Deliverables
User Research, Defining, Ideation, Prototyping & Testing
KitchenMate App
Tools
Miro, Figma, Zoom & Word
Role & Project Time
Interaction Design team project
October - December (9 weeks)
Background
KitchenMate is an application designed to encourage positive behaviour change through elements such as gamification, social features and recipe inspirations.
This project aimed to create an interactive prototype that would promote healthy living and sustainability. The KitchenMate app was explicitly designed for Amazon Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen) devices.
To meet our objective we focused on healthy diet plans which users could easily prepare by following simple recipes and learning about their food’s impact on the environment
The process
User Research
Diary studies
Affinity mapping
To better understand potential users for the KitchenMate app, we decided to conduct a diary study with 8 participants. Participants were asked to track their daily food intake over five days and answer several questions on each meal.
This approach allowed us to gather information about people’s tracking behaviour, rich data about participants’ eating habits, and their motivation to track their meals.
Semi-structured interviews
Persona
Interviews were chosen as a follow-up to the diary study. This method was chosen to clarify any themes or patterns that emerged during the diary study.
The interview aimed to understand how participants felt about the concept of food tracking to evaluate their goal progression and their concept of “healthy” behaviour.
These insights would be valuable in developing the application with a user-centered approach that takes into account users' needs and preferences.
“It was a great experience. It made me think about my eating habits”
Based on the information gathered through the diary study and user interviews, we were able to create three personas. Each persona highlighted essential user attributes to consider during the design process.
“It felt nice to have an insight into my habits and what I eat during the day”
A large amount of data was gathered from diary studies and interviews. An affinity mapping was undertaken to organise and group our research findings into themes.
The activity was conducted through Miro, where the team gathered essential quotes from the interview and clustered them into several categories, such as “things which help you be healthy”. Each cluster was then summarised to help us better understand each category.
At this stage, we were able to analyse data and determine key insights from user interviews. We were able to evaluate personas’ goals, thoughts, feelings, actions and words to ensure that we were thorough with all three personas’ perspectives before moving on to conceptual design.
Empathy mapping
At this stage, the features identified were sketched by all team members in the form of hand drawings. The goal was to design something that would meet users’ needs based on the insights collected.
This stage was beneficial as it gave us a general idea of the layout—for example, the position of the navigation bar.
Conceptual Design
Both future user journeys and storyboards were developed based on each persona. The future user journey helped visualise how potential users would interact with the features of the KitchenMate app based on a real-life scenario.
Storyboards were also created to give a visual representation of the user journey. The storyboard demonstrates how the features would address each persona’s frustration and how they would use the app to achieve their task, such as finding a recipe using leftover ingredients.
Sketches
Future user journey and Storyboards
Brainstorming
Following the user research phase, a brainstorming session was conducted through Miro. This method was chosen as it allows a generation of ideas to flow freely in a collaborative environment. Ideas were then grouped together to create the features of all pages.
Prototype
Detail Design
This section aimed to design numerous vertical prototypes covering a specific range of user journeys where users could easily navigate with the KitchenMate app. The conceptual design process was what inspired the design of the prototypes.
Usability Testing
Validating designs with users
The prototypes were evaluated with four individuals chosen to be distinct from those who participated in the research phase.
To assess the application's usability, an evaluation criteria guide was established to evaluate users' ability to navigate and complete various tasks.
During the evaluation, users were observed and prompted to express their thoughts aloud to assess their level of ease or difficulty in completing the tasks, as well as to gain insight into their mental models when interacting with the app's features.
Takeaways
My introduction to UX design through this project has been both enjoyable and instructive. It has given me valuable insights into the principles and practices of UX methodology and helped me to develop my teamwork skills.
Despite the time constraints, I have acquired new competencies in working with a diverse range of design tools and research methods.
In summary, this experience has been highly enlightening and has demonstrated my ability to adapt to changes in a collaborative working environment and overcome obstacles with innovative solutions.
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