Did someone say burnt smell?

Did someone say burnt smell?

Did someone say burnt smell?

Hazard-free cooking experience at your fingertips

Hazard-free cooking experience at your fingertips

Stovemate

Making a safe meal-prepping experience for college students sustainable

A meal-prepping app, integrating hardware for college students, boosting confidence in cooking and maintenance experience, and making cooking and a healthy lifestyle a fun and sustainable habit.
TIMELINE

January 2024 - March 2024 (5 weeks)

ROLE

End-to-end product designer

Initiated Recipe, Community, and Home sections

TEAM

2 Product Designers

1 Industrial Designer

TOOLS

Figma, FigJam, CyBox, Google Forms

services

iOS Design

TAGS

Best Lifestyle Design (Spring 2024)

Best Mockup Design (Spring 2024)

TL:DR

Overview

My team and I designed a mobile app called Stovemate, a safe and remote cooking ecosystem that reduces meal-prep anxiety for college students living in apartments with smart kitchen appliances.

My contributions include deep user research into student living habits, conducting user interviews and competitor analysis, initiating inclusive Recipe exploration, implementing user testing feedback, and ensuring accessibility

The Problem

College students want to have proper and delicious meals, but why is it so non-sustainable, complicated, and unfulfilling?

How can we bridge the gap between people's anxiety and a safe yet enjoyable cooking experience?

The Strategy

Stovemate combines hardware integration, inclusive recipes, and device maintenance. It heats up remotely, offers cooking experiences ranging from easy to hard, and sends alerts of repair and cleanup.

The Result

100% of testing participants felt confident using a remote-heating stove safely after using Stovemate.

100% of testing participants preferred an in-app temperature measurement integrated into recipes rather than guessing every time they cook.

Solution

What if you could remotely control the temperature of your stove with ease, eliminating the risk of overheating? No second-guessing of temperature needed

Three main value propositions were developed to alleviate users' concerns regarding cooking safety, lack of knowledge, and hardware maintenance.

1
User is heating up the stove in another room while doing homework with designated heat instructions from the integrated recipe

A remote control feature that assists your busy schedules. The remote allows you to remotely heat up your stove with recipe integration, ensuring the range is heated according to instructions, preventing burnt or undercooked foods.

User chooses a recipe and the remote control turns on the selected range and heats up accordingly to the heating instruction.

Error state appears when choosing an occupied stovetop

2
User is missing an ingredient, but the substitution feature offers alternatives

A recipe section that cares about your cooking level. It provides recipes with three levels of difficulty: easy, medium, and hard, and a substitution feature; you don't have to rush to the grocery store.

While the user waits for the range to heat up, they can then proceed to check the ingredient list. Heavy milk, a crucial ingredient, is missing, and the substitution feature offers possible milk alternatives that minimize drastic changes in consistency.

Ingredient substitution feature increases task retention rate

3
User cleans up the range post-meal, maintaining hardware longevity

Introducing the Tips section, where you can clean up the hardware by watching demonstrated tutorials.

In case there is food waste on the range, user receives an alert to remove it, accompanied by step-by-step guides and prevention tips, such as those for burnt food and replacement parts.

Research

Research

How meal-prepping looks like for most students

I researched on the meal-prepping trends around students, with the majority of Gen Z, and their confidence in their experience in the kitchen.

35%

Of the students in the US, those who reported engaging in cooking activities, noted as 'often' and 'sometimes'.

87%

Of Gen Z cooks, only 33% consider themselves "skilled cooks."

56%

Gen Z relies on social media like TikTok for cooking support.

Key insights

Only about 50% of Gen Z individuals who actually cook are confident in their cooking skills, and only 35% incorporate meal preparation into their routine. Cooking resources are scattered randomly, often found through a social media scroll, with no clear vision and directions.

Constraints that make cooking less desirable

I also conducted further research on what factors take part in making students feel less motivated in integrating meal-prepping experience in their lifestyle.

Constraints that make cooking less desirable

We also conducted further research on what factors take part in making students feel less motivated in integrating meal-prepping experience in their lifestyle.

