Cookbook

General Idea and Relevance (AB)

We all love to cook. At least some of us do. The members of our group are part of the cooking share of population and quickly we found out, that we have one problem in common. We use recipes from different sources at different occasions and if we like the recipe, we want to safe it. However exactly there hides the problem. How? How to bring all the different sources, from a physical cookbook up to the Instagrampost or Youtubevideo, into one place which we can access whenever we want to and wherever we want to. The solution has to be a digital Application. So we decided that we want to find out how such an App should be designed and organized in order to make cooking lifes easier for people. For our project we developed the following procedure. Our first step was to define a vision, a mission and our target group. To define a vision and a mission wasn’t to hard. For different reasons, it was more difficult to select a clear target group. First of all is cooking something that can’t be allocated to specific demographic or ethnographic groups, but to more or less every person old enough to cook. Secondly, it was hard to determine in which age group the use of recipes per se and the use of digital apps overlapped the most. We did than decide to organize our target group into two levels of age group. The main age group contents all people from 18 – 35 and the secondary age group targets people between 16 – 50. In Addition to that we said that people who would use such an App also have to have an affinity to cooking. In our whole target group all genders are involved. The following tools and instruments are described in detail later on in the documentation. For that reason we won’t go into detail in this chapter. To get more information regarding the cooking behaviour and recipe behaviour of the people from our target group we prepared a questionnaire and qualitative interviews. This information was the basis for our contextual inquiry and the development of the following focus group. The data collected by the contextual inquiry and the focus group was firstly used to set up four different personas, which we did in two rounds. The first rough personas were based on the contextual inquiry and were then extended by the data of the focus group. From that point on we merged all the data to develop our user stories. At the end there will be a display of our findings and also a critical assessment and reflection of our procedure. Prior to the start of our project we did a market research to validate the relevance of this topic. In our opinion the relevance was already partly given because of the topic of cooking itself. Additional to that there are a lot of recipe suggestion pages which we assumed are well known throughout our targeted age group. Examples are chefkoch.de, daskochrezept.de or pinterest.de, which is not necessarily a recipe suggestion page, but has a huge foody community. We also assumed Instagram and Youtube are highly frequented sources to find recipes. All these assumptions were confirmed throughout our procedure. However the most important finding of our market research was that there are two apps that provide that exact service we had in mind. They are called cookbook and kuri, which we didn’t know about in the beginning. On one hand that gave us a clear sign that this topic is relevant but on the other it felt like we now just copy other apps. After we analyzed the already existing apps we found a couple of things we would do differently, so we said we will create our own concept and try to even learn from the mistakes the developers of the cookbook app did.

Information and Pages

Paper https://docs.google.com/document/d/12BaOEmwlEK_YmgQ9fdLcZDb-7dTuh6yjUEQHTS0SWiY/edit

Conceptboard

Data analysis qualitative interviews:

https://app.conceptboard.com/board/y4g7-3tiq-32s4-9ts8-183e

Personas:

https://app.conceptboard.com/board/eras-ayi1-aiye-zn61-t5sy

Focusgroup:

https://app.conceptboard.com/board/2pry-8m88-eupp-c9u1-5ux6

The Project

Vision (AB)

We want to enable people to create their own cookbook, like Granny did.

Mission (AB)

With our application it will be possible to collect recipes from all sorts of different sources in a personalized cookbook.

Target Group (AB)

- Main Target Group: People 18 - 35

- Secondary Target Group: People 16 - 50

- Affinity for ingredients and cooking

- All Genders included

Contextual Inquiry

Helena you can copy and paste here. You also have some information already down the page. If you don't need it, just tell me and i'll delete it, or you do it by yourself. A space in front of a line makes it a small headline. If you need bigger ones please use === XXX ===.

Small headline

Focus groups

The quantitative and qualitative data already collected through our questionnaire and the interview serve as an optimal starting point for the development process of a prototype. However, in order to gain even more insight into the wishes of potential app users, it was useful to delve deeper using the method Focus Group. The latter is defined as "a research technique that collects data through group interaction on a topic determined by the researcher". (Morgan, 1996, p. 130) This method is not only suitable for the data collection in the project because of its interactive character, but also because focus groups can be used optimally complementary to other methods (ebd.) and thus can build on the previous results.

