Chilli, empowering cooking
Project
Academic
Google UX Design Course
My role
UX research
UX design
User testing
UI design
Visual Identity
Timeline
Dec 2023
3 weeks
Approachable nutritional knowledge
Deciphering complex nutritional data is hard for many. Chilli is a recipe app that empowers users with easy-to-understand nutritional information on the go, so they can learn how to cook healthy and delicious meals.
On top of that, the app provides an easy and enjoyable experience with a clean visual interface that focuses just on the most relevant details of each task, freeing users from a poor website recipe experience and the fear of accidentally missing any steps.
How does Chilli help people?
Nowadays, many individuals opt for processed ready-made meals due to time constraints and a lack of energy for researching nutritional facts, ultimately sacrificing health for convenience, as they also find cooking time-consuming and unenjoyable.
The Chilli app aims to improve the situation by:
making cooking a pleasing experience while empowering people to have healthier lifestyles.
Design Thinking
Design Thinking framework to guide the ideation and solution development process.
Understanding the user
Empathize
José is a busy Master’s student that pursues a healthier lifestyle, who needs guidance about a balanced diet because he doesn’t have time to learn for himself.
other problem statements
Laura is a personal coach who works from home that needs a way to reduce the time spent cooking, because cooking daily meals means a long pause from work that affects her performance.
Francisco is the busy single dad of two daughters, who wants to make them part of the cooking so they all can be together and make the most of the little time he has after work.
Gabriel is a student with ADHD who’s living alone for the first time, who needs a way to focus while following recipes, because they feel overwhelmed at numerous steps and anxious about missing any steps.
User journey
Goal: To cook a new recipe for dinner that uses the available leftovers.
improvement opportunities
- Place the most relevant details first.
- Provide an easy way to follow the directions.
- Voice commands for improved accessibility.
- Help users to find what they fancy when they have trouble deciding.
Competitive audit report
define
FINDINGS
Many applications force users to registrer from the begining what causes them to loose interest and potentially leaving without even using it. When users are able to experience the tool first, they can later create an account when needed -for example, to save recipes-.
Other applications also present a straight to the point approach that feels cold, and have an unmemorable brand image. They also lack an overview of the recipes, which is helpful for users to understand the steps before they start cooking a meal for the first time.
Opportunites
Optional account.
Pleasing visuals.
Audio guidance and voice interaction with the app.
Ideation
hOW MIght we & crazy eights
problem statement I
José is a busy Master’s student that pursues a healthier lifestyle, who needs guidance about a balanced diet because he doesn’t have time to learn for himself.
How might we…
Increase the possitive
- … turn learning into a light activity?
- … make learning about nutrition attractive?
- … promote good habits in a healthy way?
Achive the opposite
- … hide relevant nutritional facts?
- … deliver the benefits of nutrients in an undecipherable way.
Remove the undesirable
- … prevent the user from learning about nutrition?
- Nutritional facts that encourage an action.
This will help José to easily adopt healthier habits without worrying about the technical benefits, just focusing on the action.
- Intake register with daily goals.
Gabriel will benefit from knowing at a glance what nutrients he still has to consume, without the need of previous nutritional knowledge.
problem statement II
Gabriel is a student with ADHD who’s living alone for the first time, who needs a way to focus while following recipes, because they feel overwhelmed at numerous steps and anxious about missing any steps.
How might we…
Increase the possitive
- … make it easier to overview wich step the user is at while following a recipe?
- … make it calming or pleasing to follow steps?
Question the status quo
- … write a recipe that is not divided in steps?
- … transform a recipe so that it is not about following instructions?
- Song or poetry format.
When the recipe is a song, the moment of cooking becomes more enjoyable. Plus, the recipe becomes easier to learn for doing it again in the future, wich will help users like Gabriel.
- Infographic.
A first overview of the recipe helps users to better understand the process before cooking.
- Options.
Instead of following steps, users choose -boiling or steaming, for example- wich will allow them to customize recipes and lets them engage with cooking.
Starting the design
Prototype
Goal statement
The Chilli app will let users effortlesly learn about nutrition while making cooking a pleasing experience, which will affect José by improving his eating habits while enhacing his overall wellbeing.
User flow
Task – Find a recipe and prepare a meal
Wireframes
An overview of the recipe is provided, as well as a focused view of each individual step. This helps users to easily follow the directions.
- Collapsible overview.
- Audio directions option.
The Discover page displays nutritional facts that encourage an action. Like that, users can adopt healthier habits without worrying about technical aspects.
- Tip and explanation.
Refining the design
The recipe page displays the nutritional values of each recipe. These values can be tracked and showcased in a visual daily intake graphic, so that users can handle a balanced diet effortlessly.
While following a recipe, the tabs Ingredients and Directions lay always at hand. This provides users an efficient and comfortable navigation.
Simply interesting visual identity
Branding
Busy users want to cook healthier meals, but they lack the time and inspiration, that’s why Chilli’s visual identity reinvents cooking as a pleasing experience with a vibrant palette and nostalgic, yet modern typefaces. Furthermore, Chilli knows the importance of good eating habits, so it aims to lift the burden of learning from the users by presenting the information in a simple and visually appealing way.
Comforting and uplifting
A design made for everyone
Accessibility
AAA color contrast in text improves legibility.
Audio instructions while cooking, and voice activated controls to help all kinds of people cook more comfortably.
Going forward
Next steps
The objective of this project was to develop an MVP enabling users to navigate the primary functionalities within the website. This goal was accomplished successfully over the space of three weeks. However, as digital products are continually evolving, the following notes outline areas for enhancement in future iterations.
- Offer suggested recipes to reach the daily intake goal. This would save users the time of manually checking recipes to fulfill their nutrient needs.
- Improve the search function by adding filters. This will provide a more precise tool for users to find recipes they love.
What I learned
Thanks to this project I realised the value of embracing errors, adaptability and resourcefulness. During brainstorming, I came up with the idea of presenting cooking recipes as catchy songs for enjoyment and easy memorization. However, implementing this concept with artificial intelligence proved challenging due to time and resource limitations. Consequently, I had to pivot to a more traditional approach to ensure project completion on schedule.
This experience highlighted the importance of both innovation and practicality in overcoming obstacles during the design process.
Throughout this project I was also able to hone my design workflow following the Design Thinking Process, from empathising with possible end users and understanding them, to materialise their needs into an usable and meaningful product that will improve their lives.
