Sherrie just started her first year of college and is newly independent of her parents, who live hundreds of miles away. She now lives in her own apartment, and unfortunately, she never really learned how to cook. She doesn’t want to be stuck eating frozen meals, and she can’t afford to eat out all the time since she’s on a tight budget, but she doesn’t know where might be a good place to start developing her cooking skills.

Sherrie researches some basic recipes online and decides she’ll start off by trying to make a simple pasta dish. She writes down the list of ingredients she’ll need and goes to the store to pick up everything but is overwhelmed by the number of brand options for pasta and sauce and doesn’t know what to buy. “Is one really better than the other?” She pulls out her phone and looks up a few of her options to get an idea of which is rated higher, but she eventually shrugs her shoulders and picks something out. She gets all of the ingredients she needs and heads back home.

Sherrie starts setting everything out and then realizes that she’s not sure she has all of the utensils necessary to make the pasta. She has a few pans and some wooden spoons, but she didn’t realize she has no colander. She huffs and runs back out to the store to see what her options are. While there, she starts to look around and wonder what else would be good to buy as a beginner. “There’s so many things here. I don’t even know what half of them are.” Since it’s already getting late, she decides to just pick up a colander and do research on what else she’ll need later.

She gets home and starts to boil the water and dumps the pasta into a pot. “But wait, at what point should I start making the sauce?” I don’t want it to be cold but I also don’t want to wait too long. She shrugs and decides to go ahead and make the sauce and dumps everything into a pan. She chops up the garlic and goes to add a pinch of basil when the cap falls off. “Oh my god. I just ruined the sauce. I don’t know how to fix this.” The timer goes off for the pasta, and she turns the burner off and goes to drain the water. She dumps the pasta in the colander back into the pot and sets it on the counter, and she realizes the sauce is starting to burn. “How do you burn sauce? I must have started it too soon.” She turns the burner off and dumps the sauce into the pot with the pasta.

She looks into the pot and is flabbergasted at the amount of pasta she made. “Why does it seem like every recipe is for at least four people?” She sits down to eat it and can definitely taste the basil, but she guesses it could be worse. “I think it turned out alright, but where do I progress from here? I don’t want to try something too hard, and I don’t want to lose motivation.”


Pain Points
– Doesn’t know where to start and unsure how to progress
– Tight budgetUnsure about brand options
– Not sure what utensils to use
– “Every meal seems like it’s for at least four people”
– Not sure how to time the steps
– Doesn’t have the knowledge to fix mistakes
– Afraid of losing motivation/hard to keep motivation

Observations
‍Overall, the users tested seemed to understand and appreciate the purpose and differentiators of FoodID.They liked that it was personalized, and many of the users seemed inclined to utilize the social aspect of the app. Although the only clickable option on the finishing “Level Up!” screen (no. 50) was “maybe later,” many went to say “yes.” I also noticed that some of the users were surprised by the delivery feature of the app when they reached the checkout screen. Generally speaking, there was mass confusion and a mixture of answers as to what the icons were in the navigation/tool bar. The biggest points of confusion were around the envelope as in-app notifications and the chef hat as chef help. The best understood icon was the home button, followed by the recipe book.

‍Conclusions
‍Given some of the overall observations and consistencies, it will be important to find new icons that are more recognizable to users or find a way to present them beforehand (ie a joyride) so that the user understands what their purpose is. In general, revisiting the flow to make sure some smaller details are in the right place, such as asking for location permissions, will likely help foster a better understanding of the app’s features. Given that many of the users seemed very inclined to share their accomplishments, it may be a good idea to further explore and emphasize the social aspect of the app. Getting small details in order will be critical in polishing the final flows and designs (this means no more surprises about delivery). As I progress during the next design stages, additional user testing will be necessary to make sure the changes made make sense and are intuitive to the user.

‍Important Consistencies/Observations
– Users prefer to answer the questionnaires step by step
– The chef hat isn’t understood as a help button
– The envelope is not understood as in-app notifications
– Generally, there is a lot of confusion surrounding the navigation icons.
– There is lots of confusion on the plus sign. Most users see it as “more information” instead of “add to cart”
– Most users wanted to share their accomplishments with friends
– Some of the language used in the app should be more friendly, humorous, and playful
– More illustrations, pictures, or icons would make the app playful and be of better assistance in some instances
– Some small details are misplaced within the flow and need more context (ie allowing location services)