Preparation of the Focus Group

In this project, the focus group was not intended to serve as a mere deepening of already known requirements or wishes for a potential cookbook app. Rather, the session should enable potential requirements to be identified that have not yet emerged in the previous research process. Accordingly, the design of the session leaves room for the confirmation of already known requirements but also for the development of new ideas. Due to the different locations of the researchers as well as the presumably acquired persons in the future, it was agreed to conduct the session online. However, in order to ensure the interactivity mentioned by Morgan (1996) as particularly relevant, a Miro board serves as a tool to improve the interactive exchange (Appendix 3). Using this, the meeting could also be planned and prepared in advance in order to make the process as smooth as possible. Specifically, we agreed on 3 elements:

1. Ice Breaker / Quick Questions

Since a focus group can only be successful if all the people involved actively participate and share their views on a topic, an ice breaker is a good idea at the beginning. We have chosen "Quick Questions" around the topic of cooking and eating. These 5 questions are each written on a note on the Miro Board. A pile of empty Post-Its next to it is used by the test persons to write their answers to the questions and to assign them to the respective notes. The questions range from the song that describes the cooking style to the type of ice cream with which a person identifies and thus do not actually have anything to do with the app. However, they are meant to lighten the mood and playfully lead to the topic of cooking and recipes.

2. Group Discussion

Based on the results of our questionnaire and the interview, we have already gained an insight into the cooking behavior and recipe usage of the potential users. This partly superficial overview will be deepened in this part to further concretize the personas. The test persons are asked at this point how exactly their cooking behavior and recipe use looks like. In order to create a structure, we have divided the point into the three time-based sections "Before cooking", i.e. for example the search for the recipe, during cooking and after eating. A final category, "Extra Ideas," serves as our guide if suggestions for a possible cookbook app already fall during this part. This part of the Focus Group is also visualized and can be completed with post-its. However, it was important to us here that the participants get into a conversation about the topic and are not just busy writing. In order to promote a good exchange, we therefore agreed that members of the research group would write the answers on the Post-Its and also formulate concrete questions about the steps as food for thought.

3. Scenario

In the last part of the focus group, the cookbook app will be discussed in detail. Here, the participants' opinions about the basic need for such an app as well as wishes and ideas are going to be collected. For this purpose, two scenarios are presented to the participants: One is the situation of coming home after a long day and wanting to prepare dinner for oneself. The second situation describes friends coming over for an evening of cooking together. Again, both scenarios are divided into the temporal sections "Before cooking", "During cooking" and "After cooking". For both scenarios and each step, the participants are asked to discuss how an app could support them. Responses can again be recorded by research group participants on post-its and assigned to the appropriate section.

Acquisition of participants 

For the people invited to the Focus Group, we were guided by the target group of the app. This means that the most important prerequisite was the age and the desire to cook. In order to collect many ideas, but to allow a good flow of conversation, especially in the online setting, we agreed on a number of participants of 8 people. In the invitation, the people were only informed about the date and the scheduled time period as well as our basic intention to develop an app that has a connection to the recipe collection. We did not want to go into more detail, so that the answers and reactions of the participants would be unprepared and authentic. For the first scheduled date (05.06.2023) not enough people could be recruited. After this was moved back a week (12.06.2023), 7 people accepted. In the end, 6 people took part, 4 of them female and 2 male. All of the participants fell into the target group of the cookbook app.

Procedure of the Focus Group

The Focus Group took place on 12.06. from 6 pm and was scheduled for 1 ½ hours. Since some participants arrived a little later, the meeting lasted 1 hour and 45 minutes. After a declaration of consent from the participants, we were allowed to record the meeting and can now reconstruct it exactly and thus also analyze the results better:

At the beginning we briefly introduced our team and the project and then we started with the Quick Questions. This part lasted about 15 minutes and our desire to lighten the mood and get everyone actively involved was successful (Appendix 3: Figure 1). The second part, which was intended to record more precisely the cooking and recipe behavior of the people, lasted about 45 minutes. Here it became clear that although all participants belong to the target group, there are clear differences in the way they currently deal with recipes. While a part already tries to collect everything as digitally as possible, there are people who bring the digital recipes by printing or copying them into the digital world to design them themselves. In this first part, some ideas for possible functions of the app were already mentioned (Appendix 3: Figure 2). This was then deepened in the third part, which lasted about 35 minutes. Here, in the group setting, it was possible to observe which ideas only individuals thought were good ideas and which were basically approved of by everyone (Appendix 3: Figure 3). We were also able to include this in the evaluation through the video.

