JAIME VENTURA
UX/UI Designer
BRIEF
Instacart wanted to create a sister site that would allow its users to order groceries to make specific recipes and also let them schedule cooking classes.
MY ROLE
As the sole UX designer, I focused on building a site that contained all the elements that Instacart needed but that would also be simple to navigate for the users. Key factors in the project were Market Analysis, User Interviews, Information Architecture, and User Testing.
CHALLENGE
Balancing the vast amount of information that would have to be displayed as well as keeping it simple and easy to use.
PROCESS
My primary focus on this project was to make every decision I made based on solid research. In order to do that I challenged myself by picking a topic and a company that I had no previous knowledge about. The first order of business was to thoroughly research Instacart, the grocery delivery business and the meal delivery business. I tried to learn everything I could about them. From this research I was able to get an idea of what the market looked like and what space I could try to occupy with my new web service.
From user interviews I was able to get a clear idea of how users were interacting with meal delivery services that would be direct competitors with the new service I was developing. This user derived data would give me a clear direction of what features I could integrate with my service to set it apart from the rest.
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Mobile App Design/ Gamification/
Augmented Reality Design
User Flow Redesign/ Interactive Map Design/
UI Design
Brand Identity Development/
Visual Design/ Front End Development
DESIGNERS: 1 TIMELINE: 2 WEEKS PLATFORM: DESKTOP
TOOLS: PEN + PAPER, SKETCH, INVISION, GOOGLE FORMS, PHOTOSHOP
I realized that having a vast variety of recipes would be the key to success for Instarecipe because this is something that none of the competitors had the capability of doing. But it also proved to be the biggest challenge, because displaying all these recipes in a concise way was something that would require much more user input. First thing I did was try to figure out how people would group all these different concepts and categories with card sorting.
After some rapid prototyping I was able to test out my new layout with users and discovered that it was not working; the vast amount of information was still challenging for users to comfortably navigate.
I made a number of key changes like moving the search bar for recipes based on specific ingredients out of the main menu and gave it its own section on the landing page. I also rearranged the way the recipes were being grouped and changed the way they were being labeled. I kept doing this until my prototype began testing well with users.
SOLUTION
Instarecipe was conceived to work in conjunction with its sister site Instacart.
Instarecipe would facilitate the ordering of all the ingredients necessary to make recipes and add them directly to your Instacart shopping list. Users would also be able to search for recipes by cuisine types, lists made for special occasions, recipes geared towards children, by ingredients, and by dietary restrictions. In addition Instarecipe would allow users, who would like to learn cooking techniques to master more challenging recipes, to be able to schedule cooking classes. This would result in users who wanted to cook, but just didn’t have the time to go to the store to pick up the ingredients, to be able to easily order groceries based on the recipes they wanted to make. It would also allow users to quickly plan their meals for the week based on a vast variety of recipes. Lastly they would be able to save their favorite recipes and rate all the recipes they had previously ordered.