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An iOS app focused on classic French-themed recipes.
Role
UI/UX Design, Brand Identity
Project
Career Foundry
Year
2020
French cuisine can be daunting to cook at home. The challenge was to design an app with a focus on French recipes. Since demographics would target beginners, it was paramount that recipes utilize common ingredients and contain instructions that are easy to follow.
Knowing that most users will be in the kitchen while using the app, it was important to consider legibility and ease of use. Research suggested users would utilize most for dinner recipes, during the work week. Recipes should not be overly complicated or time-consuming to execute.
My Process
User Personas
I interviewed a group of 5 that outlined 3 user personas.
The interviews revealed common themes:
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Goal: To cook budget-friendly, uncomplicated, tasty dinners that aren't time-consuming to execute.
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Motivations: Incentive (save money & time), Social (share ideas), Achievement (self-confidence), Growth (learning new things) Power (helping others, healthy options).
Natasha Johnson
38
Small business owner
Frustrations:
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Apps can be too complex
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Not enough healthy options
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Instructions difficult to follow
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Uncommon ingredients
Cindy Mills
72
Retired small business owner
Frustrations:
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Apps can be complicated
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Not enough healthy options
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Instructions difficult to follow
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Uncommon ingredients
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Not enough videos
Elijah Westerman
28
Assistant Winemaker
Frustrations:
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Apps can be too complex
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Features don't work properly
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Difficult to navigate
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Uncommon ingredients
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Poorly developed
Branding & Style Guide
The visual approach was a nod toward traditional France using classic colors and imagery but modernized. The hex tile pattern was fun to make and reminiscent of the flooring you'd see in an old French bakery.
Rapid Prototypes
I'm a pen-to-paper- kind of gal and prefer sketching low-fi wireframes the old-fashioned way. For the MVP we needed 9 screens for 4 user stories.
During exploratory sketching, I can eliminate possible friction points and simplify the UX. After selecting the preferred solutions I then sketch mid-fidelity wireframes, which include a bit more detail.
User Flows
Usability Study
Testing early and often is an efficient use of time. In doing so it helps isolate pain points before wasting too much time on aspects that might be unusable. Here, I circled back to the same group I interviewed in my research phase.