Utilization of the results of the Focus Group

Focus Group was a significant step for us in prototyping, as it partially changed our view of the app. Using the video and the Miro board, we conducted the following evaluations:

- The group discussion served us to better understand our potential users and their current behavior, and thus to specify the personas again

- The Post-Its regarding the potential app, which we collected especially during the scenarios, but also partly during the group discussion, were evaluated in a table. In this table we clustered the respective statements into "Need", "Wish" and "Idea". This makes it easier to see which comments are actually relevant for the smooth use of the app and which would be nice to have, but are not quite as relevant at first. The next step is to agree on which of the mentioned "Wishes" and "Ideas" should already be considered in the first prototype.

When looking at the results, it is particularly worth mentioning that a completely new dimension was revealed for the app, namely the app as a digital pantry. It was pointed out several times that it is particularly desirable for the optimal interaction between recipe and cooking that this is either explicitly tailored to the food available or at least that an app displays which of the ingredients mentioned are already at home and which still need to be purchased. Two factors are relevant here - an interface between the cookbook app and an app in which you can create shopping lists and that the available food can be tracked. Here, too, the next step will show to what extent we can implement this.

Critique

​​In general, we were able to gain interesting insights and are therefore very satisfied with the procedure of the Focus Group. The points that should be mentioned critically were, firstly, the following: The length of the interview and the possible presence of social desirability. In the last quarter of an hour it was clearly noticeable that only a few people participated attentively in the discussion, as the rest were already tired from the previous conversation. In addition, the content of the interview could have been influenced by the fact that we recruited people who knew us and therefore answered more socially desirable than strangers. However, the latter should be negligible for the not too private topic of "cooking".

Personas

Helena this is your part again.

User Stories (AB)

At the outset, it should be noted that all the graphics including the actual user stories can be found in the appendix. To get an overview of the requirements for our app and to develop scenarios which are valid and as close as possible to reality, it helps to find out how software features would be seen through the eyes of an user. The target is to find out who wants to do what and why. That’s also the typical build up of an user story. It must contain the user, a function and a target. An user story is basically a set of requirements for a piece of software that relates exclusively to the user’s point of view. A combination of user stories is called an use case. User stories can be stated on user story cards. An user story map is a way to illustrate all of the user stories to keep an overview. It builds the basis for the actual translation of user stories into software. For our user stories, we had a lot of information from the focus group and from the qualitative interviews. The first step was to merge all the different data we found. The results were countless, not clustered ideas which were partly the same, partly not or unrealistic. Following that we had to organize this data somewho and we decided to cluster and classify them. To classify the different ideas we collected, we developed three stages of importans. The really basic and necessary, maybe even mandatory, requirments were labeled as “Needs”. An example for a need was the suggestion to be able to share your cookbook or recipe folder with your friends. The user story for this feature could be “As an user of the app, I want to be able to share my recipes with my friends in order to stay connected”. The suggestions for more advanced features which are not essential to make use of the app were labeled as “Wishes”. An user story for a wish feature could be “As an user of the app, I want to comment on other people's recipes in order to enhance the recipe”. The really advanced features, some of which would even be difficult to program, were labeled as “Ideas”. “As an user of the app, I want to be able to group chat with my friends in order to organize a party” could be one example for that classification.

Results

Our User Stories are to be found in the appendix Nr. 5 or through the link of the conceptboard "Focus Group".

Reflection of Methods

In this part we want to shortly reflect on the method user stories.

