Overview
Meal prepping has gained popularity in recent years, as people look to create healthier lifestyle habits for themselves. Meal planning can seem like a daunting task to many, but once mastered can help save precious time and money.
RecipEZ aims to make meal planning easy for busy people.
The Challenge
Meal planning becomes complicated when it is disorganized. Hours spent searching for recipes, curating grocery lists, shopping, and cooking in big batches for the week may not appeal to those who would benefit from the practice the most.
Goal
The primary goal is to understand the users of meal-planning practice, and provide them a better solution to manage their weekly prepping.
Meal-Planners need a better way to control, manage, and monitor their weekly meal prepping.
Surveys
A Google Form survey was completed by a sample of 8 meal-planners. The questions seeked to uncover user’s motivations, habits, and challenges in terms of their meal-prepping history. Data collected provided valuable insight for the project at an early stage.
Survey Statistics:
25%
Have tried a meal-prep related app
88%
Meal Prep to be healthier
75%
Find it time-consuming
User Persona
A user persona was developed to serve as an archetype of RecipEZ’s target user. The persona served as a guideline for all design decisions and provided a clearer vision to satisfy user needs.
User Journey Mapping
Utilizing information from the user persona, I developed a user journey map to uncover areas of opportunity. This allows me to visualize the users expected actions to complete a goal, and optimize the user experience design.
Brainstorming
After analyzing the information collected from the defining stage, I was able to start brainstorming how to optimize areas of opportunity in the user experience design. I started by sketching out ideas for a user flow map, to best ideate how a user would navigate the product.
User Flow
The user flow diagram acts as a map of a user’s path through the app. Based off of the previous stages, I was able to predict how a user would get started in RecipEZ finding and adding recipes to their meal plans. This stage defines all the necessary screens I will need to design in the next steps.
Wireframes
The user flow diagram acts as a map of a user’s path through the app. Based off of the previous stages, I was able to predict how a user would get started in RecipEZ finding and adding recipes to their meal plans. This stage defines all the necessary screens I will need to design in the next steps, and is the beginning of my UI design planning.
Prototypes
After reviewing my wireframes, I began developing my prototype app pages. I started this process with a clear UI direction, pictured in the above style tile. This ensured consistency throughout the interface, leading to a better UI/UX experience for the end-user. Next I built out my pages in Adobe XD, and started to define relationships between pages.
Usability Testing
One of the most valuable steps in the UX design process is Usability Testing, which allows me to study how users interact with my prototype through specific tasks, and encounter problems in doing them. This feedback gives me the necessary information to go back and improve my design, solidifying a more effective and enjoyable user experience.
Final Screens
After reviewing my wireframes, I began developing my prototype app pages. I started this process with a clear UI direction, pictured in the below style tile. This ensured consistency throughout the interface, leading to a better UI/UX experience for the end-user.
