KitchenMate

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KitchenMate

KitchenMate

Building sustainable cooking habits with Amazon’s smart home assistant

In today's fast-paced world, many adults struggle to balance eating healthy meals on a budget while also dealing with recipe fatigue. As part of a small team of designers, I researched ways to transform user behavior towards food and sustainability in the kitchen. By applying user-centered design principles to the Amazon Echo Show, a smart home device, our study examined how this smart assistant could help individuals develop healthy and sustainable cooking habits.

In today's fast-paced world, many adults struggle to balance eating healthy meals on a budget while also dealing with recipe fatigue. As part of a small team of designers, I researched ways to transform user behavior towards food and sustainability in the kitchen. By applying user-centered design principles to the Amazon Echo Show, a smart home device, our study examined how this smart assistant could help individuals develop healthy and sustainable cooking habits.

Building sustainable cooking habits with Amazon’s smart home assistant

Problem Statement

Problem Statement

Maintaining a healthy diet can be a struggle for individuals with their busy lifestyles, and navigating this area whilst being environmentally conscious can often feel overwhelming. This is a pressing concern because food choices and eating habits can cause a ripple effect, impacting human health and the well-being of our planet.

Maintaining a healthy diet can be a struggle for individuals with their busy lifestyles, and navigating this area whilst being environmentally conscious can often feel overwhelming. This is a pressing concern because food choices and eating habits can cause a ripple effect, impacting human health and the well-being of our planet.

Timeframe

Timeframe

3 months

3 months

Tools

Tools

Tools

Axure, Miro, Figma

Axure, Miro, Figma

Axure, Miro, Figma

Contributions

Contributions

User Research
Interview, Diary Study, Empathy Maps, Affinity Diagram, Personas

Conceptual Design
User journey maps, Storyboards, Sitemap

Detailed Design
Wireframes, Prototype

Evaluation

User Research
Interview, Diary Study, Empathy Maps, Affinity Diagram, Personas

Conceptual Design
User journey maps, Storyboards, Sitemap

Detailed Design
Wireframes, Prototype

Evaluation

How can we help improve individuals’ diets and make them more mindful of the environmental impact of their food choices using a smart home assistant?

My Role and the team

UX/UI Designer

Led a team of 4 Researchers

Goal

Goal

We set out to solve this problem by simplifying the process of accessing healthy cooking habits with a smart home assistant that minimizes information overload and inconvenience. Our goal was to identify design opportunities that could be conveyed through the Echo Show.

We set out to solve this problem by simplifying the process of accessing healthy cooking habits with a smart home assistant that minimizes information overload and inconvenience. Our goal was to identify design opportunities that could be conveyed through the Echo Show.

Outcome

Outcome

Weeks of research and ideation resulted in KitchenMate, an application on the 10-inch Amazon Echo Show that would serve as a companion to help improve users' diets and increase awareness of how their food consumption habits affect the environment.

This was done by understanding the current barriers encountered by people surrounding their diet and lifestyles which helped us ascertain what content and features users would find valuable.

Weeks of research and ideation resulted in KitchenMate, an application on the 10-inch Amazon Echo Show that would serve as a companion to help improve users' diets and increase awareness of how their food consumption habits affect the environment.

This was done by understanding the current barriers encountered by people surrounding their diet and lifestyles which helped us ascertain what content and features users would find valuable.

Process

We followed a UCD process of understanding the environment of adults to be aware of their cooking behaviours, dietary choices, and the challenges they face maintaining a sustainable diet and ideated requirements for Kitchenmate to be successful which resulted in the creation of design solutions and their evaluation.

We followed a UCD process of understanding the environment of adults to be aware of their cooking behaviours, dietary choices, and the challenges they face maintaining a sustainable diet and ideated requirements for Kitchenmate to be successful which resulted in the creation of design solutions and their evaluation.

  • Problem Discovery

  • Ideation

  • Design & Iteration

  • Evaluation

Vision

KitchenMate: Revolutionizing the way we perceive food, one meal at a time.

In a world where health and sustainability are no longer options but necessities, we introduce KitchenMate, an innovative application designed to transform your kitchen into a hub of wellness and eco-consciousness.

Our vision is to empower individuals to take control of their dietary habits, reducing their intake of harmful substances, while also enlightening them about the environmental impact of their food choices. We aim to create a community of mindful eaters, who understand that every bite taken is a step towards a healthier self and a greener planet.

Primary Research

Data Analysis

User Research began with semi-structured interviews conducted remotely via Zoom and face-to-face, along with a structured diary study.

The open-mindedness of semi-structured interviews enabled the interviews to be built around participants’ responses, enabling further exploration of crucial insights.

Interviews can occasionally involve insincere or imprecise statements from users, thus diary studies offer value in garnering 'contextual knowledge on real-time user activities and desires. To enhance the interviews, a regimented diary study approach was chosen over free-form diary studies, ensuring the data collected would be more dissectible and comparable.

Interviews can occasionally involve insincere or imprecise statements from users, thus diary studies offer value in garnering 'contextual knowledge on real-time user activities and desires. To enhance the interviews, a regimented diary study approach was chosen over free-form diary studies, ensuring the data collected would be more dissectible and comparable.

Every team participant lent their hand by crafting empathy diagrams for the individuals we interacted with and observed via journal investigations. We acknowledged the weight of these empathy diagrams in creating mutual recognition amongst team participants, thus making it an effective initial pace in deciphering the information we collected. These empathy diagrams provided a unified forum for our team, promoting efficient joint effort and choice-making across the duration of the task.

Every team participant lent their hand by crafting empathy diagrams for the individuals we interacted with and observed via journal investigations. We acknowledged the weight of these empathy diagrams in creating mutual recognition amongst team participants, thus making it an effective initial pace in deciphering the information we collected. These empathy diagrams provided a unified forum for our team, promoting efficient joint effort and choice-making across the duration of the task.

Problem Discovery

Following the creation of empathy maps, the group came together to categorize the collected data as a collective effort and create the affinity diagram. This collaborative approach aimed to minimize the influence of individual biases, ensuring the insights uncovered were unbiased and comprehensive.

To visually represent the categorization process, we utilized colour-coded sticky notes with each topic assigned a specific colour indicating its related insights. This systematic approach enabled us to extract meaningful patterns and themes from the data, guiding our decision-making and design direction.

Following the creation of empathy maps, the group came together to categorize the collected data as a collective effort and create the affinity diagram. This collaborative approach aimed to minimize the influence of individual biases, ensuring the insights uncovered were unbiased and comprehensive.

To visually represent the categorization process, we utilized colour-coded sticky notes with each topic assigned a specific colour indicating its related insights. This systematic approach enabled us to extract meaningful patterns and themes from the data, guiding our decision-making and design direction.

Food waste was found to be a key issue for older users with families.

Users were generally open to the idea of recipes, with younger users expressing an affinity for recipes in video format.

Users with relatively poor eating habits also displayed a lack of knowledge and commitment to sustainability practices.

Users also expressed price was paramount in their food purchasing decisions.

Users with health conditions demonstrated greater consideration of their food choices and a desire to better their knowledge of healthy foods.

Key Insights gathered from common themes within User Interviews

Key Insights gathered from common themes within User Interviews

Target Audience

The key findings showed that respondents were not against adopting a healthier lifestyle but found it difficult due to costs and time constraints which led us to support a wide range of adults who prepared and purchased food for their households and showed some interest in integrating sustainable and healthy eating into their daily routines as our target audience.

Adults who purchase groceries and cook their food while being a bit conscious about their health and the environment

Make healthy and sustainable food convenient for users to choose

Provide users with clear information on how sustainable a product is

Educate users on products that can be part of a balanced diet

Assist users to make better sustainable choices

Let users know the impact of their choices on health and environment

Ideation

Objectives of the Design

As users struggled to incorporate healthy diet choices into their busy lifestyles, we aimed to deliver a solution that provided information at home about accessible and healthy products so that they could make informed decisions when buying food and groceries later on.

Conceptual Design

Personas

From the empathy maps and affinity diagram, three personas were born.

From the empathy maps and affinity diagram, three personas were born.

  • ‘Helen’, a university lecturer and mum, struggling with food waste.

  • ‘John’, a researcher living with his wife and on a mission to eat better and improve his recycling skills.

  • ‘Nora’, a single young woman living with PCOS, trying to better manage her health whilst sticking to a budge.

User Journey Map

By mapping potential journeys of our users, reflecting their decisions, challenges, and methods of meeting their objectives, we were able to identify enhancement opportunities and envision the functionalities needed for our users to successfully attain their goals.

By mapping potential journeys of our users, reflecting their decisions, challenges, and methods of meeting their objectives, we were able to identify enhancement opportunities and envision the functionalities needed for our users to successfully attain their goals.

Brainstorming Ideas

Drawing on our user personas, our team engaged in a brainstorming session to devise innovative concepts. These ideas focused on fulfilling diverse needs including the minimization of food spoilage, creating guidelines for storing food, and so forth. Subsequently, the most appealing proposals were selected, encompassing the provision of nutritious recipe choices, waste recycling and food instructions, alongside a comparison tool for grocery prices.

