Top Sweets
Invent it.
This project is by far my favorite because it was the first time I experienced the rush of excitement to see my idea transform into an actual working prototype that could be so helpful to so many people, including myself. This was a group collaboration to solve an everyday problem. I was thrilled that the group chose my idea of helping people who bake at high altitudes.
Research it.
The idea was initially inspired because my son’s birthday was coming up and I needed to figure out how to make an egg-free cake at a high altitude. At first, our group wanted to help all cooks with any dietary restrictions. However, we learned sometimes we need to let go of our initial ideas and start over.
We conducted a survey using Google Forms and interviews using Zoom as well as researched statistics about high altitudes.
Key Findings
Almost all bakers need to make some kind of modification or substitution when baking.
90% of the respondents attributed these modifications to high altitude.
A surprisingly large amount of the population lives at high altitudes.
Ultimately, based on the research we conducted, we decided to focus only on the idea of helping bakers at high altitudes.
Size up the competition.
We continued to gather more information to fine-tune our problem and work to a solution. We did an affinity map activity to find themes in the data, and developed our user persona, Emily, who had a similar story as mine featured on a storyboard. We also completed an “I like, I wish” activity and utilized the feature prioritization method all while researching what baking apps were already out there.
Key Findings
Only one app was geared specifically to high altitudes and it was only available for Android.
Many agreed that using the app without having to create an account was a strength.
Taking all this research into account we crafted a user insight statement that would help us to stay on track:
“Upon analyzing our research, we found that people who bake at high altitude have not found any mobile apps that are useful in making modifications to recipes for high altitude. Emily, a loving mom who recently moved to Denver with her family, enjoys baking for others. She needs a way to modify her own recipes easily because she feels fulfilled when she can comfort others with her delicious treats.”
Build it. Test it. Iterate it.
All of this data collection and user insight helped us each to create a user flow with a clear beginning and end. We also individually created low-fidelity wireframes with working prototypes. We also each practiced testing our prototypes to find out what was working and what wasn’t.
Initial Findings
All users paused at the camera/input screen signaling confusion.
All users were successful at completing all tasks.
All users commented on the ease of use.
You can see how the findings led to screens that were chunked for easier reading.
Click the button to try out my low-fidelity prototype, so Emily can get help with her baking. I was proud that my initial prototype was the only one that actually worked for users to be successful in all tasks, so it was chosen to be used as the base for the next iterations.
Time to pull it together
Go with the flow.
We had to figure out the actual flow of each decision for our users to achieve success on the app. All three iterations of the user flow that I made are included, even if all the steps can’t be seen, in order to show how the flow became a bit more involved and improved for the user experience as we all combined our ideas. Bringing in all of our ideas and prototypes to form one prototype was not easy. We really needed to keep going back to our research and user insight to keep us on a “happy” path. On the bottom iteration, you can see that there are more decisions for users, noted with purple diamonds, so that they can upload a recipe either by hand or by taking a picture, or even using a picture from their library. Users also have the option to save their converted recipe which prompts them to create an account near the end of the experience, if they so choose. This decision was inspired by the competitive analysis when we found users enjoy using an app when they are in the middle of something in the kitchen, and then decide later if it is worth creating the account.
Click the button to experience the group low-fidelity prototype with all these new paths and no dead ends.
Think about it.
This project focused on the user experience including research, testing, wireframing, and prototyping. It was also a lesson in group collaboration as well as mastering new tools quickly. The design featured in the mock-up is similar to how I ultimately envision the app to look, however, I will need to come back to this project to actually design and apply user interaction skills. As a group, we were proud of what we had accomplished in only 3 weeks’ time.
What we learned:
Communication is key to good collaboration
Utilize the strengths of each member of the group.
Teams can create more quickly than working solo.
Feedback from users drives the work forward.
Next Steps:
Explore dietary restrictions as another feature.
Explore a feature to save notes.
Update to mid-fidelity.
Keep testing and iterating.
This is where the story ends for this project. I’ve learned you need to celebrate each small win as they come to fully enjoy the work. This app started as an idea and ended in a tangible prototype that actually works. I’ll take that as a win!
Click the button to view the entire case study.