PlatePal: A Recipe to User Success

PlatePal branded itself as a User-friendly Recipe App that would tailor itself to meet the needs and preferences of Users who wanted to build a specific diet. The App needed a sense of design that would combine both an informative nature while allowing a high level of freedom and personalization. Throughout the process, I've taken the steps to create several concepts and conduct research to ensure that prototype designs would be made to meet the standards of what PlatePal's brand aimed to provide in terms of User experience.

Background

PlatePal's main business goal as a User-friendly Recipe App was to tailor itself to meet the needs and preferences of Users who wanted to cook recipes and build a specific diet. To accomplish our goals, we needed to build a foundation of empathy towards understanding what makes an ideal design from the Users' perspective. This initially began with the idea of understanding what the two biggest needs they held when using a recipe app: searching for desired recipes and efficient presentation of information. Furthermore, the two biggest pain points of Users I've identified were complicated navigation and poor respect for time. 

User Research

After conducting basic competitive research on other potentially similar recipe apps, I performed a cart sorting measure to place each of the app's most essential features and information into specific categories to establish a sense of organization ahead of time. After this, I was eventually given a handful of provided personas that symbolized Users who each had their own common reasons for investing in the app. Out of all of them, I chose to prioritize one that would ensure PlatePal had a solid foundation at its forefront to use as inspiration towards fulfilling the health-centered needs of its Users.

 Design & Ideation

This was the point in the process where I initially began coming up with the solutions that would be needed to help PlatePal accomplish its goals towards meeting the needs of its Users. The first major step was to perform a MoSCoW Analysis that would categorize the different sections of the app's features for what should and wouldn't be included through the design process. After this was complete, I committed towards establishing a user flow chart that would depict the ideal interaction and goal that Users would have when using PlatePal. After completing a series of eight rough sketches that represented the layout for the splash page, the last step in the design and ideation process was crafting a number of low-fidelity wireframes for the app's most essential pages.

Design Refinement

After constructing the low-fidelity wireframes, I moved onto the next step of acquiring the thoughts and opinions of potential Users directly in order to find the best possible steps towards improving the designs for the high-fidelity phase. I accomplished this through creating and distributing a User Survey that asked for preferences on different iterations of certain features included into the app's prototype designs. All of the feedback I received served an essential role in making the necessary changes to each page and their features for the sake of ensuring that the desired brand image would be present in each of PlatePal's pages while incorporating the newly-received feedback.

High-Fidelity Prototyping

In terms of visual design and branding, I primarily aimed for achieving a simple yet intuitive combination that would be consistent throughout each page's design. This was done with choices such as simple yet effective iconography that served as universal signs that any User would likely recognize to symbolize a certain function (chef hats = recipe difficulty, stars = ratings, etc.). This would serve as a consistent theme throughout the process of developing the high-fidelity prototypes for each page, which were also essential elements that were used to gain User feedback for possible future improvement.

Usability Testing

After compiling a list of tasks that would serve as the process for usability testing, I chose two adults to participate in navigating through the paper prototypes. Their experience with navigating through PlatePal's functions across each page and completing the tasks proved to be very solid without any major issues. Even so, I still recorded data of each interaction with certain features by having the participants sign a feedback grid. This was able to give much-needed insight when adjusting the prototype designs for first impressions along with an idea of how any User would fare on an average level otherwise, new or old.

Iteration & Refinement

After successfully collecting a sufficient amount of data from User Surveys and Testing, I immediately began the next step towards refining the prototype designs in accordance to feedback. The first step taken was to alter the terminology of essential functions for the sake of a more casual experience (My Album, Your Recipes, etc.). The second step was simplifying iconography to be less bold while still maintaining their elaborate nature that communicated certain features' functions to Users with minimal visual di

straction.

Impact & Conclusion

Overall, the solution that I've been able to provide towards creating designs for PlatePal has greatly strengthened my sense of fortitude towards building empathy for Users of a service. With all of the experience that I gained from supporting my client, I�ve successfully gained even stronger insight towards creating designs for services that would seek to effectively cater towards the needs of its Users while still subtly challenging them by relying on their direct input and feedback for possible future improvement.