My Google Design Sprint: Savr Meal Prep app

I was recently introduced to the five-day Google Design Sprint method of problem solving and product development. And to test out my new-ly acquired skillset I desided to test drive the method. For my sprint I was working as a team of one, and my choice was a fictional recipe discovery and meal prep app: Savr.

The problem:

Savr has been receiving some negative reviews recently on some recipes, mentioning that the instructions on some complex recipes are not clear. User feedback says that the timing, the order of steps, learning new techniques and actual preparation method is not clear at times.

During the next week I will be following the below steps so that by the end of the week on Friday we can arrive at a workable solution to counter the recent spate of negative reviews Savr is getting.

Here are the steps for this week:

The Google Design Sprint process

DAY 1: Define the problem

So, the problem to solve is how might we help users follow cooking instructions easily and accurately with minimal stress during the cooking process.

After reviewing all the user feedback, I mapped out the insights that stood out from all that the users mentioned.

Insights from user interviews

From the above grouping, I inferred all the pain points and combined those into a clear theme.

There are very clear themes that appear.

Pain points identified from user interviews

Looking at the ‘pain points’ grouping I further narrowed down the grouping to focus on only pain points which fall under my scope i.e. keeping in mind the constraints for solution design: focus on meal prep and not recipe selection.

There are very clear themes that appear.

Here, the ‘pain points’ grouping has been refined so that all the issues to resolve fall under the cooking aspect of the experience.

Next, I started to create various end-to-end journey maps of possible experiences a user can expect to reach their goal.

Option 1 of user journey map

Option 2 of user journey map

Option 3 of user journey map

All the three options of user journey maps are more or less similar, except for the way the cooking steps are organised.

Selected option - OPTION 2

Selected Option #2 of the journey map

I will be going with option #2 because here I have grouped the actual cooking under three sections: The Assembly (which deals with collecting all the required utensils, chopping/preparing all the ingredients); The Prep steps (the actual cooking - deals with what to put in which order); and The Serve steps (how to assemble the dish, final finishing touches).

DAY 2: Sketching solutions

I started by looking at user journeys on other apps which could potentially serve as inspiration for drawing up a solution for the Savr app.

Selecting the most critical screen:

In my selected journey map, the most critical screen is the Prep steps screen. Because this is where the bulk of the work happens i.e. the user will complete the primary activity of this app on this screen.

And this stage is also the one where most of the pain points fall.

My Crazy 8 sketches

I found this exercise somewhat of a challenge because there are only so many ways you can list down steps of a recipe.

Also I kept thinking about the constraints - such as how the steps can’t really include a video. But I included video on the steps anyway because otherwise, my sketches would be really limited.

Selecting my solution sketch

The second sketch in the bottom row. That is the one I will go with as it satisfies all these pain points:

- Tells user how much time this step will take

- Has photo to reassure user this is how their dish is suppose to look like

- Clear text - only one step per screen so the user can concentrate on that step.

Sketching out my solution screens

My solution screens sketch

DAY 3: Deciding

I created a five-panel storyboard which includes the three solution sketches I had created in the last step. I included the option to hear the Preparation steps so that the user can cook hands-free.

Sketching out the screens before designing them on Figma

• The first screen is the recipe selector which is pretty straightforward.

• Once the user selects the recipe they are taken to the second screen, which is the ingredients gathering stage. Rather than a static list of ingredients I chose to include a checklist sort of function so that the user can tap on each to indicate they have that ready. This was included so that the user makes sure they have all the ingredients ready and assembled on their counter before they start to cook. This way they don’t have to scramble in the middle of cooking for anything.

• Screen 3-4 are part of preparation - here I chose to include a timer clock which tells the user how long something needs to be cooked, stirred etc. beore they proceed to the next step. Images under the instructions will serve as a visual aid. A hands-free audio function is included so users don’t have to touch their phone while cooking.

• Screen 5 is serve screen which is pretty straight forward.

DAY 4: Building a realistic prototype

Today was all about creating the prototype on Figma.

I more of less stuck to the sketches I had created on Day 3, however some enhancements were included to make the flow smoother.

On the recipe selector the user can view th list of recipes in two ways - the photo view shows the image and name of the dish, while the details view will show additional info such as the difficulty level, the rating by other users and the time it takes to cook.

My Savr app solution screens on Figma

DAY 5: Testing with users

Today is testing day. I reached out to five participants to test out the Savr prototype.

It was interesting to run this prototype through this group of users because all of them had some degree of experience cooking for themselves in the kitchen they could relate to the scenario. Almost all of them have also at some point used an online recipe. None of these users has downloaded a recipe app before, though after completing this exercise some of them did express an interest in trying out a recipe app like Savr.

About the participants:

1. User #1: Female, 30 years old, she liked to cook somewhat frequently. Usually prefers simpler recipes which have not more than 10 ingredients.

2. User #2: Male, 25 years old, he rarely cooks because he eats out mostly or goes to his parent's place (they live close by) but doesn’t mind learning some basic breakfast dishes he can whip up quickly.

3. User #3: Female, 27 years old. She is vegan so usually gravitates toward making a vegan dish she finds on Pinterest. Cooks about once a week.

4. User #4: Male, 30 years old, he cooks 1-2 times a week. He likes to cook but usually sticks to the few dishes he knows how to make. His comfort food.

5. User #5: Female, 41 years old. She cooks about three times a week. She is comfortable cooking her traditional recipes and usually sticks to them.

What worked:

Next steps and learnings:

All in all, this was a quick and efficient way to come up with a solution within a week. Given the constraints

Things to consider for the next iteration consider to improve the design:

During the prototype testing there were some additional points that the users shared, these suggestions could be incorporated into the design to refine it further:

1. Increase the size of the photo

2. Reduce the size of the heading

3. The recipe rating is not clear on the recipe selector

4. Make images a GIF

All in all, this was a great exercise and allowed me to get some substantial feedback from the users while coming up with handy solutions to address the pain points.