Research Plan

Research enables me to have a comprehensive understanding of potential users - what their frustrations, limitations, fears and hopes are. It sets the essential foundations for crafting goals and solutions in later stages.

To ensure the research stays on track and better guides the mobile app design later, I listed research goals, research questions, assumptions, methodologies and timeline in the research plan. 

Research Goals

Research Questions

1. Who are the target users?

2. What are the common features of a recipe organiser and cooking platform?

3. Who are the main competitors, and what are they offering to users?

4. How do people find recipes?

5. How do people manage their existing recipes?

6. What factors affect people’s decision on using a recipe organiser app?

7. What are people’s expectations on platforms like Button Recipe Organiser?

Assumptions

1. People who cook are the main users of recipe organising platforms

2. People who love to cook are willing to manage their recipes

3. People are willing to use digital platforms to organise their activities around cooking

4. People are constantly looking for new recipes and food inspiration

Methodologies

1. Secondary research: market research, competitive analysis

2. Primary research: user interview

Market Research

I started with Market research to get a general picture of the market. It is essential to understand what is (not) in the market, how users are responding, and what the recent trends and news are. The insights gathered from market research helped me ask meaningful questions during user interviews. 

Competitive Analysis

Some apps in the market have similar ideas to Button Recipe Organiser. I analysed three direct competitors to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Those insights help me identify gaps in features that Button Recipe Organiser might address.

User Interview

After having a general understanding of the market and the audience, I continued to dive deeper and build a real connection with our users to understand their struggles. I created an interview guide to facilitate the user interview process, with 7 open-ended questions listed to invite participants to shares their thoughts.

Assumptions Validated

1. People who cook are the main users of recipe organising platforms

Not validated. 89% of participants said they would use it after seeing the features provided.

2. People who love to cook are willing to manage their recipes

Validated. 75% of participants expressed that they would like to manage their book in some way.

3. People are willing to use digital platforms to organise their activities around cooking

Validated. 86% of participants said they would prefer storing recipes on a digital platform.

4. People are constantly looking for new recipes and food inspiration

N/A. The biggest barrier to stopping participants is that they do not have the required ingredients ready.

Research Synthesis

By digging deep into participants' experiences, I uncovered a number of important insights and gained a better understanding of essential elements in a recipe organising app.

Persona

Using these insights, I crafted a persona to capture the goals and needs of our target users.

User Journey Map

I created an ideal user journey map with a defined persona and goals to understand the desired user experience, and identify the minimum required functions of app’s MVP.

Product Goals

I summarised user goals from the defined persona and customer journey map, and established business goals on the project brief.

Product Roadmap

At this stage, I brainstormed what features should be included in the app and prioritised them into different categories: (1) Must have (2) Nice to have and (3) Can-come-later. This ensures the product is aligned with our project goals and develops the most important features in the development cycle.

Site Map

After setting up the product goals and deciding what features to include, I built up the app's structure using the site map, to better visualise how pages are prioritised, linked, and labelled.

Task Flow

To better assist the users in navigating through the app, I mapped out the three main task flows of users uploading recipes. In this way, I was able to think through the crucial steps and examine the user experience in detail.

User Flow

Building on the task flow, I mapped out the key path scenario using user flow to get users to their most prominent use cases within the least number of steps.

Wireframes

Sketches

From here, I could decide what actions and features were crucial and beneficial to the users. I started sketching low-fidelity pages with pen and paper to capture my ideas.

Mid-fidelity Wireframes

Once I had a visual direction of the layout, I started to add more details and precisions to the sketches by turning them into mid-fidelity wireframes.

Iterations from usability testing

Using the mid-fidelity prototypes, I asked the participants to complete several scenarios and observed their movement patterns, facial expression and ability to meet goals. Through multiple rounds of feedback, I made changes to refocus hierarchy and have better usability.