I approached this project not knowing if others were experiencing a problem that could be solved with a feature. Turns out, people meal plan in order to avoid wasting food, but still find themselves wasting ingredients.
SOLUTION
The solution of a "Use Up" feature recommends recipes based on the ingredients you have on hand. While similar to the existing search function, it differs by suggesting recipes for those odd amounts of ingredients you have left over, ultimately helping to waste less food.
Without the certainty that there was a problem to be solved through a feature to begin with, I needed to gain an understanding of people's experience with the app. With that, I set a broad research goal:
I need to understand the behaviors, needs, and motivations of NYTimes Cooking app users to know if a newly designed feature could meet their needs while also helping to meet business goals.
Through gathering data from app store reviews, I began to familiarize myself with some major frustrations people were experiencing.
Many reviewers voiced frustrations over the search function not showing results related to their search. Through playing around with the search myself, it seemed like a glitchy backend was responsible for some of these frustrations, which is likely not something an added feature could solve for.
Many users expressed a desire for more from the app. There were requests for nutritional info, more video instruction, and capabilities of toggling between multiple recipes at once. I sensed there was something here to explore so I decided to continue on with my research.
At this point, I needed to acknowledge that foundational issues related to search & filter functions would likely not be solved through a new feature. However, secondary research pointed towards possible desires for users to use the app for supporting nutritional goals, learning & mastering cooking techniques, & meal planning.
To understand more about these additional desire I found in the app store reviews and to determine whether my assumptions were leading me down an unproductive path, I needed to gain a deeper understanding of how people engage with the app. Initially, I wanted to conduct a diary study, but due to time constraints, I conducted a survey that mimicked a diary study.
I surveyed 16 regular users of the app to understand:
Screenshot of survey(click to enlarge image)
The majority of people are interested in learning more about cooking techniques from the app.
People engage with the app mostly during their down/relaxing time, usually for recipe inspiration.
Many users are not necessarily looking for additional information beyond the recipe itself, but some are interested in learning how to meal plan or meet nutritional goals.
The motivations for meal planning are to save money, waste less food, and eat health. All participants meal plan using a variety of external tools (notes app, physical notebook, excel spreadsheet).
Despite the fact that the app does provide some “how-to” educational content, people have found themselves ill-prepared or uncertain doing various tasks called for in a recipe.
While some people engage with the educational content sprinkled throughout the app, they still feel as if they have gaps in their cooking skills and often look to external resources, sometimes leading them to more frustration.
Taking the insights discovered through research, I generated 4 “How Might We” statements based on user POV’s to begin leaning into the pain points.
Ideation exercise (click to enlarge image)
.png)
After the ideation session, I knew that I needed to narrow my focus to 1 HMW statement, currently my focus was too broad targeting many different problems. I returned to analyzing the interview data and came across this quote from an interview participant:
"I struggle with figuring out what to do with the odd amounts of ingredients I'm left with after cooking that initial meal..."
- Interview participant
The struggle of using up the food one has on hand is experienced by people who meal plan. If a primary motivation for meal planning includes avoiding food waste, then this is an important problem to address.
How Might We help users make the most of the ingredients they buy for their weekly meals?
In addition to the fact that this HMW statement would be solving a foundational problem for meal planners who use the app, a solution to this problem also has the greatest potential of not interfering with the app's existing IA & navigation, while taking advantage of the recipe metadata. Targeting an issue related to learning would most likely require new content creation, which could possibly be unrealistic for a product team.
Now with the confidence that I had identified a deeper problem, I brought the data to life by personifying Sam. Sam meal plans to waste less food, but he still finds himself throwing out food each week.
User Persona (click to enlarge image)
Putting myself in Sam's shoes helped me empathize with his emotional journey within this problem space. Based on the research, Sam would make a plan to use up leftover ingredients he has at home, but not dedicate the time to research what recipes he could make using the odd amount of random ingredients he has, and then ends up tossing out the items.
I put myself in Sam's shoes at the point of having to toss out the food. I thought, "If I'm Sam, and I want to avoid tossing out food but don't have the time to invest in making a new recipe with those ingredients, how could this app support me in this moment?"
User Journey Map (click to enlarge image)
People would input the ingredients they have on hand to have recipes recommended to them based on what they want to use up.
In a way it is. It is a feature that makes search work better. It doesn't solve the problem of a buggy search engine that currently exists, however, it provides an opportunity for people to enter an ingredient, AND QUANTITY, and receive recommendations and prompts based on these inputs.
Looking at apps that either directly or indirectly help users make the most out of ingredients they have on hand helped me to begin envisioning how the solution could naturally fit into the NYTimes Cooking app.
Competitive analysis(click to enlarge image)
Original app map (click to enlarge image)
New app map (click to enlarge image)
Low-fi wireflow (click to enlarge image)
Mapping out a user flow was another way to double-check that I was thinking of all potential interactions Sam might encounter while using this new feature.
User Flow (click to enlarge image)
High fidelity screens (click to enlarge image)
Click to open the interactive prototype
Participants were very satisfied with the design and remarked that it was in line with the NYTimes Cooking app design that they are familiar with.
4 out of 4 participants expressed that they would use this new feature and expressed general excitement about the concept.
There was confusion around how to view the added ingredients as a user was going through the "Use Up" flow. This was an oversight in the design as it is important for users to be able to edit and check what they have added throughout the process.
The "Use Up" app now allows cooks the opportunity to make the most out of the ingredients they have on hand while still taking advantage of the extensive recipe content that NYTimes Cooking has to offer. This is an improvement to the Cooking app and will help NYTimes Cooking retain its users. This feature does not address the main problems that exist within the app, but it meets the need that was discovered in my research.
In one of my interviews, the participant had only positive feedback to share on the app. Mid-interview, this caused some panic as it caused me to doubt whether I was talking to the right user group. Ultimately I discovered a deeper problem, but only after dealing with some mid-interview doubts!