83% university housing fires are caused by cooking activity

Traditional stovetops require constant supervision, making multitasking difficult

Unfamiliarity with stovetop maintenance leads to safety risks and inefficiencies

Resources limitation causes confusion when they lack ingredients and unsure what to substitute with

Time constraints like classes, study time, work and extracurriculars take up the majority of time

Qualitative scoping

My team and I conducted guerrilla user interviews with two full-time students, undergrad and post-grad levels. We explored students’ feelings and experiences with meal prepping as full-time students. The data helped us better understand people’s day-to-day behaviors in meal-prepping. Our team also analyzed participants’ patterns and pain points to gather potential value propositions that could ease their pain.

Qualitative scoping

My team and I conducted guerrilla user interviews with two full-time students, undergrad and post-grad levels. We explored students’ feelings and experiences with meal prepping as full-time students.

The data helped us better understand people’s day-to-day behaviors in meal-prepping. Our team also analyzed participants’ patterns and pain points to gather potential value propositions that could ease their pain.

Qualitative scoping

My team and I conducted guerrilla user interviews with two full-time students, undergrad and post-grad levels. We explored students’ feelings and experiences with meal prepping as full-time students. The data helped us better understand people’s day-to-day behaviors in meal-prepping. Our team also analyzed participants’ patterns and pain points to gather potential value propositions that could ease their pain.

  • “The ranges often burned and smelled kinda bad.”

    Lexa

    Undgraduate Student

  • “The range gets easily dirty and I often times didn't realize the food wastes stuck underneath it.”

    Theodora

    Graduate Student

  • "If it's like a complicated dish, I'm not really excited because I don't wanna spend my time in the kitchen for too long."

    Lexa

    Undgraduate Student

  • “Sometimes when I'm cooking something on the stove, the instructions don't have like a specific heat level.”

    Theodora

    Graduate Student

  • “I'm not sure how hot the stove is so I don't know how to maintain the appropriate temperature when cooking.”

    Theodora

    Graduate Student

  • “too-high of heat or too-low of heat, and it just doesn't turn out right.”

    Lexa

    Undgraduate Student

Key insight

We concluded that participants struggled with safety, knowledge, and maintenance.

🌟 Our mission is to prioritize the user’s convenience and confident in meal prepping. Stovemate addresses three main aspects, catering to users' needs for guidance and security.

A non-daunting interface, inclusive resources, and safe technology are curated in one app to help users feel supported.

Design Decisions

Decisions that listen and ease complexities

After conducting user testing, gathering feedback and iterating, I made some changes turning feedback into easier user flows.

Nav bar that makes sense

I made a significant change within the navigation bar. Instead of relying solely on illustrations, labels make the intention clearer especially for fist-time users.

Community is the best place to learn and explore

Collections and community are in the same section where users don't need to go through the hassle of going back and forth when looking for inspirations. Saves and explorations all in one tab.

Ideation

Solutions that ease the mind

The user journey, empathy map, affinity map, and competitor analysis were the starting points for generating solutions. We came up with value propositions to bridge the gap between users' anxiety and a safe meal-prepping experience.

  1. Sign in task on landing page

  2. Scan an oven QR code

⭐️

Connect to Content

Add layers or components to make infinite auto-playing slideshows.

⭐️

Connect to Content

Add layers or components to make infinite auto-playing slideshows.

Stovemate poster

Accessibility

Interface legibility is the priority

Button selection color was changed to pass the accessibility checker, ensuring all states are legible and adhere to WCAG.

Future Improvement

What I could've done if I had more time

Introducing Remote Control from Stovemate. A feature that allows users to remotely heat up their stove with recipe integration, ensuring the range is heated according to instructions, preventing burnt or undercooked foods.

Safety check

After completing all tasks, the user will be directed to two options: Keep Warm and Auto Shut-off. Students are often busy and don't typically eat their food after cooking. Keeping the food warm is beneficial for maintaining freshness for up to 15 minutes. To prevent overheating, the stove will automatically shut off in 30 seconds if the user doesn't take any action.

Smart Recipe

The Smart Recipe feature would alleviate mental confusion and speed up decision-making by allowing users to scan their available ingredients. Stovemate will generate various recipes based on available scanned ingredients.

← Back to All Works
Higher Ed Critique Website →