MY LOCAL RECIPE PROTOTYPE

Goal

Over the course of a semester, create a simplistic, user-friendly web browser extension and website prototype to analyze, save, and organize recipes based on the number of locally grown in-season ingredients in them.

The Process

Problem Identification - Eating and cooking ingredients from local sources has many benefits. It supports local economies, it is more environmentally sustainable, and it tastes better as produce can be picked closer to the peak of freshness. For this project, I set out to prototype a tool that would help promote and simplify using local produce by putting information regarding what ingredients are in-season in a user's area in the context of the recipes they want to cook.

Personas - After creating sketches and deciding on the direction of my project, I created personas of potential users. These personas helped me with design decisions later on in my project, specifically the realization that users of this tool would have varying levels of digital literacy and cooking skills. Because of this, I decided to try to keep my designs and functionality simple to make the web browser extension and website easy for all users.

User paths - Following the development of sketches and personas, I was then able to create user paths to gain a better understanding of how users would use the tool and the steps they would need to take to complete tasks. This allowed me to identify features that needed to be added or altered to make the tool more useful.

Paper Prototyping and User Testing - Using what I had learned from the personas and user paths, I was ready to begin constructing the paper prototype of the web browser extension and website. Once the paper prototypes were made, I was able to commence user testing. These tests made multiple faults in my initial design recognizable, including the need for the user to be able to customize their location and search for markets with fresh produce near them.

The Result

My final prototype, created on Adobe XD, is called My Local Recipe. My Local Recipe is a web browser extension and website that work together to allow users to analyze the ingredients in the recipes from their favorite online recipe websites. By analyzing the recipes using the web browser extension, users receive information that informs them of the number of ingredients that are locally in-season in their area. The User can then save that recipe for later or save the in-season ingredients to their shopping list. With the website portion of the tool, users can manage the recipes they have saved, view them based on the number of in-season ingredients contained in them, and add ingredients to as well as view their current shopping list. Users can also find markets that feature fresh, local produce near them.