RecipEasy Mobile App
- Anjali Trivedi
- Jun 10
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 17
The Challenge
a recipe tracking mobile application designed for users new to technology
The Plan
Create personas for users of my intended audience and understand their goals & frustrations
Keeping persona frustrations in mind, start wire-framing
Craft user journeys and maps to help understand flow | consider accessibility needs here
Iterate on designs and create low-fi & high-fi mockups
Prototype & Test
Analyze findings and discover pain points within my design
Ideate design solutions & Retest if needed
Personas
With the intended audience being users newer to technology, I focused on choosing individuals who don't currently use technology to track their recipes. Below are examples of two personas included in this study.
Crazy Eights Wire-Frame
Generated as many ideas as I could in 8 minutes
Low Fidelity Mockups
Started ideating what I wanted the screens to look like and the types of content
User Journey Mapping
Created an intended user flow for the use case of finding & saving a recipe
High Fidelity Mockups
Keeping personas and user journeys in mind, I then drafted the first version of hi-fi mockups. I utilized dribbble, and the design community online to help inspire creativity
User Testing
4 users tested the prototype in moderated interview sessions, helping uncover several pain points
75%
of users complained about the inability to read certain text colors
100%
of users couldn't identify a way to search for a recipe
100%
of users thought some visual enhancements were needed to minimize distraction
50%
of users assumed additional functionality was a given, such as organization and searching
Iteration
3 Major pain points were discovered & relieved
Pain Point: Users complained about the inability to read certain text colors
Design Solution: Use WCAG guidelines and a contrast checker site to ensure AA standards are abided by for all text background & foreground colors. A contrast ratio of 4.5:1 is needed to pass AA standards
Pain Point: Users are confused about the flow and are unable to search for a recipe easily
Design Solution: Add search and filter capabilities on any page where there's a need to search or browse for a recipe
Pain Point: Users assume the ability to organize recipes in folders when saving
Design Solution: Enhance the ability to save recipes by adding them to a folder of the user's choice, allowing for customization and editing
Click to expand
Final Designs
Lesson Learned
Working on my first full project, from coming up with the idea to designing the UI and testing everything, was a huge learning experience. One thing that really stood out was how important it is to get feedback early, especially from real users. I was so focused on making the app look and feel right that I didn’t bring others into the process soon enough. When I finally did, I realized there were a few things I could’ve caught way earlier, ike small usability issues or missing features that users actually cared about. Next time, I’ll make sure to test early and often, even with rough versions, to make sure I’m building something people actually want to use.
Comments