Duration

May 2023 - October 2023
(5 months)

My Roles

UI Designer
UX Researcher
UX Writer
Visual Designer
Product Manager

Tools

Figma
PhotoShop
Illustrator
TeamOClock

Works

Illustrate design ideas, visual design, user experience research, wireframing, prototyping, user flow, testing, collect feedbacks

Project Problem Statement

The current applications in the market cannot meet the users' demand for sharing recipes, and there is no place for users to engage in discussions. Most recipe apps merely serve as electronic collections of recipes, with almost all content controlled by the manufacturers. Users are unable to provide feedback for other users to distinguish the quality of recipes. Additionally, the search and recommendation systems in most recipe apps cannot be customized according to users' individual preferences.

Project Goal

Sizzle aims to provide a healthy, comprehensive, and well-defined ecosystem for those who are passionate about cooking or eager to learn, allowing them to share their creations, foster communication, and generate profits from their work. The establishment of Sizzle not only enhances users' internet experience and opportunities for interaction but also aligns with the contemporary trends in the age of social medias, making people's lives more convenient. It seamlessly integrates daily routines with the internet, promoting a regular, efficient, and worry-free lifestyle.

User Research Summary

This project aims to tackle the problem encountered by the majority of current users of cooking-related applications who struggle to find an efficient means of sharing their ideas and creations online. Additionally, we intend to introduce additional features and create a comprehensive ecosystem for cooking enthusiasts to build a community and expand their social circles. The study will delve into the business potential of a user-centric feature and seek to answer how technology can be seamlessly integrated into daily life to enhance people's quality of life.

Pain Points

1

Recipes are not organized, tagged very well. The boundary on each catalogs are usually vague.

2

Users find it challenging to interact with recipe authors or other users.

3

Users couldn't find any options to share their creations.

4

Options for recipes are normally limited for users, and usually not beginner-friendly.

5

There are excessive advertisements and fragmented information, making it difficult to find correct information.

6

Users need a place to share their thoughts, feedbacks, or simply a place for them to communicate.

Competitor Analysis

Advantages

  • Biggest recipe apps currently exist in the world.
  • Over millions of recipes created by professional chefs, and have been crafted in very informative ways.
  • Actively updated contents to make sure the recipes are up to date and fresh.
  • These apps generally include a shopping cart function for user to keep track of their recipe ingredients, also a way to generate profits for the app.
  • Well made trending system.

Disadvantages

  • Traditional recipes apps are not user content driven, most of the contents are created by the professional chefs, some of the recipes are not made for regular cooks because of the difficulty of the recipe.
  • Although the recommendation system and trending systems do exist in the apps, the apps are still not data driven, none of the recipes are recommended based on the study of the user behavior and their preferences.
  • The searching function on these apps lack of granularity, and it's merely keywords-based, which makes the searching experience unpleasant.
  • There is not a way for people to efficiently provide feedbacks to the recipes or the content.
  • The shopping cart feature doesn't keep track the existing ingredients users have.
  • The layout of these apps are rather complex and chaotic due to poor design and filled with unnecessary contents.

Advantages

  • Huge user base makes the content more relatively interesting.
  • Strongly data-driven, all the recommendations are user preference based.
  • Most of the contents that are food related are presented in the form of videos, which is easier for people to learn and spend more time to stay on the page.
  • Strong social media vibe gives a great environment for people to communicate and provide feedbacks.
  • It's very easy to make good recommendation systems which can lead the users to have more accurate recommendations.

Disadvantages

  • These apps are more of social media apps, not entirely food or recipe related.
  • The nature of these apps limits the possibility of searching and categorized.
  • No way for users to track their recipes and collections.
  • No other useful features such as shopping cart or meal plans.

User Research Personas

User Journey Map

What Can Sizzle Do For Our Users

Find Groups

Join your interested groups or create your own group in Sizzle to chat with others about everything you’d like to share!

Plan Your Meals

Struggle to decide what you gonna eat next week? Need to have a fitness meal plan for weight loss? Meal plan in Sizzle can help you build a perfect plan which fits your daily routines to improve the quality of your life! We also craft our recommendations based on your own interests!

Better Searching

A clear and organized arrangement of ingredients can help you quickly choose a recipe based on the chosen ingredients, search for the recipes that you can cook right away.

