A mobile recipe app that allows users to make healthy, hearty meals using the existing ingredients in their kitchen.
Research
UI/UX
Visual Design
Prototyping
March - April 2021
(8 weeks)
Adobe XD
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Calvin Zhang
Cecilia Tsang
Queenie Wu
Food loss and waste is a significant global issue. It undermines the sustainability of food systems; when food is disposed of, all resources contributing to the production of it—water, land, energy, labour, and capital— are all wasted as well. Food waste also has severe implications to climate change— the disposal of food waste in landfills leads to greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, unnecessary food waste negatively impacts food security and availability, and contributes to the increasing cost of food and thus, cost of living.
>50% of food is wasted annually. This equates to ~2.2 million tonnes of perfectly consumable food.
63% of food waste is completely avoidable and could have been consumed
We conducted a survey to find out more about people's behaviours on food waste. Based on our previous research, we were particularly interested to decipher whether people are mindful of their food waste when grocery shopping, cooking, or even eating. We also wanted to decipher why produce isn't used before being thrown away. The results from our survey found that:
of respondents noted that fresh produce is one of the biggest types of food that often ends up in the garbage at home (second to leftovers).
of respondents say they try to meal plan to reduce their food waste.
of respondents sometimes thinks about food waste when eating at home.
of respondents state that the primary reason why fresh produce ends up in the garbage is because it became spoiled and/or stale.
of respondents think about their food waste because they want to reduce costs.
of respondents sometimes thinks about food waste when grocery shopping.
Households are responsible for the largest portion of all food waste. A major contributor to food waste at the consumer level is food spoilage, where food rots and is thrown away before it is used. Food spoilage often arises from poor planning. People are either:
From our survey results, a design challenge emerged:
Based on our research and surveys, we came to the conclusion that our target users would be individuals aged 25 to 34 years old, as per research conducted by Google in 2015; it was found that 59% of people aged 25 to 34 head to the kitchen to cook with their mobile device or tablets. This age group has an “I Want to Do It” attitude in the kitchen, where recipe apps come into play; recipe apps help support their culinary process and allows users to experiment with new recipes and learn new culinary skills.
We created two different personas based on our target users. This includes a university student and a middle-aged fiancé. Each user has their own unique set of goals, behaviours, pains points, and needs, emphasizing the complexity of our product.
cookin aims to solve the problem where people may want to cook at home, but are struggling to think of any meal ideas that use the existing ingredients they already have in their fridge. It aims to provide recipes tailored to the user’s current resources, and will thus, reduce time and costs associated with other recipe apps, where for example, users may need to revisit the grocery store to purchase more ingredients to follow a desired recipe.
Our team wanted to take a persuasive computing approach, focusing on four main aspects:
cookin increases user confidence by inspiring users to take advantage of all their fridge's resources.
cookin presents users with impressive recipes specific to their available ingredients.
cookin provides the user with a large catalog of recipes for them to choose from.
cookin guides users through a step-by-step process when they follow along the chosen recipe.
After conducting all of our research and surveys, we were ready to begin designing our wireframes.
The name cookin derives from two meanings: cookin' (cooking), to represent the act of cooking, and cook in, to represent the act of staying in and making food rather than going out to eat or buying takeout.
Users are properly guided and introduced to the core values and objectives of cookin.
Organized in categories,each recipe card provides users with a quick preview to not only entice, but to help them make more informed and efficient decisions.
Users can find and check off their available food items from the given list. Alongside a search bar function, items are categorized based on different food groups and pantry sections to ensure the user finds food items quickly and easily.
Based on the selected ingredients, users will be shown recipe(s) they can make with them. Users can also add certain recipes to their Favourites for easier finding in the future.
Users can take advantage of cookin's extensive encyclopedia of food storage and usage information. By educating themselves about how to keep their food items fresh, they can reduce their food waste and overall footprint.
Revisit favourited recipes, bookmarked storage tips, modify app and profile settings.
This was the first major team project I worked on in a virtual environment (as a result of the pandemic). While there were its difficulties, with some members not being in the same timezone as others, our experience working with each other helped streamline the production process, and made the entire experience extremely rewarding. Another significant learning experience I had was working with a new software: Adobe XD.
The most challenging part faced during this project was developing the app on App Inventor. At first, we did not recognize that our coding capabilities would result in such significant compromises and step-backs from our desired prototype. Additionally, there were a lot of bugs on the platform itself that created a lot of headaches for the team as well. Nevertheless, our team has a long history of working together; we understand each other’s strengths, weaknesses, habits and behaviours, and know how to leverage the right skills needed to get the job done.