Cookbook
Contents
General Idea and Relevance
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
We want to enable people to create their own cookbook, like Granny did.
Mission
With our application it will be possible to collect recipes from all sorts of different sources in a personalized cookbook.
Target Group
- 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
Theresa you can copy and paste here. What you do with the gibberish here is up to you. I don't know if there is something relevant. A space in front of a line makes it a small headline. If you need bigger ones please use === XXX ===.
Small headline
Main goal is to get new ideas for functions ( ability , items, tools )
Plan for prepare focus group
Participants
Who? ==> Target group, who likes cooking and likes to cook with receptis
How many? ==> 5 - 8 person
How to recruit them? ==> Everybody has to bring friends (know each other) Variety in age and gender
Inputs Presentation / slides / posters ? Conceptboards to ask them questions for the beginning, explain our Idea (Keyproblem) with some slides Discussion
Introduction
1- explain our Idea (Keyproblem) with some slides
2- Discussion about recipes and cooking (pictures)
Scenarios
1- Brainstorming about the cooking process with the Conceptboard (https://app.conceptboard.com/board/2pry-8m88-eupp-c9u1-5ux6)
2- Discuss and collect funktions for 3 Scenarios
Activities
creativity techniques questionnaires quizzes
Material
agenda / schedule / checklist documents questionnaires protocol sheets flip charts, whiteboards catering ?
Conceptboard
We will show the people different form the recipes and ask them both which one is the favorite (At the end)
Documentation/data collection/footage
recording (video/audio) protocol sheets collecting products of the focus group, flipsharts, whiteboards, pictures venue where? when? face 2 face, online roles (e.g. facilitator, observer, participants, protocol)
Application Design
Application features design , similar application design (cooking) ( colour, design, system, reachable)
—> Show them another cooking app on our screen and ask them to rate it / ask what their favorite App-Design on their phone is
Implement, do the focus group(s) Analyse and evaluate, Report
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
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
1. User research -> self testing and questionnaire
2. Marketanalysis -> explore usage and environment of existing technology => "Cookbook App" / "Kptncook"
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)
