Problem Statement:
ChowTime is a prototype of a mobile food recipe app designed to educate, entertain, and connect with second-generation Asian Americans. ChowTime provides a guide range from trivia, games, and fun interaction on delicious recipes from multiple regions of East and Southeast Asia. This project aims at cooking as a practice to guide, benefit, and help second-generation Asian Americans learn the cultural context of their heritage and help them appreciate themself as a descendants of Asian immigrants.
Duration: October 2022-April 2023 (Capstone Thesis Project)
Design Media:
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Design Scope:
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Problems
- Learning on Cooking an authentic Asian Cuisine Recipe is really hard to navigate on website and if it was found, the steps to cook are lengthy and even hard to understand the communications.
- Second Generation Asian American have vague connection with their Asian immigrant family on their distinctive food they grew up with or have vague memory on remembering the last time going back to their family's native country.
- People don't know where the specific ingredients are at grocery stores nearby.
- It is hard to know the local oriental supermarkets nearby.
Goals
- Aim Cooking as a practice to guide, benefit, and help second-generation Asian Americans learn the cultural context of their heritage.
- Using the cooking and interaction with the recipe to help the Second-Generation Asian American feel appreciative on being raised by Asian immigrants.
- Create a fun and exciting recipe app in a gamification model including interactions with ingredients and trivias.
- Gain experience as a UI/UX Designer with a concentration in Visual Communication to guide a user to interacting with the recipe app.
Methods of Inquiry (Interviews)
15 Asian American Friends
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6 First Generation Asian Americans
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2 Design Reviews with a Chinese American UI/UX Designer
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6 American Friends who experience living in Overseas China during their childhood
Journey Mapping
From the friends and peers I interviewed, I created a journey map of their daily activity on cooking.
Ideation and Prototyping (Mock-Up) Review #1
After looking at precedent research on current existing authentic food recipe website/apps like Blue Apron, H-Mart, and FreshGogo, also interviewing my peers, I decided to also create distinctive Asian Cuisine app to be both beautiful, simple, and interactive for users to use. These lead concept will help me to understand the usage and the informational architecture that is required and needed for a food recipe app. I also designed a user persona to represent the majority of the peers I interviewed strive cooking as their favorite activity to help them guide and explore different styles of cooking and cuisines.
High-Fidelity Prototype Design
Feedback and Development
Using what I learned from the rough prototype design of my idea on my recipe app and how competitive the recipe app/website is, I want to design a gamify version and interactive design recipe where the user can appreciate cooking as a favorite activity to guide and explore various types of cuisines.
Exploring this App (Final Prototype/Ideation)
From the feedback I received, I design one last prototype. I designed this app where it requires the needed features for the user.
Fun, Excitement, and Interacting. I use Figma to finalize the prototype design and make the design so interactive that it will allow the user to understand the meaning on the benefit of cooking a different type of cuisine and learning the cuisines while preparing it.
Fun, Excitement, and Interacting. I use Figma to finalize the prototype design and make the design so interactive that it will allow the user to understand the meaning on the benefit of cooking a different type of cuisine and learning the cuisines while preparing it.
Sign OnDuring this 6-month span, I explore my first-time
self-teaching on using Figma. I built a wireframe to show the prototype usage and guiding the user on the variety of Distinctive Asian Cuisine around East and Southeast Asia. |
Recipes/Home Screen FunctionThe User can guide all the Southeast and East Asian cuisines by looking at multiple different recipes. Here is an example of distinct the difference between Chinese and Taiwanese Cuisine.
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Gold PassGold Pass is a design strategy for the user to explore the curiosity on engaging with many different Asian Cuisines in a reward based system based on accumulating points from recipes and daily trivias.
When you play the quiz, you can even look at more features of the app such as the user's achievements and food archives.
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Ordering RecipeThe ingredients will be ordered from the Asian Supermarkets nearby the user's home. They can track on how will the food be delivered and the status.
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Interaction On Cooking Game
I mocked up the initial concept on how to create the authentic recipe both fun and educational instead of being wordy and too much information for a user to read a recipe. The user will be able to simulate on their own by either using a voice command style (demo) or press the button and how it can still connect to the recipe either way. This is how the user will be cooking the recipe and with the step-by-step instructions, it will guide them to learn the distinctive Asian Cuisine.
Unlike other apps that use a typical cookbook recipe, my design is initialized more of a gamified version of the recipe in order to be both exciting and ambitious for the user to interact with the progress on cooking their own recipe. |
Archive Recipe Book
If any users want to take a look at the archive footage
of the pictures they took during their recipe making, they will be always welcome to take a look at a simulated recipe cookbook the App created for the user. |
Design Conclusion and Takeaways
I am happy on the result of this app design and looking forward to share to my Asian American friends, relatives, and family members I have interviewed throughout my capstone thesis project. My final result is that the app is still a working prototype. This design takeaway features fun games and interactions. In the near future with this design project, I am looking forward on more exciting and rewarding games to guide me and many more of my Asian American friends on learning distinctive food recipes and even take more pictures of more authentic Asian Food range around the East and Southeast Asia my friends and I cook in the near future.
For the design and hierarchy, I am just happy on how I self-learned using Figma and looking back from last year introduced to UI/UX and comparing to the designs before, I am just astonished on how I improved my creative thinking and looking forward to continuing design more UI/UX design projects in the future.
For the design and hierarchy, I am just happy on how I self-learned using Figma and looking back from last year introduced to UI/UX and comparing to the designs before, I am just astonished on how I improved my creative thinking and looking forward to continuing design more UI/UX design projects in the future.