A culinary expert 
in your pocket.

MY ROLE

  • UX Desig

  • UX Research

METHODS/TOOLS

  • Video Walkthrough

  • Scenarios

  • User Flows

  • Usability Testing

  • Synthesis

  • Affinity Diagramming

  • Wireframing

  • Design/Prototyping

    • Figma

Overview

The project revolves around Chef Lachelle Cunningham, a prominent figure in the Twin Cities' food scene, known for her globally inspired comfort food and impact on the African-American community. The objective is to create a specialized recipe app, "A culinary expert in your pocket," featuring Chef Lachelle. This app aims to provide a unified platform for her unique culinary approach and belief in food as medicine. The project addresses the current lack of accessibility to Chef Lachelle's expertise, spread across various platforms, hindering home cooks' learning experience.

Client

Chef Lachelle Cunningham stands as a prominent figure in the Twin Cities’ food scene, particularly celebrated within the African-American community. Renowned for her globally inspired comfort food, she challenges unhealthy stereotypes and seamlessly blends diverse flavors. Chef Lachelle is passionate about globally-inspired comfort food, embracing bold and unique cooking, adventurous flavors, and the belief in the transformative power of food as medicine.

Primary Users:

Enthusiastic home cooks seeking to enhance their culinary skills, experiment with diverse cuisines, and prepare nutritious and flavorful meals at home.

Secondary Users:

Culinary Professionals: Experienced chefs dedicated to refining their skills and staying abreast of culinary trends for professional growth.

Aspiring Culinary Professionals: Individuals aspiring to a career in the culinary arts, ranging from seasoned home cooks aiming to elevate their skills to beginners embarking on their culinary journey.

Research

  • Users, particularly in the Twin Cities community, lack a specialized recipe app that encapsulates Chef Lachelle Cunningham's unique culinary expertise, adventurous cooking style, and passion for globally-inspired comfort food. Users want to access Chef Lachelle's self-branded digital recipe book, so that they can enhance their culinary skills and engage with a vibrant virtual community centered around healthy, tasty, and soul-nourishing food.

  • The project commenced with a thorough initiation, understanding Chef Lachelle Cunningham's vision and assembling a dedicated team of UX researcher and designers. A detailed document defined the project's scope, objectives, and deliverables, establishing a clear understanding between the client and the team.

    The identified problem revolved around the absence of a centralized platform for Chef Lachelle's recipes, prompting the proposal of a specialized recipe app.

    This proposed solution, "A culinary expert in your pocket," aimed to create a vibrant community, offering virtual cooking classes, personalization features, and a subscription model. Usability research played a crucial role in understanding user preferences, leading to actionable insights such as the need for clarity in email sign-ups and better representation of Chef Lachelle's personality within the app.

    Crafting user stories and a problem statement guided feature development. The summary of key findings highlighted user interests, pain points, and motivations.

    The outlined next steps focus on integrating user feedback and addressing specific concerns, while the overarching project seeks to empower individuals through culinary education and experiences, aligning with Chef Lachelle's mission. Throughout, collaboration and a user-centric approach have been pivotal, ensuring the project's success and resonance with both Chef Lachelle's vision and the users' needs.

  • 1: Understand pain points and barriers for home cooks in using recipe apps and cooking

    2: Discover which potential secondary features would be most useful to users

    3: Learn about users’ skill levels, interests, and specialties in cooking

    4: Gain insight about what motivates users to cook and try new recipes

  • 1: Gain insight into the happy path the user takes to favorite a recipe.

    2: Determine what features are desired on the homepage.

    3: Discover what personalization categories users want to see in recipes page, on homepage, and in onboarding.

    4: Evaluate if users find a unique value this app brings to the space.

    5: Understand what the users are drawn to on the homepage, recipes page, and training pages.

This provides a visual representation of the current process/journey that the target user group takes to cook using a recipe and highlights the areas in which the most impactful opportunities can be made to best enhance the user experience.

This represents our recommendation for the organizational structure for your cooking app.

Prototype

The final design prototype seamlessly integrates Chef Lachelle Cunningham's vibrant personality, a user-friendly interface, and interactive features, providing a comprehensive and engaging platform for culinary enthusiasts to explore and enhance their cooking skills.

The Significance

This project is significant as it bridges a gap in the culinary world, consolidating Chef Lachelle Cunningham's expertise into a specialized recipe app. It fosters community, connecting users through shared culinary interests, and aligns with the Healthy Roots Institute's mission to empower individuals through accessible culinary education. The app's unique features make culinary expertise more widely available, contributing to a global community centered around the joy of cooking and the healing power of food.

Next Steps

Subscription Model:

  • Provide access to an extensive recipe catalog and exclusive content.

  • Ensure a seamless and user-friendly subscription process.


Enhanced Social Media Integration:

  • Strengthen the app's connection with social media platforms. Integrate features that allow users to share their cooking experiences, favorite recipes, and achievements directly on social media channels.

Collaboration with Influencers:

  • Collaborate with cooking influencers and chefs to expand the app's reach. Influencers can contribute content, host classes, or participate in community events, creating more value for users.

Next

CommissionHub