Fun With Food
Mobile app that delivers pantry-provided foods to families in need and offers recipes as well as games based on the recipes.
user research
prototyping
user testing
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Client
Academic Project
Time Frame
12 weeks
My Role
UX Researcher
UX Designer
Team
Audra Walker
Julia Wetterdal
Yena Kim
Final Concept Video | Yena Kim
project overview
Problem
California has the largest GDP of any state in the United States. Despite that, Los Angeles County is home to the largest population of food-insecure people in the nation. According to the California Association of Food Banks, at least 1 in 4 families suffer from food insecurity.
Insight
Families with children are almost twice as likely to suffer from food insecurity than families without children. In addition to that, one of the greatest struggles is feeding picky children. However, when parents take the time to get creative, their children are more likely to eat healthy foods.
Solution
Fun With Food helps families by delivering groceries from nearby food pantries and offering easy-to-follow recipes based on the week’s grocery list. Furthermore, it provides grocery box customization based on diet preferences and cooking games for children based on that week’s recipes.
Jump to final solution
discovery
Secondary Research
Secondary research has uncovered several trends among food-insecure families. We’ve synthesized research into three key insights.
80.5%
Majority of single parents families are headed by women.
13.8%
Only a small amount of food insecure single mothers are using free resources available.
32%
of female-headed households experience food insecurity, a significantly higher rate compared to male-headed households, which stands at 22%.
Problem statement
How might we encourage food-insecure single mothers in Los Angeles to cook healthy meals for their families?
User interviews
Scarlett C.
As a single mother to her son Elliott, Scarlett has shared that he is extremely selective when it comes to food. She found it especially challenging to get Elliott to try new foods. Scarlett discovered that engaging in cooking activities together was a valuable method for instilling the confidence in Elliott to experiment with new foods.
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Lee P.
As a single mother of two, Lee expressed her insecurities about feeding her first child, Rilee. Now, she opts for pre-ordering groceries to streamline her schedule and frequently relies on recipes as they simplify the cooking process and save time.
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Key insights
1. Involving children in the cooking process is an invaluable tool that helps them gain new skills and confidence to try new foods.
2. For single mothers, time is one of their most limited resources, and existing government programs often fail to consider this factor.
3. When parents invest the time to be creative in the kitchen, their children are more inclined to eat healthy foods.
User Persona
We’ve consolidated our research findings into one user persona. Meet Maria!
approaching a solution
Wireframing
Leveraging key findings and persona attributes, our team devised a solution comprised of three main features: delivering pantry foods, recipes based on each individual order, and cooking games to keep children involved in the process.
Sketches by Audra W.
Low-Fidelity Prototyping
Building a low-fidelity prototype to conduct usability tests.
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Low Fidelity Wireframes by Audra W.
User Testing
Due to Covid-19, all of our user tests were performed through Zoom. Five user testing sessions uncovered several issues.
Unclear navigation
One problem that stood out was that the payment page appeared before the “Your box” page. They wished that they could see what they were getting before paying. In addition to that, users wished that it was easier to access saved recipes.
More sorting options are needed
Users struggled with finding quick recipes on the recipes page. Since many parents don’t have plenty of time to cook every day, we needed to add an option to sort by cooking time.
Individual recipe pages were overwhelming.
When users opened a recipe page, they encountered an abundance of nutritional information. While they appreciated the educational aspect, navigation through the recipe was challenging.
final solution
Fun with Food
App that delivers groceries from food pantries straight to families’ homes, along with recipes based on the groceries and games based on the recipes.
Onboarding
Food Preference page allows user to input their dietary needs and preferences. This feature provides food box personalization.
Weekly recipes
Weekly Recipes page contains recipes for each week based on a particular food box. Users can bookmark recipes, sort recipes, and search for recipes (as well as search by ingredients).
Prototype by Masha I.
Personalized delivery
Your Food Box page has a progress bar to visualize tracking information. In addition to that, it features a summary of a user’s plan and this week’s box details.
Gettng children involved
Cooking Game is created for children to play while their parents are cooking. Games are based on weekly recipes, and each game features achievements for finished steps, a progress bar indicating progress, and colorful illustrations to encourage kids to eat healthy foods.
Prototype by Masha I.
Reflection
Reflecting on this project, I've identified several opportunities for improvement. Interviewing our target demographic provided valuable insights. However, if I were to redo this project, I would have conducted interviews with a larger number of participants to gather a more extensive dataset for synthesis. It was quite a challenge to find willing single mothers to interview during the COVID-19 pandemic, and I am greatly thankful to those who dedicated their time to us.
This project marked my first experience working in a team during the pandemic, presenting an interesting challenge in terms of remote communication and collaboration.
