Overview
There is a gap between healthy foods and students. Most students tend to prefer more accessible options when it comes to food they eat based on time and effort. Compared to ordering outside or cooking a pre-heated meal in a microwave, cooking requires more work and time that most students do not find feasible. The young generation's lack of knowledge about meals they can cook causes more frustration and demotivation, leading to preferring unhealthy options. This lack of knowledge is caused by not having all the ingredients or being unable to find a recipe that only contains the ingredients they have. However, this gap can be strengthened by an application that can collaborate with grocery store chains and provide healthy recipes for various situations.
Design Process
Several narrative storyboards were created that emphasize the issue mentioned above. Based on these narratives, we chose the two main reasons that neglect students to have healthier meals. Then, low-fidelity prototype screens were created using Adobe Illustrator, which represented the main ideas we had that the application should be able to provide. We realized that some of the drawn ideas were not feasible for a high-fidelity prototype which altered the final version. Before starting the development of the high-fidelity prototype, a wireframe was created via Miro that represented the user experience from start to finish. The wireframe helped the prototyping process and provided a checkpoint for the functionalities and how the prototype should work.
Prototype
Users can also browse all recipes with desired filters to check the cooking duration and the required ingredients and shop accordingly. Each recipe consists of nutrition facts, ingredients, and preparation. Students who find cooking hard can also use the voice assistant function of the app to listen to what they need to do and when to do it. To motivate students to continue eating healthy, discounts on various items are provided, which can be scanned in the store using the QR code inside the prototype to enhance accessibility.
The phone application prototype was designed to work with a store card to keep track of the purchased ingredients. By providing synchronous updates between the application and the bought components, students can choose from various healthy options based on what they want and the duration of completion. In addition, available ingredients can be checked via the application, which denies buying unnecessary ingredients. To provide variation, the prototype offers suggested recipes for the user based on their inventory.
