A digital application that allows care-givers to prep for cooking with careful considerations to the dietary needs of their patients in a timely manner, and have the information on hand for easy reference.
Application Design
Illustrator for layout prototyping
After Effects for animated interaction
Axure RP for application wireframe
Interviewing with potential users
User Research from similar application domain + background of care givers
Demeter is a group project that was created me and 3 other teammates. The team was was inspired by the mother of one of the team members. Their work and dedication was a good insight on this line of work. We wanted to create something functional and useful to a community of people and make an impact. Our other source of inspiration was our united love of food, believing that every person has the right to enjoy delicious meals no matter what situation. My contributions to this project is user research to find out more about potential audience as well as the application flow and interaction. I also made a simple wireframe using Axure (you can try out first prototype here) to demonstrate the interactions in the app. Main features of the app includes recommending recipes based on selected care-receiver profiles, a simple view of meal plans and nutritional values with easy adjustable edits of selected meals, and automatically formulated shopping lists from meal plans allows for easy flow and planning.
Context and Device
Caregivers are on the go, they need something convenient and portable. Something that can easily be accessed while they are shopping. or performing an assessment for a care-receiver. Mobiles devices are common and used everyday by volunteers and care-givers alike, eliminating accessibility as an issue. The application automatically pairs recipes to specific nutrition proles, helping care-givers prepare meals that are fit for their care-receivers. The application automatically pairs recipes to specific nutrition profiles, helping care-givers prepare meals that are fit for their care-receivers. It is aimed to show that meal planning can be quick and accurate, clear and concise
Guidelines and Principles
1. Nutritional planning over cooking process
2. Focus on Health, not Fitness
Audience
Care-givers or volunteers that manage the dietary needs of care-receivers.
Professionals that prepare meals for those with dietary restrictions.
User Testing
The team's goal was to understand the effectiveness of the application in completing the desired tasks. It was also especially important to understand that the designs were not based on any assumptions on the care-givers actual roles within their care-receivers homes. The main goal is to have the users to plan meals efficiently as well as understanding the nutritional value of each item they give their care-receivers.
Test Subjects
care-givers
other users
Results
Through user testing and interview, we were able to establish what was actually needed in the case of care-givers. There are realities that were not present in the research. Factors such as volunteers and care-giving assessments were unknown to us. Being an outsiders helped creating a productive flow in pages but the lack of understanding was our downfall in most respect during this user testing experience.