felipe tavira - Cozzzi — Recipes that work in your everyday life

About Cozzzi

Cozzzi is a mobile application that facilitates the planning and the execution of recipes. The app offers recipe recommendations according to the time of day, tools to customize recipes based on individual needs, and easy organization of shopping lists.

Context

The app is a personal project that started from my daily annoyances when using recipe apps and websites. After taking notes of some of my pain points, I talked to some friends and relatives who like to cook and follow recipes online, and studied the flows and resources from recipe websites/apps. From this research and with the resources I had at my disposal, I started to plan the product as an opportunity to showcase my experience in UX/UI and Visual Design.

Process

Definition of goals > Journey analysis > Hypothesis elaboration > Product Structure > Improvement proposals > Effort x impact assessments.

[PT-BR] Definição do objetivo do produto > Análise de jornadas > Elaboração de hipóteses > Estruturação do produto > Propostas de melhorias > Matriz de Esforço/Impacto

Goal

IDENTIFY IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN THE experience OF following a recipe online.

Defining the Project Scope

Looking closely at user flows on recipe apps and the processes needed to follow a recipe in real life, I believe there is a lot of room for optimization. Many apps successfully meet the demands of being a recipe repository with reliable and clear information. These apps, however, do not have a sensitive/proactive look at making the execution easier. Following a recipe may require from the user planning, speed, good memory, multitasking, among other skills. Digital tools can make some of these processes less troublesome.

There are some digital products that have facilitating features, but that do not cover the complete flow of the process. There are diet- and health-focused apps that make food planning easier, but with restrict meal options. Other apps provide good recipe options inside a social network environment. And there are several shopping list apps, but without direct association to recipe sources, so data entry is entirely the user's responsibility.

In this scenario, I believe there is room for designing a digital product that serves as a repository for recipes with features to help a relevant amount of users. In this type of desk research, it seems impossible to define which functionalities (among those seen in benchmarking and personal insights) are priorities for most users, so for the scope of this personal project, I chose to try to solve my main demands.

Journey Analysis

I analyzed digital products (websites and mobile applications) that focused on sharing recipes and/ or creating shopping lists. Among them: Panelinha (website), Kitchen Stories (app), Youtube (cooking channels), Listonic (app), and Tasty (app).

Hypothesis /Pain points

• As a person who cooks for one, sometimes I miss an easy way to edit the number of servings. I also believe people who cook for many can also benefit from a quick adjustment of portions;

• I miss editing measurement units. I have a scale and measuring cups and spoons at home, but it would be convenient to change the mesurments from the Imperial to the International System of Measurements, for example, or to change from litres to grams;

• Some recipes have certain flexibility in the ingredients, such as replacing butter for olive oil, or one fresh herb for another. It could be interesting to have easy access to these alternatives;

• During the execution of a recipe, the difficult access to the cell phone bothers me: the hand is often busy, or wet, or dirty, and the cell phone is blocked because we haven't used it in the last 15s;

• Recipe suggestions can be guided by seasonal ingredients, local festivities, and the time of day you access the app. For example: In the morning, the app can suggest breakfast recipes. In June, recipes related to June festivities. And in the period from May to July, recipes with strawberry, which is a fruit of this season that will be cheaper in the market.

• When watching recipes from videos on Youtube, it is annoying for the user as the recipes are interrupted by ads or autoplay at the end. Also annoying is the difficult access to the ingredient list in the mobile experience. I understand that the first two points can be solved with a paid account or a simple adjustment in the settings. But I also see it as an inappropriate platform for recipe execution videos, simply because Youtube does not have this goal as a product.

• I miss being able to make a quick and organized shopping list to make the recipes I want for the week.

• Only 1 of the apps reviewed allows me to automatically add ingredients from a recipe to the grocery list. And even in this app, the grocery list lacks basic editing features. For example, if I want to add an item to the list, an item unrelated to any chosen recipe, I don't have that option. I also don't have the option to reorder the list items however I want. So, I miss having a shopping list that is partially generated from the recipes I’ve chosen but also being able to edit, add, remove and reorder items from the list.

Sitemap

The Sitemap planned for the product was based on the evaluation of other digital products for recipes and/or lists.

Visual Structure

To test the project's screens and solutions, a simplified visual identity system, tokens, and components were designed.

High Fidelity Screens

The main product screens were designed based on the definition of sections and contents of each page and with the use of the system tokens and components.

Login, home and search screens.

Shopping list Screens.

Recipe Screens

Ingredients, step-by-step, ste-by-step mode and widget screens.

Matriz Esforço/Impacto

With the pain points and the visual structure mapped, I set up an Effort/Impact assessment to guide the prioritization of the proposals. This assessment considers the technical effort required to make the improvement and the impact on the business and the user experience.

Improvement proposals

1. Easy editing of the number of servings. Automatic update of the number of ingredients. It can cater to people who cook just for themselves (and want adequate servings for one), and also for people who cook for many (and want to double/triple the servings).

2. Easy editing of measurement units. Automatically update the ingredients list. It can suit people who like to use measuring cups and spoons and also people who prefer to use scales or have measurements in grams/milliliters as a reference.

3. Automatic addition of items from selected recipes to the shopping list. The amount of servings selected by the user defines the amount added to the shopping list. The measurement units of the items are suitable for the market (grams, milliliters, units, etc.).

4. Easy editing and organizing of the shopping list. Users can add items unrelated to a chosen recipe and reorder items manually, or reset the order by category or alphabetical order.

5. Step-by-step mode with features to read, see and listen to each step of the recipe. Easy access to each step even with the cell phone locked. Ability to change between steps by voice command.

6. Recipe suggestions based on seasonal ingredients, local festivities and the time of day you access the app.

Following improvement proposals

Some functions were de-prioritized in the first delivery of the product, but were registered for future tests:

• [A ser adicionado] Permitir adaptações de ingredientes alternativos nas receitas;

• [A ser avaliado] Limitar receitas apresentadas por perfis alimentares adicionados no perfil do usuário: Low-carb, Vegetariano, Vegano, Pescetariano, Gluten-free, Sem Lactose, etc. Na versão atual, o usuário pode pesquisar ou explorar receitas por essas categorias, mas o repositório do app não faz esse recorte pelo usuário. Poderia haver essa possibilidade nas configurações do perfil no App;

• [A ser adicionado] Recursos de vídeo: São muito utilizados e podem ser incorporados em futuras versões do App;

• [A ser avaliado] Recursos de redes sociais: Adicionar a sua receita, acompanhar perfis de cozinheiros. A persona inicial priorizada para o projeto é de usuários que mais seguem ou adaptam receitas do que criam, e que querem encontrar um repositório de receitas seguras e cuja autoria não é tão relevante. Atenção para Não tornar o produto mais complexo do que o necessário;

Prototype [In progress]

See also: