Chef's Hat
A community-driven app that that used emerging technology to find and discover recipes quicker, with reference to the ingredients that are available to them.
Role
Product Designer
Employer
UNSW (Assessment Task)
Areas
Strategy, Design
Concept
Chef’s Hat’ is a social media mobile application designed to inspire and encourage individuals to develop new cooking skills within a community-led environment, allowing users to harness advanced technology to find recipes that contain ingredients that they have at their disposal.
The app’s primary intent is to promote the task of cooking at home by offering a fun, accessible and rewarding experience to help aid them in their culinary venture. Chef’s Hat creates a gamified experience that encourages users to earn points each time they upload or cook a recipe from the app, which can be used to claim various coupons.
The task encouraged us to explore the capabilities of new and emerging technologies and how they can become accessible for every day. Chef’s Hat would use citizen science in collaboration with machine learning, computer vision and optical character recognition to allow the app to perform in an intelligent manner with traits and capabilities often associated with AI. For better searchability, users can utilise the Food Scanner to take a photo of the ingredients that they have, prompting the app to detect each item and search for recipes based on the scanned ingredients. This scanner can also be used to take photos of handwritten recipes that are then scribed and in the system for an easier upload, eliminating the need to type it manually.
Log In & Sign Up Page
Log In & Sign Up Page
Food Scanner - searches for recipes based on the ingredients that you have at home (users take an image of ingredients, which is then scanned and translated).
Community Page - discover new recipes shared by other users. Algorithms filter it based on search history and activity (cuisines that the user typically interacts with). Users can comment on recipes and add photos of their attempt to the recipes 'Chef's Gallery'.
Uploading recipes to your profile for other users to try! Can be typed manually, or automatically using Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
Profile Page - where users can view recipes (uploaded, saved, cooked), view their points/ranking, and claim rewards.
Prototype walkthrough
Approach
Extensive research around the problem statement was done to conclude that the primary factor impacting individuals from wanting to cook was lack of knowledge and motivation, especially with the increasing demand for online food delivery. This sparked further discussion on the role of specific emerging technology and how we could leverage it spark interest and fast track learning in the app.
Research points summarised
Our research inspired our user personas and storyboards for different scenarios, before moving on to basic wireframing and then UI design. Weekly updates through class time allowed us to capture quick feedback from our tutor and other students, and after our first prototype was complete, we conducted several 1-on-1 interviews to help refine and reiterate for the final design. This was my first attempt of designing an app from scratch and I thoroughly enjoyed the iterative process involved, and having to ideate different designs and flows for all user scenarios.
User personas, forming the basis of what our solution must cater for