Discover

Trending and topics section will let you know what’s the most popular related recipes over the week in the world, follow the hot topics to enjoy yummy food!

Share Your Recipes

Create the recipes of your own, share with other users, make profits.

Your Own Recipe Collections

Make your own recipe books, save the recipes that you like, and share the collections with others.

User Flow

Tasks

Site Map

Hi-Fi Prototypes

Lo-Fi Prototypes

This is the first iteration of Sizzle. The overall design features clean lines and sharp, angular rectangles, contributing to a minimalist aesthetic. Yellow and orange served as theme colors, the selection of these colors is intentional, as they are known to stimulate the appetite and enhance user engagement. Skillful use of colors in visual design can significantly enhance user retention while maintaining a harmonious relationship between the content and the overall style.

Usability Testing Findings

Round one findings

  • Some buttons are too small or not protruded enough, people can lose target
  • Users have difficulty discerning the disparity between the topic screen and the threads screen, as they perceive the content in both to be quite similar.
  • Users believe that the recipe page has a clear and user-friendly structure but are unsure about how to provide feedback and rate recipes.
  • Users believe that providing instructions the first time they use Sizzle would be helpful to improve their experience.
  • Some directional texts in the app are excessively verbose and occupy significant space.
  • The rating section on the detailed recipe screen raises some questions because of its unclear layout and language usage.
  • Users are pleased to observe icons replacing text as guidance, but the spacing is too cramped, often inadvertently redirecting users to other screens.

Round two findings

  • After I repositioned some icons and introduced features that allow users to zoom in and out of pictures, they have noticed a significant improvement in their experience.
  • I enhanced my UX writing and provided more concise yet easily understandable prompts in my project. As a result of these improvements, I observed that users, even those using our app for the first time, quickly became more familiar with it.
  • I reorganized some sections of my app and adjusted the spacing between different layouts. I discovered that maintaining a reasonable distance between different sections significantly enhances the user experience.
  • Making the UX writing to be concise yet clear allows users to more efficiently achieve their objectives when using the app.
  • A well-organized and clearly prioritized layout of features makes the distribution of page content more coherent, allowing users to swiftly access essential information.

Mockups Improvements

We have removed the ratings and tagging features based on our empirical findings. The study revealed that the majority of our participants prioritize information about how many individuals have prepared a given recipe. Furthermore, the initial placement of keyword tags at the upper-right corner of each recipe was deemed excessive during the usability study. I have consistently strived to develop auser-friendly and uncomplicated application, thus opting aesthetic, suggesting a preference for visually appealing content.
In addition to the "Liked" and "History View" features, I have incorporated the "Saved" feature in the new design. This novel functionality aims to enhance the user experience, as a significant number of research participants expressed curiosity regarding the location of their saved recipes when exploring the initial design. Furthermore, I have optimized the navigation bar, diligently identifying the most user-friendly and ergonomic placements for mobile phone users.
The fundamental design elements remained consistent across both iterations of my designs. However, I made adjustments to the size of each category icon to ensure an aesthetically pleasing design. Additionally, I relocated the search bar to the bottom navigation section, aligning it more closely with user habits for enhanced convenience.

Hi-Fi Prototypes

Accessibility Testing / Considerations

  • We considered using different fonts to distinguish the title from the body of the text. This would help people, including those with dyslexia, to better understand the content.
  • We considered implementing a function that allows users to zoom in and out on picture sizes to assist those with visual impairments.
  • We relocated the search bar from the bottom of the navigation bar to better align with people's familiar position when holding their phone.
  • We create a feature that allows double taps to avoid accidental icon clicks.

Impact

Through this usability study, we discovered that establishing a complete and logically clear functional system can significantly enhance the user experience. The importance of enhancing the user experience lies not in commercial goals but in constructing a fair, efficient, and empathetic product. It's about integrating technology into everyday life and seamlessly incorporating excellent products into our daily routines.

What I Learned

Designs that take accessibility into consideration are more user-friendly and convenient. User-centered design doesn't just mean optimizing software functions for user convenience; it also involves adding features that allow users to create content independently and interact with one another within the software. During the testing phase, considering the analysis of different types of user profiles allows me to take into account the diverse needs of users, making the design more detailed and thoughtful.

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