        Pros

A big plus for user stories is, that you can develop them with varying degrees of detail and they can be adapted easily. The basic idea of thinking problems or tasks from the perspective of an user, creates a deeper connection between the developing team and the people the software is developed for, leading to a very simple description of tasks everyone understands and makes implementing of functions tremendously easier. The user stories are basically a tool to develop a common language for all stakeholder on your project function wise.

        Cons

A minor problem with user stories is, that even though the target is to look through the eyes of an user, the person who develops the user stories is just not the targeted user. Therefore it's a translation of information gathered into what we think the user would want to do.

Scenarios (Storyboards)

Theresa this is your part again.

Requirements

The last but not least part for Theresa

Results and Conclusion

Our project aims to develop a digital application that will address the common problem faced by cooking enthusiasts: messy recipe resources and the need for a centralized platform to easily store and access recipes. To start the process, our team has determined its vision, mission, and target group. Before starting the project, market research was conducted to verify the relevance of the issue. It has been determined that there are existing applications that provide similar services regarding recipes. However, our project team aimed to create its concept by taking into account the shortcomings of existing applications. Our project aims to make cooking easier for people by designing and editing an app that brings together recipes from physical cookbooks, websites, social media platforms, and more. For example, while existing applications such as Cookbook and Kuri already offer similar services, our project highlights the importance of user-centered design with people, user stories, and storyboards developed based on collected data. Our ultimate goal is to create a user-friendly and efficient app for cooking enthusiasts that simplifies the recipe management process, providing a centralized platform to access and save recipes. While the act of cooking is not limited to certain demographic groups, we focused on individuals aged 18 to 35 as the primary target group and expanded our group to persons aged 16 to 50 as a secondary target group, provided they have an interest in cooking. Our entire target group includes all genders. Our project team conducted contextual research, including a qualitative survey and interviews, to gather information about the cooking and recipe behaviors of the target group. Through contextual inquiry, focus group, and market research, we've gathered valuable insights and data on cooking behavior, recipe use, and potential interest in this type of application. This data collected from surveys and interviews provided us with valuable information for the development of user characters, user stories, and storyboards, and the data collected was used to create people, user stories, and storyboards. Our team used a mixed-method approach to better understand the cooking behavior and recipe usage of its target users. To collect data from 37 participants, we conducted a quantitative survey covering various aspects such as cooking frequency, recipe sources, and interest in using a recipe compilation app. In addition, qualitative interviews were also conducted to gain deeper insights into participants' cooking processes, recipe collections, and motivations. The quantitative and qualitative data already collected through our survey and interview served as the optimal starting point for a prototype development process. However, it was thought that it would be helpful to go deeper using the focus group method to learn more about the wishes of potential application users. An online focus group of 6 people was formed to collect more data and identify possible requirements for implementation, and an online Zoom meeting was held with this focus group. Online tools such as the Conceptboard were used to facilitate interactive discussions among participants. Although existing applications such as Cook Book and Kuri offer similar services, our research aimed to develop our concept by combining improvements based on identified shortcomings in existing applications. The Focus Group was an important step for us in prototyping, as it partially changed our perspective on implementation. We made multiple assessments using the focus group Zoom meeting video and the Conceptboard. These group discussions gave us a better understanding of our potential users and their current cooking behaviour. This built the basis for further optimization of our personas.The data we collected regarding potential implementation, especially during the scenarios part, were evaluated in a table. In this table, we have clustered the relevant expressions as "Needs", "Wishes" and "Ideas". There is something that we consider important here. Creating an interface that you can follow where you can create shopping lists between the cookbook application and another application. These criteria will play an important role in our research for our next step. Based on the findings from the survey, qualitative interviews, and focus group, we created 4 different personas representing different types of users. Our goal in doing this is to get an overview of the requirements for our application and to develop scenarios that are valid and as close to reality as possible. It's about trying to figure out how to view software features through a user's eyes and understand who wants to do what and why. Based on the data collected, our team discovered that the use of recipes from the Internet was more common than physical cookbooks, and a significant percentage of respondents indicated that they were interested in using an app or website to compile their cookbooks. These findings showed that there is a potential demand for our new Cookbook app ideas. Summarize; As a result, our team embarked on an extensive journey to develop an application that could facilitate the cooking lives of individuals interested in the culinary arts. The in-depth research, market analysis, and user engagement provided a solid foundation for the development of user stories, storyboards, and ultimately app concepts. The project aimed to appeal to a wide range of cooking enthusiasts and provide a digital solution to effortlessly organize and access recipes from a variety of sources. We want to develop a digital application that can bring together recipes from different sources and that these recipes can be easily accessed anytime and anywhere, providing a convenient and organized platform to save them, meeting the needs of cooking enthusiasts. We aimed to provide a user-friendly and efficient application that simplifies the recipe method and provides a central platform to organize and access recipes from various sources.

