The_Product
My First Idea Didn't Work!
I started this project out thinking it was going to be one thing, and it’s turning out to be another.
And that’s a good thing.
The prompt I drew, was “a program to teach kids how to cook healthy food.”
So my initial thoughts were regarding low-income families, single-parent families, inner city areas, first- or second-generation immigrant families… along with the fact that the restaurant industry can be a ticket to a decent career to those demographics. The monetary investment isn’t insurmountable, people are still offering opportunities at mentorship, etc. So I was thinking about an educational app, with content to reach different learning styles – videos for visual and auditory learners, text for readers, etc. The subject matter would be broad, with info about nutrition, healthy vs unhealthy choices for meals and snacks, and kitchen techniques. I was worried that it was a bit too ambitious to get across as a case study for a short-term class, though, so I started to think about entertaining alternative plans.
Then my mind went momentarily blank. The main problem I came up on, in my research, was that parents aren’t especially comfortable with the idea of their children using knives and fire without supervision (duh). Having a mobile app or website teach your kids proper knife technique is a bit of a stretch, yes. So I went back to the drawing board, literally.
I had already done a few paper wireframes for the original concept, and on one of the pages I tried doing the user profiles (which originally were parent-controlled, as to making child profiles and giving permissions for certain types of training deemed advanced or potentially dangerous) in different styles. One of the styles I tried was a “gamification” idea, in which the kids would “gain levels” in different skills once certain classes and quizzes were passed.
Other styles were tried, but I’ll stick to the main story here. Gaining levels gave way to thinking about “badges” for certain skills, which reminded me of the Boy Scouts – or what once was known as the Boy Scouts.
Thus, the beginning of...
Kitchen Scouts!
Role and Responsibilities
Sole UX Designer, UX Researcher, and Brand Developer for Kitchen Scouts, from conception to delivery
Responsible for User research, Competitive Audit, Storyboarding, Wireframing, Persona Development, Logo Design, Stylesheet Development, Prototyping, Usability Study Development and Execution, Accessibility Testing, and Presentation
The_Problem
Many children are fighting multiple battles: childhood obesity, cultural disadvantages in education and nutrition, and social and mental challenges in group work. Kitchen Scouts exists to battle all of these socio-economical inequalities.
The_Product
A mobile app, the home for interaction between members of the imaginary social project, Kitchen Scouts. The Kitchen Scouts exist to strengthen the youth of America, teaching them to take the reigns of their own lives through pride in Cooking, Culture, Clean Eating, and Culinary Careers.
1. Interviews and Research
(the_Background)
My First Contacts
Generally, my first thoughts on who to interview revolve around my eclectic friend group, to think who might find my current app or website helpful. In this case, I sent questionnaires around to target bits of my Facebook friend list – mostly those who were young, or those with young children.
My biggest concern was the idea of kids learning knife skills and working around fire without parental supervision, but I asked my questions from a neutral stance.
Main Research Interests
On these and other sites, I was searching for the professional opinion on what cooking tasks are appropriate at certain ages. I took all the suggested ages, made a spreadsheet to aggregate the info, and where two lists disagreed on ages, if the difference was less than two years, I averaged the results.
2. Competitive Audit
(The_Context)
The First Concept
And Why It Died
My user research revealed one really interesting, and important, point. Barely any parent is willing to allow their child to play, previously untrained, with knives and fire with no parent home.
Findings of the Second Competitive Audit
At this point, I wanted to aim the app more toward this gamification angle, minimizing, if possible, the amount of practical training that would be handled online. Instead, I wanted the information to be online, in different forms for different types of learners (VARK – Visual, Auditory, Reading, Kinetic), but the practical parts (chopping veggies, frying eggies) to be handled during the weekly or monthly meetings.
My comparables in this second competitive audit included the mobile apps for the Boy Scouts of America, Duolingo, Kahoot, Class Dojo, GimKit, and for the gamification portion, Pokemon Go. Class Dojo and GimKit were eliminated early as they were not at all what I was looking for.
Running With Scissors
The main trouble we needed to beat, in order to teach these kids to cook, was the fact that they had no adult supervision. This is where the Cub Scouts idea came in and changed everything.
I enjoy learning languages on Duolingo. That got me to thinking about the ways in which kids learn, which, in turn, got me thinking about gamification – the idea that making tangible progress drives interest in continued learning. This drove the rest of my design thinking for this project.
3. Personas and Problems
(The_Characters and Plot)
Part of understanding the characters, or Personas, that I’ve created is taking myself through the journey of the existing app concept in their mindset. What I come up with is much like this chart to the right. It’s kinda like being a method actor.
