SAVR

A solo Google Venture Design Sprint

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Solo design sprint

I followed the Google Ventures five-day design sprint methodology.

  • Day 1 — Map (learn about the problem to solve)

  • Day 2 — Sketch (sketch solutions)

  • Day 3 — Decide (create a storyboard of the primary user flow)

  • Day 4 — Prototype (create a low-fidelity prototype)

  • Day 5 — Test (test the prototype)

Deliverables

  • End-to-end experience map

  • “How might we” brainstorm

  • Competitive research

  • Rough and solution sketches

  • Storyboard

  • Clickable prototype

  • Usability test

Day 1

The problem

The recipes on the SAVR app get high marks for quality, but increasingly users complain that the recipe directions are hard to follow, underestimate the amount of time required, and may call for unfamiliar prep- or cooking techniques.

SAVR users are home cooks looking for delicious meals they can prepare at home. They’re willing to try new recipes but want reassurance along the way that they’re getting it right and are following the directions properly. My goal is to improve the experience when the user opens the app and is ready to cook.

  • End-to-End Experience

    I started by creating a map of the possible end-to-end experience the user would follow when using the updated SAVR app.

  • How Might We...

    I brainstormed a number of “How might we...” questions to respond to the challenges and pain points shared in the user research.

Day 2

 

Research

I completed a solo version of lightning demos to review solutions competitors have created to solve a similar problem. I reviewed two recipe apps and a how-to app.

 
 
 

Food Network

  • Able to add your own personal notes

  • Ingredient substitutions are available to premium access members

  • Give Step # out of the total number of steps

  • Recipes are rated by Level of difficulty

  • There’s a “How-Tos” section with topics like How to Slice, Chop, and Mince and How to Separate Eggs.

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epicurious

  • Add ingredients to shopping list

  • Gives “do ahead” notes for each section (e.g. can make a sauce the day before or dumplings can be frozen)

  • Gives cooking time and includes a timer

  • User ratings and reviews, plus a “make it again” percentage

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WikiHow

  • Intro context paragraph

  • Various options for the methods to complete the activity

  • Each step in the activity can be checked off

  • All steps include a photo

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Solution sketching

Rough sketches

I looked back to the user map and decided two critical steps in the experience are

  1. when the user gathers all the equipment they need and

  2. they complete the prep/cook/assembly step and get the reassurance that it looks the way it’s supposed to.

I set a timer for eight minutes and tried to draw eight sketches in that time.

RoughSketch.jpg
 
 

Solution sketches

Next, I created a solution sketch to provide a tiny storyboard to show the critical screen, how the user interacts with it, and the resulting interaction.

 

Day 3

 

Storyboard

Build on the solution sketches

Building on the solution sketches from Day 2, I created a five-panel storyboard to show the screens and interactions a user would need to make a recipe.

Storyboard.jpg
 

Day 4

 

Prototyping

Create a prototype

My goal with the clickable prototype was to show how the in-app experience could be improved to include more step-by-step guidance, instructions, photos/video, and allow the user to check off steps as they go.

The experience needs to work for home cooks with more know-how and skills as well as those who need a little more help along the way.

 

  • Recipe

  • Substitute ingredients

  • Instructions

  • Equipment details

  • Recipe expanded

Day 5

 

Usability tests

To validate the designs, I interviewed five home cooks in their 20s, 40s, and 50s. All of them find recipes online and regularly try out new recipes they’ve never made before. The criteria they use to choose a recipe are:

  • it must include a high-quality photo,

  • have fewer than 10 steps, and

  • list ingredients they are familiar with and have on-hand, since many of them make the dish the same day they find the recipe.

They all agree that the biggest challenge they have when making a recipe for the first time is following the directions. Many admit that they don’t read through all the steps before they start so they often find that they’ve used too much of an ingredient or wasted time when they could have started on another step.

 
 
 

User feedback

Users’ response to the prototype was positive with a number commenting that they’d like to make the dish. I grouped the feedback into three categories:

  • I like: the features and experience that got “oohs” and “I like this!”

  • I wish: what was missing or not-quite-right.

  • I wonder: wouldn’t-it-be-cool-if….

I like

  • The description of the dish was the right length and included helpful details

  • Grouping ingredients by each part of the dish

  • Substitution list

  • Equipment list (most appreciated by less experienced cooks)

  • Right number of steps

  • Short description and photo explaining prep techniques

I wish

  • Needs to include a photo of the finished dish

  • Short videos to explain the steps

  • Photo of each completed steps (“Does mine look the way it’s supposed to?”)

  • Nutritional information

  • Give me a print button

  • Show up front the amount of prep and cook time

I wonder

  • Help me get the ingredients (“Could you help me find my local Asian grocery store?” and “Add ingredients to a grocery list app.”)

  • How useful it is to have checkboxes for each step? (Most cooks print their recipes.)

 

Lessons

Clumsy, but it worked

My first foray into using the solo design sprint five-day process felt a bit awkward, but it allowed me to work from idea to prototype at lightning speed.

Creativity craves collaboration

As useful as the process proved to be, I found it to be lonely and wished I was able to work through it with someone else. I was grateful for the interactions with users, who provided me with a much-needed energy injection!

Use a trusted tool the first time

Instead of building the prototype in Sketch and delivering it through InVision, the tools I’d been using, I tried a different one. This proved a major misstep as it took me longer to work in the unfamiliar tool and the prototype wasn’t as easy for users to view. I ultimately recreated the final design in Sketch.

 
 
 
 

What’s next?

 

Many of the features I incorporated delighted users, like grouping ingredients, giving a substitution list, and sharing short explanations for cooking techniques. Based on the feedback, I would add a photo of the finished dish and include photos and videos of the actual prep steps (versus stock photography). I would also include prep / cook time estimates and a print button.

Incorporating these changes, the SAVR app could make recipe directions easier to follow, help people to estimate how much time the recipe will really take to make, and help home cooks feel more confident when a recipe calls for unfamiliar prep- or cooking techniques.