Happy Plate App
Case Study
01. About the Project
When our group was first trying to brainstorm ideas for our daily struggles, we named an array of different examples. We all had one similar struggle that we dealt with on a weekly basis: meal planning. There are a lot of details that go with meal planning, but for our project, our initial goals became understanding user reasons for cooking or meal prepping, what kind of goals they set, and how to remain consistent with those goals.
From that objective, we formulated our research plan - to design an app that would facilitate meal planning.
Problem statement: Users do not have the time they need or do not want to spend a significant amount of time to prepare meals. This inhibits their process to plan, cook, and gain cooking experience based on their individual needs and goals.
My role: UX designer/researcher (group project)
Tools Used: Adobe XD, InVision, Miro, Google Docs, Google Forms, interviews, iPhone recordings
02. User Research
For our user research, we conducted 5 user interviews and 2 surveys. The first survey focused on a broad network for general discovery, while the second focused on a target group of people for details
Journey Map
Our group began by giving our problem a sense of direction.
To help narrow down those reasons, we put together a quick proto-style journey map. This helped identify pain points.
User Interviews
First Survey
At first, our survey asked very general questions like, “How many meals do you plan for?” or “Have you ever planned more than one meal in advance?”
From the interviews and 1st survey, we determined there were 5 root problems why users weren’t reaching their goals:
Lack of time
Lack of experience
Healthy Eating
Dietary Needs
Meals are too strict
Second Survey
1st Results
Each category was given a point value for every response equal to its frustration scale ratings. Lack of Time clearly identified itself as the highest rated level of frustration among all 53 respondents.
But wait...
But this lead to one more challenging question: Did the same users have a secondary or correlating problem as well?
2nd Results
To concentrate on the majority pain point our research revealed, we focused on creating a data set with only those users who rated Lack of Experience as a solid frustration rating of 7 or higher which, eliminated all neutral or opposing users. Users who rated Lack of Time as a 7 or higher, also had a problem with Lack of Experience.
User Persona
03. Definition & Ideation
Journey Map
Our second journey map was more focused than our first one. We had research data, a user persona, and now we had to create the scenario.
It represents how Trisha is optimistic planning her meals for the week, but once reality sets in, she veers off course and chooses to divert from her plan.
Problem Solving
We decided to brainstorm top ideas we wished and liked about existing apps. From there, we decided to vote on the feature we liked the most.
After much deliberating, we decided our core features should encourage efficiency, education, and affirmation.
Value Proposition
Introducing: Happy Plate App
“Happy Plate” is a cooking app to help beginner cooks stick to their meal plans by providing simplified search, easy-to-make recipes, learning opportunities, and cooking time awareness.
04. Lo-Fidelity Prototyping + Testing
User flow
Our app, “Happy Plate” guides users throughout the app in a very simple, easy way, which would allow users to get creative with their meal planning as well as make it completely custom based on their needs.
Lo-Fidelity Prototypes
Jumping to our lo-fi wireframes, we wanted big images, simple and clean interfaces, and plenty of familiar icons and lists that users could easily navigate through. These screens show what our ideas for the homepage, explore page, and step-by-step screens might look like, with a gif showing the way a user can navigate through the app from beginning to end
Usability Testing
For our user testing, our goal was simple: what were the users looking for when they opened the app and how would they navigate through it? So, we let them just move around the app without giving them instructions and took notes on their behavior.
These are a few of the key takeaways.
05. Hi-Fidelity iOS Prototype
Style Guide
The final design needed to feel exactly how food makes users feel, comforted, warm, happy, etc. So we wanted to use warm and inviting colors, playful icons, and large images of food.
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
Prototype in Action
Final Thoughts:
Our project successfully identified a significant user problem in meal planning. We gained surprising new insights and designed specific features and functions through our apps for our users.
Overall, a meal means more than we think. We all gain from confidently, well prepared meals.