(archive) Savr Recipes

Savr Recipes

Cooking can be difficult and deciding what to cook can be a tough choice. The Savr app solves this by providing recipes but users were still lost trying to follow the recipes. This sprint addresses this by reorganizing content on the recipe page and providing improvements on a new feature - step-by-step mode.

Duration

1 week (design sprint)

Role

Solo UX Designer

Project Type

UX Design
UI Design

Background

Savr is a cooking app that provides a large collection of recipes and cooking tips for home cooks. However, the app has been getting negative feedback about how users would struggle following complex recipes, specifically the timing, order of steps, and learning new techniques.

Image of person cutting bell peppers
Source: Pexels

Brief

The objective of this design sprint is to provide a clearer and easier cooking experience for current users and to present the solution as a feature for the Savr mobile app.

Nick, 29

Pain Points:

Unsure if he's "on the right track" halfway through preparing the meal
Isn't clear on "what's next" and how he can prep a few steps ahead.
If a dish doesn't meet expectations, not sure where he went wrong and feels disappointed
Gets stressed out referring back to his phone every time a new technique or step is introduced

Goals:

Follow a recipe easily and with confidence so dish comes out as expected
To enjoy the challenging process of trying new recipes

Proposed Feature

In total, I looked at 5 different apps to see what was already out there. From that, I was able to come up with 4 different features to ideate on.

I did a crazy 8 exercise to try to build on those ideas and ultimately decided on an instructional mode that elaborates on each step. In addition, I chose to rethink the layout of the recipe page based on user feedback.

3 panel solution sketch with discover page on left, recipe page in middle and step-by-step mode on right

Prototype

Recipe Page

For this sprint, I focused on the layout of the content since this page would be most commonly viewed and make or break the experience of trying out a new recipe.

Step-by-step mode

This mode emulates a recipe video by adding visuals and steps on each section but allows you to go at your own pace.

Test

The users I recruited ranged in cooking ability and frequency; some cooked everyday, some cooked rarely. All expressed using recipes to try new things and explore new flavors.

In my testing, I found that

Users were confused about the play button next to the “start cooking” button which seemed to imply that it was a video. While the step by step mode simulates a video with visuals at every step, it is different in format.
Users felt that a progress bar for the step by step mode would be helpful to see which step you are currently on.
All users appreciated the simplicity and the organization of the recipe page and suggested adding difficulty levels.

Reflection

Overall, the sprint went well, but I wish I had more time to recruit users matching the persona closely. Due to short notice, recruiting stretched until day 4 and as a result, some users weren't ideal, skewing feedback. In the future, I'd also prioritize features better next time; in the rush, some felt disjointed, like adding a tutorial on a step-by-step page, which puzzled users and could have benefitted from an onboarding or be scrapped entirely.