ZenChef is a personal sous chef app designed to make cooking a positive and stress-free experience.
Recognizing that while eating is essential, many people find cooking tedious, overwhelming, or exhausting, I was inspired to create an app that simplifies the process.
ZenChef helps users by offering favorite recipes and personalized support, making cooking enjoyable and accessible for everyone.
Cooking can be enjoyable, but for some, especially neurodivergent individuals, it can be a stressful series of tasks and decisions. From considering available ingredients to choosing a dish, consulting with others, and recalling recipes, the process can be overwhelming. This often leads people to opt for delivery or dining out to avoid the stress of meal planning.
I refined the information and presentation in ZenChef to simplify the user experience, making it more accessible and less stressful, particularly for those still learning to cook.
Key features were designed to address common challenges, ensuring a more positive and nurturing cooking experience.
In my secondary research, I found that both neurodivergent and non-neurodivergent individuals often have negative experiences with cooking, primarily due to struggles with deciding "what" to cook. This issue is linked to challenges with Executive Functions in neurodivergent people and decision fatigue in others.
Common issues include:
To gain insights into users' cooking experiences and mental challenges, I used a screener survey on social media to recruit six participants for interviews. Analyzing the data allowed me to create affinity groups, empathy maps, and personas.
I conducted six interviews with participants who matched the study's criteria, focusing on their cooking decision-making experiences and exploring ways to make their experience more positive.
Participant Characteristics:
I created 143 sticky notes from six interviews, which led to eight key themes:
From these themes, major issues emerged:
These insights informed the design of ZenChef to enhance the user experience.
I was able to identify two unique types of users from my Empathy Mapping.
After a deeper look into the empathy maps, I was able to produce two (2) personas.
By defining the two personas after research and interviews, I was easily able to identify and generate five (5) problem statements. These problem statements have shown to be very relatable for me as well, as someone who’s also neurodivergent.
All the research and synthesis provided me with enough insight to start sketching and generating ideas and establishing concepts to tackle user’s problems.
User stories helped me create a common language and mental model for the project, deepening my empathy for target users. I prioritized these stories to build the MVP (Minimum Viable Product), ensuring it delivered essential user value.
Based on the User Stories I have constructed, I was able to visualize a concept that included all key features of ZenChef. The sitemap covered all necessary aspects to deliver efficiency, information, functionality, and screens.
The Sitemap that was constructed became the blueprint for me to visualize the appropriate essential red routes for the three User Stories defined earlier. Prioritized convenience, simplicity, and user-friendliness while deriving steps.
After the User Flows have been reviewed and verified for usability and effectiveness to address the user’s problems with cooking decision-making, I have sketched out concepts of the screens that the Users will interact with in the defined User Flows. The sketches were drawn out using pen and paper.
Refining Wireframes to Address User Needs
After creating the initial sketches and using the HMW (How Might We) statements as a guide, I developed a series of Low-Fidelity (Lo-Fi) and Medium-Fidelity (Med-Fi) wireframes for ZenChef. However, it became clear that the initial sketch didn’t fully address the user’s needs.
To improve the wireframes, I incorporated a blend of illustrations and food photography, focusing on a seamless transition between these visuals to enhance user engagement. After four iterations, I refined the wireframes to the current version, ensuring a cohesive and intuitive user experience.
I chose the name ZenChef to emphasize reducing stress and simplifying decision-making and recipe-following, creating a more positive cooking experience.
Mission / Vision:
Rationale:
I aimed to promote a positive and enjoyable cooking experience by selecting imagery that feels fun, nurturing, and welcoming.
The handpicked dishes showcase how simple recipes can be both appetizing and appealing. ZenChef is designed to be accessible to everyone, regardless of culinary skill level, ensuring that even beginners can easily learn and accurately prepare recipes.
Designing with Positivity and Creativity in Mind
I began my design process by researching color theory and psychology. I wanted to select colors that promoted positivity and creativity.
From there, I researched “simple” and “welcoming” logo designs, which helped create the final wordmark.
Careful Use of Accent Colors to Prevent Confusion
When designing the High-Fidelity screens (Hi-Fi) for ZenChef, I prioritized simplicity and clarity to ensure a positive user experience. Key design choices included limiting recipe card displays to two per screen with an option to "See all," minimizing cognitive overload by refining recipe filter categories, and carefully selecting accent colors to avoid confusion and enhance usability.
I have chosen to use Figma to construct a prototype that focused on my three (3) red routes. To come to a design with the desired usability and final appearance, many iterations were created during the process.
To identify areas for improving the overall user experience of ZenChef. We aimed to uncover any features, iconography, or button names that might confuse, frustrate, or inconvenience users. By testing with a diverse group of participants, we sought to ensure that the app's design was intuitive and user-friendly, particularly for new users.
Participants were recruited through social media and scheduled via Calendly. Usability testing was conducted remotely on Zoom, involving five individuals with diverse career backgrounds and cooking experiences, including both neurodivergent and non-neurodivergent users, to collect varied feedback.
Participants were confused by the unclear "+" sign for adding grocery items, frustrated by non-selectable dates on the "Last 7 Days" page, and misled by the "Cook" button’s unclear function and placement.
The ambiguous “+” symbol on the “Scan Receipt” task was replaced with clearer text such as “Complete” or “Finish.”
A progress bar was introduced on the “Scan Receipt” task to indicate the number of steps remaining.
The “Last 7 Days” screen was updated to make dates selectable, with visual changes to indicate the selected date.
The “Cook” button on the “Recipe” page was renamed to “Cook Now” for better clarity.
eflecting on this project, I've significantly enhanced my UX/UI design skills, deepening my understanding of the psychological and logical aspects of design. This experience has been highly rewarding and boosted my confidence in the field.
Designing ZenChef's dashboard and recipe screens allowed me to address gaps in cooking apps’ visual appeal and usability. My goal was to create an interface that is both vibrant and user-friendly, enhancing the overall cooking experience.
Looking ahead, I plan to further develop this app into a fully functional product. I intend to conduct more user interviews and usability tests to refine the app, ensuring it effectively supports users, especially those who struggle with cooking, and exceeds their expectations.
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