Grow it, Cook it App

I would like to run you through the first stages of my design journey of a newly created “Grow it, Cook it” App by Sustainability Victoria.

1. About Client

Sustainability Australia has a mission to establish the connection between people and their food production and consumption. In response to the declining number of suburban gardens in Australia and the lack of understanding and appreciation of how food is grown, Sustainability Victoria decided to raise up the trend by introducing the “Grow it, Cook it” app. The mobile app is designed to educate, as well as assist users in growing and cooking their own food.

2. Challenge

The client wants to see three design concept variations that focus on:

a. Context- Urban Space

b. Aesthetic- Photon Design

c. Accessibility

Additionally, the design has to adapt to the initial UI design language displayed on their website. This includes the logo, colour palette, etc.

3. Research

Existing Designs

The research begins with reviewing and analysing existing similar applications.

From this research, I have spotted a few similarities shared amongst the designs, which are:

Growing App

• Uses a balanced mixture of the visual and textual elements.
• Uses graphs to display data
• Use colour to highlight the numbers on graphs

Cooking App

• Uses horizontal scrolling gallery to display recipes that belong to the same categories
• Display recipes with a little information and prompt them to see more details by clicking the button.
• Use categories to filter the recipes for quicker and easier access.

Survey

The second research method I’ve done is asking survey questions to gather quantitative data. Here are the 10 questions asked in the survey:

Interview

Beside analysing other designs and gathering data from the survey, I have also conducted Interviews with 5 people that represent the targeted user group. Some of the findings can be seen through the quick finding report below…

Persona

After gaining an insight into the user, I have identified a number of personas that represent the user group.

scenario

The scenario reflects upon the obstacles, motivation, and needs of the user.

User Goal

The steps above have led me to identify the user goals. Three main user goals are:

Low Fidelity

The Low fidelity wireframes help to visualise the structure of the designs

High fidelity

While the high fidelity helps to visualise the real product of the main screens, before proceeding to the next stage.

Summary

The research findings allow me to gain a deeper understanding of the client’s mission and the target users. I have identified four different personas that represent the whole group, which led me to establish three different design concepts that focus on the context of urban space, photon design aesthetics, and accessibility. These three concepts are then ready to be chosen based on the client’s preference for further development.