A UX Writing Case Study Based on User Research
The Beginning
The Food App came about as a companion piece to a digital product I was working on. While the website was already drawing visitors, we wanted to revamp it so that it would more than meet the needs of all food lovers in Asia and beyond — thereby claiming its niche as the No. 1 recipe resource for Asian cuisines in the region.
Phase two of the product would transit to an app in the following year; and while we were not there yet, I decided to jump ahead and embark on my own side project in parallel. This is my personal and non-affiliated vision of what the phase two product might look like.
The Research Opportunity
The Food App is envisioned to be a one-stop shop for users looking for recipes, with extended functionalities such as community features and e-commerce.
We had an initial round of commissioned research with participants in Southeast Asia, which already revealed a key set of features potential users are looking for on the food platform.
Therein lies the opportunity for me to zero in on three key features participants have identified, and deep dive into how, when, where and why they will utilise them.
Feature 1 — bookmarking of recipes:
To investigate how users save a particular recipe, and what happens after.
Feature 2 — recipe newsfeed:
How would they engage with recipes they see on their newsfeed? Are they inclined to share their culinary achievements?
Feature 3 — e-commerce setup:
Do they currently buy things online? What are the factors that would persuade them to buy from an e-commerce set-up within the app?
Research method:
Screener surveys were sent out via online cooking communities and forums, as well as on social media.
From the 25 submissions generated from the screener survey, I sieved out candidates who fit the behavioural profile for user interviews. These would include people who cook at least once a month, either for themselves, or family/ friends. They would already have the habit of looking to online resources for recipe inspiration, or are accustomed to looking for general information online.
Learnings from the user interviews:
There were some surprising learnings from the five user interviews, which were conducted via video calls on Zoom.
1. Bookmarking of recipes
Their personal bookmarking process is currently clunky, and takes a few steps to retrieve. Some users save recipes on a Pinterest board. One user copies and pastes the recipe to notepad on her macbook, which then syncs to her phone for her reference while cooking. Another user screenshots the recipe she wants, then prints them out for her helper’s reference.
My recommendation: This is a potential friction point for the user. Stress can be reduced during the recipe retrieval process, if there is a central depository where their favourite recipes can be stored, and drawn out easily when needed.
2. Recipe newsfeed
Users like the idea of having personalised recommendations served to them in the app, and would enjoy being able to rate the recipes they have tried. Of particular interest was that users were not really keen to post pictures of their completed dishes with the online community. Instead, they would endorse a great recipe they have tried, and share it with a friend.
My recommendation: Posting of recipe images as a community feature would be downplayed, and in place of that, I would add in sharing functions via email, chat messengers or social media platforms.
3. E-commerce
All users have the habit of shopping online for necessities, due to convenience. When it comes to perishables, some prefer to shop for it in physical supermarkets so that they can see and feel the product. This is likewise for untried brands for non-perishables like cooking tools.
My recommendation: To cater to the varying personal preferences, users will be given the flexibility to edit their ingredient shopping cart, before they check out for payment.
“I usually do screenshots of recipes I like right now, and I print them out for my helper if she’s preparing the meal. It’s not the best way to save the recipes, I know!”
- A quote from the user interviews that presents a pain point in bookmarking recipes
Solution Ideation
From the affinity mapping, and analysis of the user interviews, I determined three major pain points that users faced:
- How might we help users find recipes more effectively, according to their needs? These needs include how cooking sits in their daily lives (e.g. if the user leads a busy lifestyle and often looks for 15-minute recipes), as well as the varying dietary needs of their family members.
- How might we help users increase the ease of use of referencing saved recipes, while they are in the midst of cooking?
- How might we help users make sense of their collection of saved recipes, and also enable them to share it with ease?
Based on the user findings, I developed two personas — the busy professional and the nurturer, and also mapped out the low-fidelity wireframes for two key red routes.
The two personas were closely referenced throughout the entire product development process.
The Wireframing Process
At the beginning of my design process, I did paper sketches based on the user flows, and got feedback through guerilla user testing.
The user tasks allocated were:
a. Searching for recipe
b. Go to recipe
c. Bookmarking recipe
d. Save individual recipe settings
e. Click to ‘mass select’ favourited recipes in My Recipe Box
f. Buy ingredients online
Learnings from Guerilla User Testing
1. All participants were able to navigate the interface with ease, though the oldest participant (in his 50s) took a longer time to find the button for task E (mass organising favourited recipes).
2. A female participant (mother in her 40s) feedbacked that she liked the flexibility of being able to edit the list of ingredients for grocery shopping, as there might be times when she already has certain items at home.
3. The user interface could be simplified further, to minimise unnecessary distraction for the user. Additional text cues for key actions will help to guide the user.
4. Call-to-action buttons could be featured more prominently visually, as an indirect guide in terms of the user flow.
Based on the feedback, the final iterations of the low-fidelity wireframes are showcased below.
Personalised Recipe Recommendations
Advanced Search Filters & Bookmarking of Recipe
Rate and Review Recipe
Selecting Recipes for Weekly Cooking Plans
Option to Buy Ingredients Online
“I don’t cook very often, but once in a while, my husband will ask for something he likes to eat. I don’t always comply!”
- A new target audience for the app’s recipe sharing function: the hungry husband
Learnings for UX Writing
I adopted a friendly tone of voice for the app, and also kept the language direct and concise. This could be seen in the confirmation dialogue buttons, before the user is sent through to a third-party vendor.
The focus is also kept on the user. Talk to them, not at them. Instead of saying “Thank you for using The Food App to purchase your groceries…”, I go with “Your groceries are just a click away!”.
While conducting the user interviews, I also observed how people speak, and the words they used to describe the cooking process. This helped to simplify certain descriptors I initially used in the wireframes, and made it more palatable in terms of user speak (see example below for the before vs. after screens).
Writing for the Personas
The two personas — the busy professional and the nurturer — were kept top of mind while crafting the content strategy. Through the user interviews, I discover that their love of food is very much linked to their childhood memories of enjoying their parents’ or grandparents’ cooking.
A similar sense of nostalgia is brought about by naming the central depository “The Recipe Box”, harking back to the days of old when recipes were often handwritten and stored in a box. The additional function of allowing the user to jot down notes for each recipe also simulates the tactile feel of putting their thoughts on paper. Visually, I could work on the accompanying UI elements, to be designed such that they reinforce the user’s emotional connection to the product.
Conclusion
Working on the UX process of The Food App was certainly an eye-opening experience. I undertook the user research and usability testing, with the eye of someone from a Communications background.
Here is my takeaway.
Beyond the research findings, it was my personal observations during the interviews which provided the most utility to the UX design, and the writing. What were the colloquial words they used to describe the way they cook? What were they saying versus what were they not saying? What can we infer from their expressions and body language as they clicked through the prototype?
Writing with the personas in mind also helped to build the emotional connection with the users, with the aim of bringing forth positive emotions as they engage with the app. I found that it was also helpful to craft the content first, before coming up with the design elements — so that there would be less of a constraint on the words.
Indeed, the UX writing process should not be an afterthought in the UX design process.
