"Cooking Video Tutorial Site" was assigned to me during the 6th Coursera UX certificate. I hadn't seen any cooking sites where UX had been done well. Youtube has good UX but video cooking tutorials is a subcategory that has not been optimized.
Carlos works part time while going to school and will be a senior beginning this fall. He usually tries to cook something easy and fast 3-4 times a week and finds most recipes on Youtube, TikTok or other places on the internet. He is interested in very easy, nutritious recipes that also are cost effective
Lori is a single mother with 2 children in school. She works full time and often finds recipes on the internet at work and picks up ingredients on the way home from work using the new recipe. She has frustration that the TikTok recipes don't have printable/downloadable instructions.
Jeanine is a retired teacher who lives alone. She often sees her children and grandchildren on the weekends and likes to cook for them and herself. She uses her phone or tablet to find new recipes and often hand writes instructions and ingredients on paper before going shopping
This User Journey was done for Lori to step through finding a recipe on Youtube or somewhere else on the internet. The user journey helps document each step from searching the recipe all the way through shopping for ingredients and cooking it.
The goal of the competitive audit was to compare the experience of each competitor's website while searching and saving recipes. The three sites that were chosen were YouTube, Jenny can Cook and Bon Appetit. Mobile apps for each site were evlauated also.
Prior to ideating on solutions with storyboards and wireframes we were asked to define the objective with a goal statement to help focus our approach
After the Goal Statement was finalized we were asked to create a site map for our project. I chose a matrix design because I thought it would be cool to make our site more like Facebook or Twitter.
After the competitor analysis and goal statement I began sketching wireframes and storyboards to try to document a variety of different approaches. At this stage I was more interested in "outside the box" ideas while also including a thorough collection of straight forward designs
One of the main issues I wanted to address right away was to make it very easy to print a recipe, save a recipe to photos on your phone, or download a recipe as a pdf
After completing a working prototype in figma I began the usability study with 5 participants. The feedback was very helpful and is shown in themes below with quotes from different users along with observations.
Most of the issues discovered in the usability study had to do with uploading recipes and seeing that a photo or video was required. The other feedback centered on adding options to email or text recipes to people or to user's own phone
After completing the usability study it was clear we need more clarity during the recipe submission process. Users did not immediately see that a photo or video was required to submit a recipe
Based on this finding I moved the "Upload Video or Photo" button next to the "Submit Recipe" button and added a note stating that recipes couldn't be uploaded without a photo or video
Another insight that came from the usability study was the request that we provide an option to email or text a recipe to someone
Based on this input I added an "Email Recipe" button to each recipe page. The Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube post options were moved above
Similar to Facebook, once logged in, users can return to the site or app and easily comment and upload recipes for others to view
Because TikTok and Youtube cooking videos don't typically include printable or downloadable instructions I wanted to focus on guaranteeing each Cooktorials recipe included printable instructions which could also be downloaded, saved as a photo or emailed.
Additionally, buttons have been moved closer to the top of the page as a result of the usabilty study feedback
User comment feed is prominent on most pages to offer a more engaging user experience. Any user comment or post on a recipe updates the feed so users can see new comments and respond. Other home page features include search, categories and favorites
Because users are more likely to have tried recipes in their favorites section I wanted to make it super easy to comment on each recipe.
Most of the recipes will be uploaded by users, so site managers don't have time to evaluate every recipe submission
While pretty standard, the categories page is essential for users to find ideas quickly. Vegetarians and Vegans can skip the search process with one or two clicks using this feature
Because of the many photos and colors I felt that a neutral pallete would not clash with the photos