Our User Experience Design Immersive group was given the opportunity to work with StreamChef (formerly Happy Chef) a concept site for on-demand cooking classes with real chefs, connecting to a community of aspiring culinarians while also providing a hub of recipes and tutorials.
PROJECT SCOPE
CLIENT: StreamChef
OBJECTIVE: Design an intuitive and engaging experience that provides live streaming cooking classes, a recipe hub, and builds an online community with considerations for future product development and business growth.
TIMELINE: 3 weeks
PROJECT ROLES: Product Manager / Research Lead
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RESEARCH
While StreamChef’s concept presented some unique opportunities, the market is currently saturated with cooking websites. We divided our market research and competitive analysis into three key themes in order to get a broader view of what could differentiate StreamChef and continuously engage users.
Streaming video services (YouTube, Instagram, and Twitch TV)
Internet-delivered video in North America is reaching 174% growth annually with 59% of people aged 25–34 cooking with their smartphone or tablet.
Internet-delivered video in North America is reaching 174% growth annually with 59% of people aged 25–34 cooking with their smartphone or tablet.
“Streaming is offering content producers another way to engage with their audience, and importantly, is putting the audience in control of how, what, where and when they watch content.”
Cooking sites / food subscription services (Panna, Food Network, Blue Apron, and Peach Dish) We observed that sites such as Panna, Food Network, and MasterClass were using celebrity chefs to draw users to their sites. While Food Network and similar sites offered a huge selection of recipes, Panna and MaterClass curated their content to specific learning tracks.
“10% of Americans love to cook, 45% hate it, 45% feel lukewarm about it,
marking a decline over the last 15 years.”
marking a decline over the last 15 years.”
eLearning (Udemy, Udacity, and MasterClass) is trending, a $165 billion market (2015), is projected to hit $240 billion by 2023. Video, being a major component of eLearning, is projected to be in charge of 80% of the web activity on the planet by 2019.
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We utilized a simple screener survey and found that 93% of our 60+ respondents said they cook. While 33% of those surveyed noted they don’t have time in their busy schedules, half do cook 2–4 times a week.
From these respondents we conducted user interviews that provided us will some reoccurring themes. Overall we found that while users enjoy cooking they often feel they don’t have enough time or are overwhelmed by complicated, time consuming recipes.
Cooking takes a lot time, so user’s seek out quick, simple recipes
Some look to Instagram and social media to find new recipes
Those users who are new to cooking want to learn through guided lessons
Complicated recipes are intimidating!
Some users practice meal-prepping to get several meals for the week and more value from their food shopping budget
Reviews and photos are helpful (similar to amazon reviews!)
Some look to Instagram and social media to find new recipes
Those users who are new to cooking want to learn through guided lessons
Complicated recipes are intimidating!
Some users practice meal-prepping to get several meals for the week and more value from their food shopping budget
Reviews and photos are helpful (similar to amazon reviews!)
OPPORTUNITY
Users stated they don’t have enough time to cook due to their busy
schedules and feel discouraged by their lack of knowledge around cooking fundamentals. They enjoy cooking with others and being able to see
progress in their skills.
Users stated they don’t have enough time to cook due to their busy
schedules and feel discouraged by their lack of knowledge around cooking fundamentals. They enjoy cooking with others and being able to see
progress in their skills.
HYPOTHESIS
By providing a website that curates quick, easy recipes and tutorials in addition to live streaming classes we will encourage users to learn through milestones and the potential to teach others.
By providing a website that curates quick, easy recipes and tutorials in addition to live streaming classes we will encourage users to learn through milestones and the potential to teach others.
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DESIGN PROCESS
As a team we kept a running list of brainstormed features and possibilities as we collected our research. Synthesizing our research, surveys, user interviews, empathy mapping, a hefty amount of white boarding, and killing a few dry erase markers . . . we created user personas to guide the direction of StreamChef’s site as we began to move through the design process. We decided on three areas of focus for our website design:
Live Stream Classes: the live stream cooking classes to be offered by StreamChef on Mondays and Thursdays.
Lesson Plans: offering quick tutorials to build cooking skills and confidence in addition to the live streaming classes.
Simple, Quick Recipes: a recipe hub that curates quick-to-make 30–40 minute meals and offering personalized recommendations for our users.
SKETCHING & PROTOTYPING
Group sketching sessions allowed us to refine user flows before moving into prototyping. Developing sections to access live stream classes, notifications and social media posts, tutorials, and a recipe shuffle to recommend new recipes based on user on-boarding are shown below.
Group sketching sessions allowed us to refine user flows before moving into prototyping. Developing sections to access live stream classes, notifications and social media posts, tutorials, and a recipe shuffle to recommend new recipes based on user on-boarding are shown below.
Initial and final home page layouts
USABILITY TESTING
We conducted eight usability tests that produced valuable feedback for the home, live stream, and recipe pages. When we combined our prototypes we had removed some necessary elements and overlooked basic accessibility heuristics, prompting us to do a full audit of the site’s accessibility and a lot of additional small iterations that made a big impact. We feel that our solution delivers an intuitive and enjoyable experience for users who are seeking to build their cooking skills, explore new recipes, and learn cooking techniques.
Design iterations of tutorial and live stream class pages from usability testing
MOVING FORWARD
Based on our market research and user interviews we propose that StreamChef should focus on providing short tutorials that will help users improve their skills and increase their cooking confidence with quick, easy recipes that only take 30–40 min to prepare. Making a local connection by partnering with Washington, DC food bloggers would assist in creating a unique community and increasing subscribers through social channels.
By 2019 15% of U.S. consumers 18 years old and over will own a smartwatch, a 60% increase from 2017.
We also recommended adding a smart watch app as a service design element. Having to touch the screen to see the next step in the recipe while using a smartphone or tablet was a pain point for some of the users we interviewed.
The opportunity to work on StreamChef’s concept site with a talented group of designers was a valuable experience in teamwork, product / project management, design, usability testing, and iterating to deliver a the best possible product for the user’s experience and delight.