Critical Assessment and reflection of methods

Special target groups. Many different lifestyles and stations in life -> young people studying or already working, living at home, alone or in shared flat. Other age groups have less differences in their ways of living. Because of the age group it wasn’t hard to find people who cooked. It was difficult do define demopraphics besides the age, because everyone cooks. Contextual Inquiry Questionnaire: Some questions weren’t clearly stated. For example the question: Nutzt Du Kochbücher/Websites (Chefkoch etc.)? = “Do you use cookbooks/websites (chefkoch etc.)?”, some asked people answered this question with no, but did answer all the other questions regarding the use of recipes. The question should have been asked differently, more like “Do you recipes at all?”. The scales we used in the questionnaire weren’t ideal due to the following problems. For some questions the scale from 1 to 10 was to big -> “How often do you cook dishes out of a recipe?”. For the question “How often do you cook during one week?” the scale from 1 to 7 seems appropriate, but it was kind of confusing for everyone who cooks more often than 7 times a week. That watered down our findings because we can not differ now who cooks 7 or 14 times a week.

Workspace

This part should be empty for know.

Contextual Inquiry

- Standardized questionnaire to understand how people work/use recipes

- Interviews with up to three persons for more detailed information

- Focus group for design and creative ideas and translation into functions

Data Analysis

Questionnaire

- 32 answers; 1 invalid (status 04.05.2023)

' 2 Personas based on the questionaire'

Persona 1:

Age: 28

gender: female

Number of weekly cooking: 5 times a week

She use recipes physically never

She use recipes from the internet often to very often

She use recipes, when she is cooking for or with other people

If she like recipes, she is taking screenshots or pictures from them

she never missed a recipe

she really would like to use an App/ Website to create her own cookbook

Persona 2:

Age: 28

gender: male

Number of weekly cooking: 4 times a week

He use recipes physically very rarely

He use recipes from the internet rarly

He use recipes, when he is cooking for himself

If he like recipes, he is writing it down or copy them into a file

he missed a recipe before -> Why???

he really would like to use an App/ Website to create his own cookbook

Interviews

- Defining categories

1. Problems during the process / 2.

Next Steps

14.04.2023

1. User research -> self testing and questionnaire

2. Marketanalysis -> explore usage and environment of existing technology => "Cookbook App" / "Kptncook"

21.04.2023

1. Each group member organizes one person for a qualitative interview

2. Each group member contacts 10 people to fill out the questionnaire

1. conduct remaining qualitative interviews

2. Find more test persons for the qualitative questionnaire and encourage them to complete it (target: 30 completed questionnaires)

1. fill in missing information for the persona from the questionnaire (age, open questions)

2. Data analysis of the qualitative interviews

3. complement Personas with informations of the qualitative interview

1. define the goal of the focus group

2. Preparing the group disscussion for the Focusgroup (Step 1)

3. Preparing a Guideline for Step 1 (Questions and Informations we want to know)

Finalization of the concept for the focus group:

1. Introduction

2. Timelines for the Scenarios (Step 2)

3. Roles during the Focusgroup Interviews

4. Invitation

Talking about the Interviewees

Nice to have/Later needed

- Order all the ingredients directly through the app

- Converts a scanned text directly into the app

- Audio function for dirty fingers

- Remind yourself of different recepies

- Quantity Calculator

- Intolerances filter -> What do people like to eat / can't eat

- Searchengine for references

- Recipe suggestion

- Timing support for combining dishes

- Problem page, where people can add there day to day problems (or suggestions page)