2 Months

Freelance

UX Designer

• My goal was to create a brand for The Mediocre Kitchen. This branding would consist of multiple platforms coming together to create a cohesive personality. I wanted to reach users through a mobile app, Instagram, and a podcast.

• In the case of this project, the user research aspect was focused on getting to know users needs and expectations  thorough discovery as well as testing designs.

To give the client an app, Instagram page, and podcast for a brand called The Mediocre Kitchen. My client was diagnosed with Celiac disease and has a number of other dietary restrictions. This made life more difficult when it came to finding safe recipes. She wanted a brand that would make an inclusive space for all different kinds of dietary preferences, restrictions, and allergies.

• Research other recipe sites, especially ones like Pinterest. Where many recipes can be saved into different board types
• Understand what the main driving force is for the client and this app. What do they define as success, and how can this app be most efficient for their needs

• Research alternative sites and mobile apps (ex. Pinterest)
• Create user persona

• Create wireframe sketches
• Explore color pallets
• Research alternative eating apps and media influencers

• Created hi-fidelity mocks in Figma 
• Created prototype in Figma
• Recorded and published 2 podcast episodes
• Created Instagram account and a variety of social media posts to assess interest and engagement

• Consult with client 
• Does the client see significant value in the current hi-fidelity prototypes of the mobile app experience?

What are other competitor sites? I wanted to research what sites were predominantly being used for recipe building and dieting. I also wanted to uncover how mobile apps were offering selections on dietary restrictions and allergies. I knew that my client was dealing with multiple dietary restrictions and I wanted this app to be a quick, easy, and efficient way to find recipes that were already filtered to their exact needs.

I wanted to understand exactly why the client had these dietary restrictions, and what would be acceptable for them in a search feature for this type of app. I also wanted to understand the difference fully between preferences, allergens and autoimmune disorders. The goal is to cater to all dietary restriction allergen levels.

My client and I decided that Pinterest's scrolling and saving features would be most effective in this app. So we wanted a very simple version of a Pinterest style, but only focused on recipes.

I created a user persona based on my client and their very specific needs. I expanded on this persona to include other dietary preferences and allergen restrictions.

My next step was to sketch out what this app might look like. I also wanted to be able to make some rough sketches to get the user flow and mapping set.

For the color pallet I was inspired by many health and natural food grocers. They rely heavily on vibrant greens and yellows, paired with clean white and black tones. I decided to make a style guide following these principles.

I predominantly did research on the Pinterest mobile app as well as meal kit sites like Hello Fresh. I wanted to take the ease of access with recipes and filtering options from sites like Hello Fresh, but streamline them, and re-focus towards free recipes instead. Pinterest is widely used and the client already used it often, so I wanted to take the core principles of saving and collecting recipes like users would do with "pins" on Pinterest.

I worked in Figma to create a simple and straight-forward hi-fidelity prototype. This prototype contained 5 core screens - which include: the explore, saved, recipe card, and account pages. I wanted to include elements from mobile apps like Pinterest and Instagram, that take advantage of a simple "liking" and "bookmarking" system. 

As a tertiary component to the mobile app prototype, my client also wanted to work on a podcast that would focus on different dietary preferences and needs, as well as have guests on to deep dive into diverse ways of eating and cooking.

Another social media component was the Instagram account. Which closely followed along with The Mediocre Kitchen podcast. The client wanted social media that would be useful to promoting the mobile app.