4. Idea Generation
(The_Narrative)
Now that we have our problem, it’s time to start generating solutions. For this situation, my family all sat around brainstorming, since this is an organization for kids. I have a general list of How Might We questions that I use as icebreakers, but if we get off topic, I like to follow the thread for about 5-10 minutes to see what we can tease out.
This time, a question starter from the Institute of Design at Stanford got a great response (as it usually does).
How Might We make use of places like the Boys and Girls Club, local churches, and other available kitchen locations to host Cooking Clubs for kids?
I kept thinking and bouncing ideas off of people for the rest of the day, and finally, I came up with an insight. In my time in the military, and all the time after, I’ve personally sought to learn the local cuisine of every place I’ve lived. Every time I have a meal that originated somewhere I’ve been before, I’m transported back to that place and time. I also thought of my friends in California, who got themselves an opportunity to live here in the States through cooking. (Ok, full disclosure, I thought of the movie “Ratatouille”)
"Cooking Can Take You Anywhere In the World."
The Four C's
Cooking, Cultures, Clean Eating, and Culinary Careers
I started to think about what I’ve needed in my restaurant experience to make a go of it in the kitchen, and what I have made use of as a home cook. How do people get, and keep, kitchen jobs? How do you become a better cook? How could I help Carlos, Tilly, and their kids to benefit from cooking being able to take them anywhere?
With these questions in mind, I thought of one of my own favorite game series, NBA 2k. When creating a player character in this game, you earn badges based on four facets of basketball: shooting, finishing, playmaking, and defense. If you don’t know basketball, don’t worry… not important right now. But this would be my gamification concept – earning badges based on four criteria.
Cooking itself would be one. Taking you anywhere in the world in a more literal sense, Culture would be my second C, which covers one of Carlos’ needs. Clean Eating would be number three, and serves one of Tilly’s needs. And number four, networking with guest chefs to angle for a slot in their kitchen – Careers would be four, serving Carlos in trying to get his kids a better future.
5. Information Hierarchy, Wireframes, and Prototypes
(the_Structure)
Concept of the App
The idea of the app has taken shape at this point, although the entire concept is a bit of a reach. I’m imagining a national organization (which, of course, could start locally and grow over time) that teaches kids to cook for a multitude of reasons. What started out being an answer for Carlos and Tilly and their kids, I believe, could be infinitely scalable and solve multiple social ills.
We start with the local troop, run by a volunteer adult or two. The volunteer’s main responsibilities are fourfold:
1. Be trained in first aid and kitchen safety, so that they can provide reliable supervision for kitchen tasks
2. Judge all “Practical” testing for the kids, including all tasks that involve sharps or fire, according to Kitchen Scouts parameters, and hand out badges when appropriate
3. Schedule and facilitate monthly meetings for all Kitchen Scouts, sometimes bringing in a local chef to teach a class to the Scouts in exchange for free advertising on the Kitchen Scouts local app and signage
4. Send in information to state or national headquarters when badges on Cooking, Culture, Clean Eating, or Culinary Career are earned, or when local chefs volunteer their time to teach
The app would exist for three main reasons:
1. A central location for all Kitchen Scouts to be able to see their progress, through their Profile page, especially their Badges, which show their experience
2. A central hub for communication between Kitchen Scouts, Scout Leaders, and the various Chefs, who can volunteer to be career mentors for the scouts
3. A place for continuous education for all Kitchen Scouts, where they can watch watch videos, read articles, take tests, and learn about all forms of cooking and kitchen knowledge through new and exciting classes written by kitchen experts
Information Hierarchy
As I built out the app, I realized that I didn’t like this hierarchy at all.
Things wound up looking more like this in the end.
Low-Resolution Prototype
After building out all my wireframes, I linked them together to match the Information Hierarchy diagram, and sent out my lo-fi prototype to be tested.
Lo-Fi UX Research Study
Research Goals: Figure out if the planned gamification, and the expectations placed on children and parents, resonate with both parties. Figure out if tasks are made clear and obvious.
Research Questions:
* Are kids able to figure out how they would earn badges?
* Are parents clear on the learning concept, i.e. that all learning of dangerous items will be done with an adult leader present?
* What are the user’s pain points?
* Are kids able to advance through an entire simulated class and schedule their practice with their Scout Leader?
* Are users excited for the concept?
* How do users feel when they finish lookiing at the low-res prototype?
