Zestie
Zestie is a mobile wellness app I created and designed. The app allows users to get easy to prepare recipes from different categories of ethnic foods which allows them to take culture into consideration when thinking of nutritious meals to eat.
How might we make an app that has easy meal prep recipes viewed in a positive way for those looking to learn better cooking habits?
About the Project
Zestie is a mobile wellness application that I created to provide people healthy recipes that acknowledged different cultural foods and eliminated the guilt of calorie tracking other apps had. This project was completed in a two-week period. I conducted user research to understand people's relationships with mental, physical, and emotional well-being. After this, I developed Zestie to drive them to action. With this app users make a goal of cooking at least five meals per week. The following will go on to describe the process that went into researching, designing, and finally prototyping the final product.
Key Survey Findings
In total, we received 72 responses and from those responses, we were able to get the information outlined below:
When looking at the data we found that 61% of people had a goal to focus more on their diet and what they were eating when it came to health. Below 76% indicated they struggled with diet or weight loss/gain when it came to health.
The third key finding in my survey let me know that people weren't meeting or achieving their goals due to lack of knowledge (22.1%) and companionship (19.7%). This begged the question do people feel like they need someone or something to make them feel more accountable?
To answer these questions or even identify if it was a problem I moved on to interviews so I could get further insights on the real root cause of the problem.
Interview Insights
When it came to interviewing there were 8 users who participated and gave feedback on their struggles when it came to health and what they felt they needed.
The insights I found most interesting were that 6 out of 8 people identified dieting and eating better as one of their main struggles. One user said, "I don't like a lot of super healthy food heavy on salads so I give up and always go back to my comfort food." Many who had or have apps said they'd stopped using it because it made them feel "guilty especially when using diet apps because I feel so bad when I look at the calorie count especially if you have a day where you order food." Many people had the intention to be healthy and eat a balanced diet but many didn't know how to. Others said, "I am not good at cooking.” I also had people say "even if I know what to cook I don't have time or just don't know what to cook." So people did not know what to cook and even though they did they wanted food that was healthy and comforted them at the same time. According to some interviewees, many diet apps don't take culture into consideration when giving recipes or meal prep ideas.
Competitive Analysis
To better know what was out in there already after talking to those I interviewed I decided to do a competitive analysis. The market place is saturated with health apps whether it is to track your diet or to show you how to cook recipes like the Tasty app but very few have a feature that allows you to view recipes in a specific category some of the apps I compared were mealime, which makes you build your own meal plan and doesn't give full access to recipes unless paid for. which isn't convenient. I also compared Yummly but that wasn't very useful as to even look at anything at all you have to pay straight away and it's about $30 a year, again this isn't convenient for someone looking for an app that’s fast and easy to use. Finally, I compared healthy food healthy food seems like a good app as it gave constructions nice recipes but again to even enter the app you need to pay at least five dollars a week or $40 a year so this wouldn't take many users to not even look into it.
User Research
After this, I decided to do my lean UX Canvas to more thoroughly brainstorming my process. It allowed me to write down my business problem, hypothesis solution to my problem. Below is a detailed canvas explaining where my process for the design was heading.
I then did my UX blueprint strategy which helped me to be able to look into my design process. I was able to identify where I was, what I had so far, and the next steps I needed to complete before going into my actual UI sketching and testing.
Moreover, I decided to work on my Affinity map so that I could write down everything I had observed, been told, and noticed from my interviews. My affinity map let me know that many people wanted an app that would get rid of the guilt of having a diet app and also let them enjoy their cultural foods with staple foods such as rice or beans. It also gave me the insight that many wanted or at some point had even had an app but had stopped using it and reverted back to old habits as many felt they needed motivation to continue, which many apps did not provide. There was no reward system in place for many.
User Persona
Below outlined shows my user persona, her story, and her journey. Her name is Janice Young an accomplished HR Recruiter who has trouble coming up with what to cook and order in way too much. She is of Vietnamese descent and wants recipes that will allow her to feel more connected with her culture especially since she lives in Portland, Oregon, and misses the family she has back in Vietnam.
With my user in mind, a clear problem statement, and research it was time to move on to sketching the lo-fi version of what would become Zestie.
UI Design
I wanted a clear path for my project always keeping in mind my user and the use of story/journey. For my lo-fi, I made a few screens not featured in which the user first needs to answer a few questions regarding ingredients or products they did not like so they could personalize the recipes they received. This question would be followed up by how many servings per meal the user would like to cook. After they would ask to set up a goal of how many meals they plan to cook per week. Finally, before entering the home page they would be asked if they would like to set a reminder. My user flow made it clear as to what the task was for the user and what they would do if they were to follow their happy path.
Mid-fi
Once I tested with several users I was able to adjust my lo-fi makes things more visible and adjust the layout. There wasn't much confusion with the exception of the arrow in the instruction page where people didn't understand what it did so that was taken off. Another significant change from lo to mid-fi is that when people click on instructions it will show detailed instruction with video as opposed to just showing one page with text.
I also did my Moscow Analysis where I was able to decide what my MVPs were and what I would definitely not include in my app.
For the app I wanted the platform to be green to have a fresh and tasty feeling. The images of food needed to be crisp and clear and any animations needed to be rounded. In order to have a visual representation, I made a mood board.
High-fi
Finally, after A/B testing, iterating, and testing with users my High-Fi prototype was ready. Please look at the video at the top of the page to see it in action! Also available on Web and Andriod.
