Feel Good Foods Mobile Application

Feel Good Foods Mobile Application Planning & Design

Project Overview

Date/Duration: March – May 2023 / My Roles: UX Visual Designer Tools: Fig Jam – Figma - Adobe illustrator

I selected two direct competitors and three indirect competitors for the “Feel Good Foods” app so I can analyze their pros and cons.

Concerns

My Role

The Process

The Goal

Feel Good Foods is a cooking app that keeps track of items you have in your pantry, makes meal planning easy, and comes up with Mediterranean recipes from foods you already have at home.

There are plenty of cooking apps out there. Some of them also generate recipes based on items found in your pantry. There aren’t any applications that generate recipes of Mediterranean dishes. Since I come from a Middle Eastern family, I know for a fact that people in the Arab world like to have access to recipes of Mediterranean dishes, as they cook and serve them regularly. Users would also want easy access to the recipes that they have enjoyed the most in the past. They would also love to save time by getting recommendations of dishes that they can cook with items they already have in their pantry. This would help them minimize food waste by allowing them to use items that are about to expire before it’s too late.

Products Strategy
User Research & Analytics
Persona Creation
UI Design & Prototyping
Illustration/Icon Design
Usability Testing

I used UX principles in the development of “Feel Good Food” to:

Focus on users and their needs at each phase of the design process
Formulate and validate the hypothesis
Conduct early user testing
Focus on research results to create features that users really need

I am conducting this research because I am interested in creating an application that helps people who cook by providing them with recipes of Mediterranean food and other dishes they might enjoy. The goal is to allow people to include items they have in their pantry by either scanning the barcode or just typing in the names of the ingredients and the application will provide different recipes that they can put together. The application also allows people to create a weekly calendar to help them plan what they would like to cook for the whole week. This application should help people save time by providing them with recipes using food items they don’t need to shop for and save money by avoiding food waste. Many similar applications exist in the market but none of them are made for people who love Mediterranean food.

Competitors Analysis

Conclusion

Feel Good Foods’ direct competitors include Cooklist and SuperCook. They both keep track of a users’ pantry and generate recipes. Both apps do not include recipes of Mediterranean dishes, so Feel Good Foods would be the go-to app for people from the Middle East who are mainly looking for an app that can help them generate dishes based on items they already have in their pantry. Indirect competitors include Green Chef, Epicurious, and Cookpad. All three apps offer recipes of Mediterranean dishes but do not generate them based on items found in a user’s pantry. For this reason, Feel Good Foods is the only online platform dedicated mainly to Mediterranean dishes, that keeps track of pantry items, generates recipes, and allows meal planning.

Research Methods

The research methods I will use include user Interviews, surveys and Competitive Analysis, and usability testing. I plan to share the interviews and surveys with friends that I plan to get in contact with either through Facebook or by meeting with them in person. The goal of the surveys and interviews is to find out how people behave when it comes to cooking and whether the Mediterranean app would solve their problems. The competitive analysis would help me figure out how competitors created a layout for their apps and to discover new features that I might want to include in the application I am creating. The usability testing would allow me to find out how user friendly and interesting the application is to users.

Interviews

The Process

High Fidelity Wireframes

PROS

All about healthy living and dieting
Offers a variety of pre-measured
meal kits
Includes Mediterranean meal kits

CONS

Not enough recipes
No Mediterranean Dishes

Green Chef provides over 50 recipes to choose from weekly, including Keto, Vegan, Vegetarian, Mediterranean, and Gluten-Free recipes. It does not include the option to meal plan or generate recipes but it allows users to order meal kits to their homes with pre-measure, organic ingredients. Green Chef is one of the few apps that include Mediterranean meals, in the form of meal kits.

CONS

Does not allow meal planning
Does not base recipes on items
in your pantry

SuperCook is similar to the “Feel Good Foods” app. It offers users the option to meal plan, keeps track of items in their pantry, thus helping them to save time and money. It is generally user friendly but the recipes section is cluttered and does not include recipes of Mediterranean dishes.

Interview Results

User Persona

User Flow

Mood Board

Crazy Eights

Solution Sketch

Early Wireframes

Usability Testing

Prototype in motion

Cooklist is a meal planner and recipe generator. It allows users to add ingredients to the recipe box and creates recipes for them. The recipe can later be downloaded into your pantry so you can have access to it any time you want. The design is clear and the app is user friendly but it does not provide recipes of Mediterranean dishes and could include a bigger variety of recipes.