Our team focused on developing future customer journey maps for our user models, each assigned a distinct objective. Nora's goal was to discover a healthful recipe, John sought to understand if he could recycle a Brita filter and how, while Helen's task was to determine if her food was beyond its use-by date. We contemplated the concepts derived from these maps and decided to utilise or reject them. For instance, during the creation of Helen's map, we conceptualised a "food diary" where users could note their cooking habits and the app would offer a timer indicating when the food expires. This concept was included in our final design, as Helen's aim was to curb food wastage.

Our team focused on developing future customer journey maps for our user models, each assigned a distinct objective. Nora's goal was to discover a healthful recipe, John sought to understand if he could recycle a Brita filter and how, while Helen's task was to determine if her food was beyond its use-by date. We contemplated the concepts derived from these maps and decided to utilise or reject them. For instance, during the creation of Helen's map, we conceptualised a "food diary" where users could note their cooking habits and the app would offer a timer indicating when the food expires. This concept was included in our final design, as Helen's aim was to curb food wastage.

Storyboards

We built storyboards to represent the characters and convey the critical components of the system efficiently. These storyboards held the identical goals as those used in the user journey maps.

We built storyboards to represent the characters and convey the critical components of the system efficiently. These storyboards held the identical goals as those used in the user journey maps.

Detailed Design

Following the creation of storyboards, we developed a rough site map diagram to serve as a ‘blueprint for the information on the application.

Low-fidelity Wireframes

We started to realize our ideas by creating initial low-fidelity wireframes with sketches to visualize the features and shortlisted the final versions to use based on ease of usability and functionality.

Mid-fidelity prototype storyboard

Mid-fidelity prototype storyboard

View Clickable Prototype

View Clickable Prototype

View Clickable Prototype

Mid-fidelity wireframes and clickable prototype

Mid-fidelity wireframes and clickable prototype

Following the creation of storyboards, we developed a rough site map diagram to serve as a ‘blueprint for the information on the application.

The location of the food miles calculator, previously in the Food Assistant section, seemed arbitrary to users.

A few members have called for the addition of calorie data on our recipe sections. Previously, we thought our health rating system was a suitable substitute for users like Helen, who weren't fans of tracking calories. We overlooked the possibility that some individuals might find seeing the calorie content useful in their pursuit of better health.

Via the feature comparing grocery store prices, a user expressed desire for the ability to check cost differences for many products simultaneously, instead of inputting each item individually to find its least expensive source.

The calculator for food miles has been relocated to the Purchase Companion area, affirmatively encouraging users to contemplate their food purchasing origins.

The calculation tool for food mileage has been relocated to the Purchase Companion division, under the assumption that this tool aids users in contemplating more deeply about their food purchasing sources.

Customers are now capable of inputting multiple products into the search bar, where the application will execute a cost comparison for all items, identifying the supermarket yielding the least expensive total purchase.

Evaluation

Relevant issues

Fixes

The prototypes were tested with 5 users through a combination of in-person and remote sessions to evaluate their feasibility.

We focused on performing tasks reflecting real-life scenarios inspired by the user journeys and captured feedback via colour-coded notes on our Miro board.

This helped us prioritize improvements based on frequency, impact, and user success.

Other suggestions expressed by users included adding a BMI calculator, adding user onboarding to walk users through the app, and the option for users to explore recycling centres without having to search for an item first.

Other suggestions expressed by users included adding a BMI calculator, adding user onboarding to walk users through the app, and the option for users to explore recycling centres without having to search for an item first.

The prototypes were tested with 5 users through a combination of in-person and remote sessions to evaluate their feasibility.

We focused on performing tasks reflecting real-life scenarios inspired by the user journeys and captured feedback via colour-coded notes on our Miro board.

This helped us prioritize improvements based on frequency, impact, and user success.

A labeled navigation bar aligned with Norman's Visibility Principle ensured users knew what to do next.

Text-based controls were easier to map on all screens than voice commands for most interactions.

Swipe gestures for recipes worked well, but barcode scanning could benefit from clearer alignment cues.

Reflection

What were our key learnings?

What could be done differently if we had more time?

Bonus: Technical learnings we learned

  • Utilize the Double Diamond approach to promote a development phase.

  • User Research was a strong UCD implementation and the foundation for this project’s success‍ and led to HMWs which dug deeper into what our POVs established.

  • Sketching effectively conveyed and shared ideas by providing a tangible point of reference in discussions.

  • Carry out multiple rounds of evaluation could to benefit the design process by developing better scenarios and tasks to evaluate voice commands.

  • Enhance the visuals to ensure they are high-fidelity and align with the brand design language in a more commercial format.

KitchenMate

KitchenMate

GrooveGuide

GrooveGuide

Stemettes

Stemettes

Tinder - Case Study

Tinder - Case Study