In 2022, I began working towards my UI Design certification through CareerFoundry. This project required both user research (my first real foray into the subject), user interface design, as well as branding and general art direction.
This nine-week project took me into the field of user research for the first time, and it was admittedly a bit daunting. The problem stated that there are plenty of recipe apps out there, but they often lack the functions that users actually need. The solution is to conduct user research and analyze the competitors to create the envisioned product - a responsive web app that allow users to browse, search, and review drink recipes.
According to my competitive analysis of two other drink recipe apps “Tasty” and “Cocktail Flow,” I learned their best strengths lie in having a great search filter, having a current blog, and making the recipes easy to follow. However, they fell to things like paywalls and unintuitive interfaces.
After the initial analysis above, i developed a handful of basic questions to ask my potential users. For the most part, I learned that people are often fearful of messing up a recipe, and as someone who enjoys cooking and baking, I can completely understand. Users also don’t like being bogged down with useless information that can distract from what they’re trying to accomplish. This insight helped create my first user personas.
Savannah, a 27-year-old Lab Tech in Miami.
She enjoys throwing parties and get-togethers with friends, but when it comes to the mixology, she’s nervous about messing something up and hates when the screen times out on her, leaving her in the dark.
Jonathan, a 32-year-old Finance Director in Chicago.
He loves impressing people with his mixing skills, and it always up to try a new recipe. When looking for something new, he wants to filter his results by difficulty and by what ingredients and equipment are needed.
Sabrina, a 46-year-old Production Supervisor in Los Angeles.
At the end of a long day, she just wants to take it easy and isn’t looking for anything too complicated to make. Just give her easy-to-follow instructions, simple ingredients, and nothing more.
One of the most helpful in designing was the preference testing. I chose to use this test on the recipe screen to determine how I should layout the ingredients: with icons of with a simple list? The test concluded that although some people liked the icons, the list was cleaner and easier to read. Users can check off the ingredients as they work to better keep track of what they are doing.
Overall, the brief was easy to grasp, however when it came to user research, it’s more difficult than many may believe. It will take significantly more practice to be able to become comfortable conducting interviews and analyzing the results. However, simple A/B testing was informative and I quickly received quality feedback.
At this point, there are numerous design choices I would alter and update, and I look forward to giving this project another revision.
