SIMPLEAT – Mor Ventura

MOBILE APP

SIMPLEAT

Creating a concept & Designing an app that will help us be in control of our ingredients and use them in the best way.

OVERVIEW

During my course in Studio6b, guided by Sagi Shrieber, I was required to think about a problem that I face every day and how to fix the flow with an app that will make it easier, better & more comfortable for me and for every person that faces the same problem.

THE PROBLEM

The problem that I face every day is knowing which ingredients I have in my refrigerator and in my pantry, which makes it difficult for me to use the ingredients I have at home efficiently. This problem makes me settle for dinner or spend money ordering a meal from fast-food restaurants.

THE RESEARCH

Every good product requires an extensive research process that generates useful information from our potential users. The first step to achieve our solution was to conduct a survey on Facebook, which helped me find my persona and identify the key aspects that allowed me to be more accurate with my thought process & design.

AGE | 22-30

60%

LOCATION | GUSH DAN

43%

Uses recipes

85%

Prepares a Shopping List

88%

Has a consistent shopping schedule

73%

Has basics cooking skills

90%

User journey map

After I identified my persona, my second step was to create a user journey map to find the issues in the existing process, and where my app can provide the best value for the users. This step provided me with an insight:

I identified some flows to work on in the user’s journey, but I needed to focus on the most crucial problem.

Wireframes

To get started, and get a general direction on how I can best help the users with the frustration process, I started creating wireframes for multiple screens. This helped me generate numerous ideas and choose the ones that would provide the best solution to the user’s problems and frustrations.

Lo-fi mockups

I continued my process by creating low fidelity mockups. This technique helped me see clearly if my ideas from the sketches can fit to screen and solve the problem as I thought.

THE SOLUTION

The solution is to provide people with an app that will help them use the ingredients they have at home efficiently and thereby save them money and more importantly, a variety of meals without the need for prior cooking knowledge using a smart recipes system.

Design System

Building a design system was necessary. It helped me provide consistency in my screens’ design and also saved me a lot of time to design them.

HOMEPAGE

On this screen, the smart recipe system embedded in the app knows how to provide the user with one recipe that he would like and also can cook with his existing ingredients at home. The selection of the recipe is not random, it is based on previous selections of recipes previously selected by the user.

Indicators are used to let the user know whether or not he can make the same recipe:

The green indicator indicates that the user can make the same recipe.
The red indicator indicates that the user cannot make the same recipe and also shows how many ingredients he lacks.

RECIPES

In the screen, this user will be able to select the type of meal he would like to cook – dairy, vegan, meat-based and more.
After selecting the type of meal, the user can search for a specific recipe on the app’s recipe list through the search function, or receive suggestions for recipes from the app.

This screen was designed with easy to understand indicators for the availability of necessary products for each recipe – a green marked recipe indicates that the user has all the needed items to cook, while a recipe with missing items in the household will indicate so by showing the number of missing items marked in red. To see which items are missing, the user can quickly access the recipe’s screen for a full list.

BARCODE SCANNER

Today’s world moves at a pace faster than ever before, and we’re always looking for ways to maximize our time and minimize the effort required. The barcode feature was created with this issue in mind.

When the user activates the barcode feature, he will get three options to choose from:

1. Adding the scanned items directly to his inventory list. This will allow users to quickly add all their household products to their inventory when first setting up the app.
2. Add the scanned products to the shopping list.
3. Discover recipes that use the scanned products, along with items in his inventory.

After the user selects the option he wants to use the barcode scanner will begin scanning continuously until the user toggles it off.

This feature makes the process that can be frustrating for the user much easier and useable.

INVENTORY

This screen will help the user have full control of his household’s inventory.
The user will be able to filter by product type, easily search for a specific item to update its current quantity, add items to the shopping list and discover recipes that use specific products.

SHOPPING LIST

Like any shopping list, this screen will enable to user to add the groceries he would like to buy in his next visit to the supermarket, but in a smarter way.
The shopping list is synced in real-time with all members of the household and displays all the needed information (like brand name and quantity).

Along with the obvious fields, I’ve also added features like adding an image and text description for each item, which will help minimize the chance for errors.

Once the user completes his purchase he is able to import the information from the shopping list directly to his inventory list.