PROS

User Friendly
Clear

PROS

Allows users to find and share recipes
Offers a variety of recipes
Allows users to meal plan
Includes Mediterranean recipes

CONS

Does not base recipes on items in your pantry
Not all recipes are good
Cluttered

Reasons behind conducting interviews include:

Learn if people are interested in using an application that includes mostly recipes of Mediterranean food
Find out if that application would help users avoid wasting food
Find out if non-Arabs are interested in using the application
Find out if users would be interested in meal planning

I believe that the participants for my research should include people who are originally from the Middle East region, whether they still live there or not, and people who live in the United States who love Mediterranean food. As a Lebanese who moved to the United States, I have been asked by many Americans to cook some Lebanese food for them and to provide recipes.

I plan to do my research by conducting a survey and sharing it with the two different groups. I picked those groups because I believe that they would make up the target audience for the application.

PROS

Provides Recipes Based on items in
your pantry
Offers a variety of recipes
Includes voice dictation
Helps save time and money
Allows users to meal plan

Epicurious is an app that includes an endless variety of recipes, including those of Mediterranean dishes. The app does not generate recipes and does not base recipes on items found in a user’s pantry. It is also cluttered and unorganized.

CONS

No Mediterranean Dishes
Cluttered

PROS

Include recipes of Mediterranean dishes
Offers a variety of recipes

CONS

Does not allow meal planning
Does not base recipes on items
in your pantry
Cluttered
Unorganized

Cookpad is an online platform allowing users to find and share recipes. Since anyone can upload recipes, not all of them are good. It allows users to meal plan but does not keep track of items in their pantry. Since recipes are unlimited, it is sometimes difficult to find the best one. Cookpad includes plenty of Mediterranean recipes along with many others. It is cluttered and unorganized.

GROUP 1

People in or from the Middle East

Do you enjoy cooking Mediterranean food? What is your favorite Mediterranean dish?
Do you find it difficult to decide what to cook every day?
Do you plan the meals that you cook all week?
Do you ever throw away food items because you forget that you have them in your pantry?
Would you like to come up with Mediterranean meals using ingredients that you already have at home?

GROUP 2

Americans who love Mediterranean Food

Do you enjoy cooking Mediterranean food? What is your favorite Mediterranean dish?
Do you plan the meals that you cook all week? Would you like to use an app to help you plan your meals?
Do you ever throw away food items because you forget that you have them in your pantry?
Would like to come up with Mediterranean meals using ingredients that you already have at home?

By conducting 6 interviews with participants from both groups, I learned that:

Many factors determine whether or not people cook at home. Those who work full time usually go for fast dishes because they are always short on time.
People with Middle Eastern origins always prefer Mediterranean food because it is healthy and tasty.
Almost all participants would appreciate being able to cook a meal based on items they already have in their pantry.
Users would love to meal plan because it saves them plenty of time.
One thing that should be further investigated is whether or not Americans would use an application in order to cook Mediterranean dishes at home.

Feel Good Foods is a mobile application that offers users recipes of Mediterranean dishes using ingredients they already have in their pantry. It helps save time and money by providing expiration notifications and by allowing users to create meal plans for the weeks ahead. I want this application to have a Mediterranean look and feel. The design should be simple and clean.

I would like to conduct a qualitative moderated remote usability test to understand any problems a user might run into while using the application. I chose 4 participants from my target audience that includes Mediterranean people living in the Middle East and abroad.

The Scenario

You are a Mediterranean woman who wants to cook for her family. You are not sure what ingredients you have in your pantry and you only have one hour to prepare a meal. Your friend told you about the “Feel Good Foods” app and mentioned that it has helped her save time and money, so you decided to start using it. After downloading the application, you need to figure out how to add all the items you have in your pantry and how to generate recipes.

Here's where I would like to know what you’re looking at and what you are thinking. I am interested in what you’ll do if you don’t have anyone next to you.

Tasks

I want you to add the items you have in your pantry to the application and to generate recipes.

1- Fill out the “About Me” section

2- Fill out information about your household

3- Add the items you have in your pantry

4- Generate recipes

What I Would Like To Know

I am asking you to use an application so I can check whether or not it is user friendly and whether or not there’s room for improvement. Please give me your feedback very honestly because any comments can help me improve this app. They will only be seen by people working on this project.

Can you please sign a form that says that I have your permission to record you and the recording will only be seen by people working on this project?

Questions

What do you think of the experience of using this app?
Is there anything extra you think should be added to the app?
Do you need guidance to use the app?
How pleasant is the app to use?
Which parts of the app are frustrating and which parts are satisfying?
Is there anything extra that should be included to help you find out more about the application?
Give your feedback on each screen

Results

Make pantry items easy to adjust
Add a button for generating recipes
Add ratings for each recipe and the time it takes to prepare it
Add pictures of each recipe
Add more information about the recipes
Add buttons to move to different slides easily
Add a heart that can be clicked on each recipe to remember whether or not you were satisfied with a recipe