Frige: Your Culinary Companion for Inspired Cooking
Frige is more than just a recipe app—it's your ultimate culinary companion. With intuitive design and seamless navigation.
Frige simplifies the way you discover, explore, and engage with recipes.
Say goodbye to decision-making dilemmas and hello to a world of culinary creativity.
Let Frige be your guide to inspired cooking every day.
Problem:
Do you ever find yourself standing in the kitchen, surrounded by ingredients, yet utterly lost on what to cook?
The struggle of deciding what's for dinner is all too real, leaving us frustrated and uninspired, longing for a simpler way to make mealtime decisions.
Solution:
In today's tech-savvy world, interactive and enjoyable learning experiences are highly sought after.
Our solution? A digital platform crafted to ignite curiosity and enhance learning for individuals in their 20s and 30s, making meal planning easier and more enjoyable than ever before.
Understanding the User
Before diving into design, I conducted extensive user research to gain insights into how individuals in their 20s and 30s approach meal planning. Through interviews, I explored:
Decision-Making: How users make meal decisions.
Pleasure & Motivation: What brings joy to their food experiences.
Personal Experiences: Anecdotes shared by users.
Information Search: How users search for food-related information.
Preferences & Choices: Factors influencing their meal choices.
Interface Feedback: Ensuring the app's appeal and usability.
Research Insights
Through in-depth user interviews, we developed detailed personas that capture the goals, challenges, and behaviors of our target users.
These personas served as invaluable guides throughout the design process, informing decisions on features, user flow, content, and visuals.
Continuously updated with new data, our personas ensured that our design remained user-centered, addressing real-world challenges and preferences effectively.
By anchoring our decisions in user insights, we stayed aligned with the needs and behaviors of our target audience, ultimately creating a more impactful and user-friendly experience.
Personas
Competitor Research
In analyzing the market landscape, I extensively researched the offerings of key competitors to glean insights into their features and user experiences.
Notable among them were Cookpad and Tasty, both prominent platforms in the culinary space.
Cookpad offers personalized recipe recommendations and an extensive collection of user-generated recipes, catering to diverse preferences and dietary needs.
Tasty distinguishes itself with engaging cooking videos, step-by-step tutorials, and interactive features that make learning new recipes enjoyable and accessible.
By studying these competitors, we gained valuable insights to inform our own product development and enhance our offering in the culinary space.
Competitor Comparison
To refine our UX design strategy, I conducted a comprehensive competitive analysis, comparing Frige against key competitors such as Cookpad and Tasty.
Using a visual analysis method, we identified Frige's strengths and areas for improvement, enabling us to strategically prioritize feature development.
By understanding our competitive landscape, we directed our design efforts towards enhancing user experience and maintaining a competitive edge in the market.
This iterative process ensures that Frige remains responsive to user needs and continues to innovate in the culinary space.
Sketches
To begin the design process, I created a series of rough sketches.
These sketches served as a foundation for shaping the layout and flow of the app.
My goal was to prioritize user-friendly design, allowing individuals to effortlessly explore recipes and engage with the platform.
By iterating through these sketches, we laid the groundwork for a seamless and intuitive user experience.
Final sketch layout
Other Ideas:
User Testing (Low Fidelity)
Prior to finalizing the designs, I conducted extensive user testing sessions with multiple participants.
Their valuable feedback guided the refinement process to ensure the designs aligned with user expectations and needs.
Key insights gathered from the testing sessions informed subsequent changes, enhancing the overall user experience of the app.
User Flow
Imagine Helen, a passionate home cook, opening the Frige app. She's presented with three enticing options: searching for a specific meal, personalizing her homepage through a fun quiz, or diving into personalized recipe recommendations.
If Helen chooses to explore a recipe, she can effortlessly swipe through images and select one to prepare.
Her personalized homepage reflects her unique tastes and interests, ensuring she feels right at home every time she opens the app.
The recipe search feature serves as her trusty tool for quickly finding exactly what she's craving, saving her precious time and effort.
With the entertaining quiz, Helen can fine-tune her homepage settings to perfectly match her individual preferences, making her experience with the app truly her own.
Sous Chef - Feature
Frige's features are meticulously crafted with the user in mind.
Inspired by Helen's cooking journey, we understand her desire for convenience, exploration, and guidance in the kitchen.
Our cooking mode with AI assistance simplifies the cooking process for Helen, allowing her to follow recipes hands-free, akin to having a personal sous chef.
This feature enables her to focus more on the cooking itself rather than constantly referring to her device, enhancing both efficiency and enjoyment in the kitchen.
Quiz Feature
Frige offers a short quiz comprising five questions, assisting users like Helen in customizing their homepage based on preferences and dietary requirements.
This tailored approach addresses Helen's specific needs and preferences, ensuring she feels understood and supported in her culinary journey.
For Helen, who values efficiency and personalized assistance in the kitchen, this feature provides a focused selection of recipes aligned with her individual culinary preferences and dietary considerations.
Takeaways
This project offered invaluable insights into the unique challenges users face in their food-making decision journey.
It was an opportunity to explore innovative solutions tailored to enhance their cooking experiences.
As my first UX project, I am proud of the outcome. Witnessing the entire UX process unfold was enlightening and rewarding.
Next Steps
What would the client’s POV look like? Our focus remains dedicated to crafting solutions tailored to culinary enthusiasts. Moving forward, we're intrigued to explore how we can expand Frige's capabilities to offer customer-facing solutions.
What can be improved with the design? UX design is an ongoing process. The next steps include continuing usability testing and constant iteration to enhance the user experience further.
“Design everything on the assumption that people are not heartless or stupid, but marvellously capable, given the chance”
