StreamChef Case Study

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Client

StreamChef is all about on-demand cooking classes with real chefs. Formerly called HappyChef, the startup was created to connect real chefs with a community of hungry, aspiring culinarians.

Goal

In addition to its regular classes, StreamChef wants to provide a resource hub of recipes and tutorials to add value to a market that continues to grow but still hasn’t fed the need of many consumers looking to grow in their skills.

Problem

Consumers lack the time and resources to learn to cook convenient, balanced, and affordable meals.

Solution

To provide quick, cost-effective, healthy food recipes and instructional videos from well-known chefs through live classes; build a community of food enthusiasts to connect and share tips with each other; and provide past recipes and tutorial videos to members.

Project Type, Duration, Tools, Deliverables

Second assigned project and group (Cameron Fuller, Sonia Hashemi, Gail Viraldo) | Three weeks | Paper, Pen, Axure, Sketch | Research Findings, Personas, Clickable Prototype, Mockup

Roles & UX Techniques

UX Researcher, Interaction/Visual Designer | Surveys, User Research, Competitive Analysis, Collaborative Design, Service Design, Design Sprint, UI Design, Wireframing, Interaction Design, Prototyping, User Testing

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Project Management

Our project manager, Cameron, created a Trello board to assign project tasks to each team member and to track the progress throughout the three-week duration.

Market Analysis

Based on our research, the instructional food videos landscape is very saturated, but there is still room for innovation and growth. This is an evergreen market space.

Competitive Analysis

I analyzed various websites that offer food videos and recipes to enhance the cooking experience. Notable competitors included Tastemade, All Recipes, Masterclass, and Panna.

User Interviews

To begin the research process, the team sat down and carefully came up with a list of about 15 screener survey questions. Cameron and Gail then sent the survey to approximately 168 people on Facebook.

Out of this group, 28 people responded and indicated they would like to participate in the research.

We then followed up with them with a second list of in-depth, thoughtfully-selected interview questions.

Our objective was to understand the user cooking habits, time spent cooking, shopping behaviors, and the ingredients they use to cook.

Research Synthesis

Based on the responses we received from the second round of interviews via email, we analyzed the data to look for common responses, major themes, and key takeaways.

I did a second round of analysis using an Excel spreadsheet to apply various colors and tally the responses.

Raw Research Data

Themes Identified

  • Healthy Food: Consumers appreciate quality food

  • Learning: There's a desire to improve cooking skills

  • Sensory Appeal: People enjoy seeing photos of food

  • Affordability: Consumers like to save money

  • Convenience: Users prefer to cook quick meals

  • Instructional Videos: Consumers like to watch videos to cook

Key Takeaways from Research

  • Users don’t have time to put in the actual work: buy various ingredients, cook, and clean.

  • They value quality and purity of food: organic, fresh, and local produce.

  • Prefer to try new, healthful recipes with photos of the final product (dislike improvising).

  • Ideal amount of time to spend preparing for a meal is around 30 minutes.

  • Willing to spend $10-$25 per person for a new recipe.

  • Prefer a blend of pantry and exotic ingredients when cooking a new recipe.

  • Try new recipes anywhere from two times per month to eight times per year, with everything from six to ten ingredients per recipe.

  • Most have not used a food subscription service before.

  • Most would use a website that provides instructional videos but would not pay because of free resources on the web. Some would pay if they could preview first to see if topics/recipes were of interest and had options to choose.

  • Most would like to improve their cooking skills.

*Additional market research I conducted after the user interview synthesis also validated our findings.

Personas & Customer Journey

Everyone on the team also created a persona to ensure that we weren’t designing for ourselves. Cameron added photos and compiled everything into a pleasant format.

User Quotes

"I cook basic things, but not more involved things due to time constraints and lack of ingredients (especially on weeknights)."

"I want my family to be healthy, but don't have time to make complicated meals."

"I want to be creative, but don't want to spend a lot of money. I wish there were professional recipes I could make for less."

Customer Journey

To visually gauge our user’s experience with our product and service from their point of view, Cameron also mapped out the customer journey map with relevant touch points.

Product Design

Our focus was to design a Minimum Viable Product that would satisfy all user, business, and technical needs.

  • User Needs: Users want a convenient, quick, and healthy way to make meals with as little effort as possible.

  • Business Needs: Business needs are to utilize video, a social element, and video repository to make a profit.

  • Technical Needs: Technology used needs to be applicable for as many users as possible and be up-to-date.

Ideate & Prototype   

With research data available and an inspirational mood board created, each team member set out to wireframe a different version of the website in Axure.

Value Proposition for Users

  • Learn how to cook quick, fresh, and low-cost recipes created by professional chefs

  • Connect with other community members to share tips and leave feedback on recipes

  • Access past recipes and tutorial videos as a paid member

Features to Include

·      Professionally created videos and recipes that are inexpensive, quick, and healthy

·      A social forum to share tips, tricks, and to show off your creations

·      Access to well-known chefs

Axure Interactive Design (Individual)

In addition to offering healthy food recipes and videos, I also incorporated movement and relaxation content into the website.

The goal was to provide meaningful values once the basic needs are met. I wanted us to differentiate ourselves and offer additional services that the users had not necessarily realized they needed.

Part I

Part II

Usability Testing & Iterations

With the final interactive prototype created in Axure by our interaction designer, Gail, we then tested it with different users to gather feedback.

Positive User Feedback: Users liked the search options, thought the layout of the social forum and internal social feed were intuitive, and liked seeing the 7-day trial offer.

Negative User Feedback: Users thought the social media feed was confusing, the layout of the page and content were not intuitive, were unable to tell what the subscription provided, and could not find the page with the recipes.

Final Prototype and Mock-ups

Based on the user feedback, Cam and Gail made changes to the final interactive prototype in Axure, while I assisted our visual designer, Sonia, with the design for the final Sketch mockup.

The final mockup and interactive prototype now have quick and cost-effective healthy food recipes, instructional food videos, and a forum to connect users and enable them to share tips with one another.

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Next Steps

If we had more time, we would continue to research, update, test, and refine the product to better meet business, user, and technological needs.

With that said, below are the features Cameron mapped out for future implementations: