fast modern lifestyle does not encourage to cook at home or to cook healthy. People lack basic knowledge about healthy cooking and how to get started. In a result they go for a fast food or warm up processed meals at home. In the end their health suffers.
Design cross-platform tool that will improve education on the topic of healthy cooking as well as will offer easy recipes to get started.
Cook it! is a cross-platform tool focused on helping people learn how to cook healthy meals. It offers guidance as well as easy recipes that will help get started. Primary target users include working adults living in big cities as well as well as any other who needs to take care of their health.
UX designer leading the app and responsive website design from conception to delivery
Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, iterating on designs, determining information architecture, and responsive design.
November 2021 – January 2022
I conducted several user interviews in order to learn more about cooking habits. Most interview participants reported they lack time for cooking for many reasons. Additionally they pointed that there are many cooking rules sometimes contradicting on two different websites. They would like to start cooking healthy at home to improve their health. A simple solution that offers guidelines and recipes would be a great help.
Working adults are too busy to cook at home healthy meals.
There are to many cooking rules, sometimes contradicting each other.
Most often recipes are complicated and time consuming.
Anne is a full time student as well as part time hotel receptionist who needs a website that will help her cook healthier meals at home because she would like to improve her health and reduce costs of living.
I created a user journey map of Anne's experience looking for a recipe, shopping and cooking to help identify possible pain points and improvement opportunities.
I began designing with creating paper wireframes for the mobile app. My focus was specifically on digestible knowledge tips and simple recipe features.
When creating digital designs I focused on delivering cooking knowledge in a simple and digestible form.
In order to check if the project is going in the right direction I conducted a usability study. During the moderated usability study 8 participants used a low-fidelity prototype to test the app. Below are the findings:
People want a tidy and simple look on the home page that offers clear categories.
People had to click to much to go through the rules section.
People want to search for a recipe also using a key words.
Based on the insights from the usability study I polished the mockups.
Clear labels for interactive elements that can be read by screen readers.
Initial focus of the home screen on daily recommendations help define the primary task or action for the user.
With the app designs completed, I started to work on designing the responsive website. I used app's structure to ensure a cohesive and consistent experience across devices.
The designs for screen size variation included mobile, tablet, and desktop. I optimized the designs to fit specific user needs of each device and screen size.
Desktop
Tablet
Mobile
Users shared that the mobile app and the website are simple and intuitive. They provide useful tips and guidelines. Available recipes are well suited for beginners therefore they do not discourage to take action.
„The design of the app as well as the website is clear and simple, therefore very usable. Information that you can find there is helpful and logically structure. I will definitely use it!"
App & web user
I learned that even though the problem I was trying to solve was rather a big one, moving through each step of the design process and aligning with specific user needs helped me come up with solutions that were both feasible and useful.
Add more educational resources as well as to add additional recipes.