Key Performance Indicators: Drop-off Rates, Conversion rates, System Usability Scale
Link to Full Copy of Research Study
Methodology:
* Unmoderated Usability Study
* Location: United States, remote (participants will complete the study in their own homes)
* Date: Sessions will take place on or around November 3, 2023
* Five participants, each completing the study on their own
* Each session will include an introduction, a list of tasks, and a short questionnaire on the System Usability Scale
Participants: Youths, both with and without significant experience with technology, cooking, and the concept of Scouting, and adults who performed my initial research when developing the concept
* 3 males and 2 females, ages 10 to 40
* One participant in the study has a significant visual impairment
* One young participant has significant reading disability
*Incentive for completing the study: my undying love and appreciation
Main Takeaways
There should be a link to schedule the Practical Exams for Badges on the Events page
(4/5 testers mentioned)
There should be a more obvious place to search for recipes
(4/5 testers mentioned)
The design of the class should be tied in to the theme of the class itself
(3/5 testers mentioned)
6. Design Research
(The_Illustration)
Colors
I like using colors on a theme. Having had the thought of NBA2k’s Badge concept, I decided that my color scheme would be based on the four colors of their badges: Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow. But I also wanted to put a foodie spin on things, so I identified a cohesive color palette from food photography.
AF0505 – Wine Red, representing Cooking Badges, taken from a photo of Pinot Noir
1E4271 – Blueberry, representing Culture Badges, taken from a photo of Blueberries
70A044 – Asparagus Green, representing Career Badges, taken from a photo of Grilled Asparagus
EBC13F – Saffron Yellow, representing Clean Eating Badges, taken from a photo of Saffron Rice and Chicken
Logo and Graphic Style
This app is meant to be a place for kids to learn an adult skill. Therefore, I wanted my style to be somewhere between cartoony whimsy, and near-photo-realism. The first graphic I developed was the logo, and I allowed the style I came up with there to drive my work for the rest of the project.
While I’m particularly proud of my banana, tomato, and pepper on the class page, I recognize that I have quite a bit of room to improve in digital art, and I’m looking forward to the challenge!
My concept for the logo for this app came before I even finalized the name of it. In the Ideate phase, I coined the phrase, “Cooking can take you anywhere in the world.” From there, I immediately visualized the earth wearing a chef hat. From there, I worked with a few different orientations of the earth, but decided early that I should make sure that the USA should be decentralized, both to promote all cultures, and to show the breadth there is to discover as a cook. From there, I found a model from the right aspect, traced what I could, drew the rest on my Wacom One tablet in Figma, applied color, adjusted line widths, and moved on to selecting fonts.
Fonts
My fonts are usually the last design selection I make throughout a design project. My process is often the same: First, I select ten or so fonts from Google Fonts that I think would look good with the main logo. I narrow those down to two, then one, through A-B testing. I then decide whether the losing font would look good in the headlines or body of the project. If so, I go with that, and then select a (usually) sans serif that’s familiar to whatever the headline is going to be. I try not to exceed three fonts in most cases, between the logo, the headlines, and the body font.
For Kitchen Scouts, I selected:
It looks a little bit wild, like I like to be in the kitchen, it’s legible, and it has a food themed name. The logo looks clean and straight-laced, so I wanted something a little left of center for the font.
This reminded me of the handwritten menus you might see on a whiteboard in a kitchen, with the catch of the day and whatever items are out of stock. When I plugged it in for the headlines in the app it just felt right. Bold, clean, legible. Everything you want in attention text.
For mobile app body text, all I want to focus on is, is it legible at small sizes? Is it clean? My visually challenged tester reported back that this was fine on both ends. I don’t like handwriting fonts for body text, it tires out the eyes. Simple sans is the way to go. Unless the project manager says otherwise.
Other Graphics
There was a serious time crunch on this project toward the end, as Coursera completely changed the coursework and due dates, so most of the rest of my graphic work, including the badges, were built in Figma by finding comps online and finding ways to vector-trace them by hand with my trusty Wacom pad. I can only get better over time.
7. Hi-Resolution Prototypes and Final Iterations
(The_Binding)
Successes
* Considering the prompt was only “teach kids to cook” and I made a national organization, I’m not sure if that’s a huge, successful concept or massive scope creep
* My illustration skills are growing quickly. The banana, pepper, and tomato were finished in about 5 minutes a piece
* The pages where I was able to leave more white space are the biggest wins, I feel
Future Improvements
* Fill out a complete test in the “classes” section
* Smooth out animations between pages. Looks a bit wonky to me, could use work
* Iterate more on the frames for photos — looks a bit sophomoric to me but time was extremely limited
* Have more of the radio buttons actually lead somewhere rather than dead links