Savr is an app for a community of at home chefs who want to learn more about cooking while following recipes.

What I did:

Google Ventures style design sprint — understand, map, sketch, prototype new feature for Savr.

What I learned:

Inspiration can come from unrelated places. I.e. Groggs knots provided the best step by step instructions I could find.

Design constraints:

1. Recipes are written in basic text lists i.e.: 1, 2, 3 etc.

2. Solution should be ‘feature’ for Savr native mobile app

3. Focus: on when user is following recipe (not how to find recipe etc.)

The feature was intended to be native to Savr, but I opted to follow search and seek methods users would employ if they didn’t already have Savr downloaded. I chose this to expand the apps audience and draw in new users through a web based recipe offering that would lead to increased native downloads of the Savr app with similar functionality.

For sketching ‘crazy 8’s I decided the critical screen was the action step. I.e. the recipe instructions. This page has to interface with ingredients, imagery, instructions and forward looking prep steps.

Most importantly, the recipe instructions is the screen users will navigate to and from the most while cooking.

The ‘three panel board’ would then naturally have to address the screens before and after the main recipe instructions. So, search results before, and step by step instructions after.

A relatable moment… From fridge, to ingredients, to recipe search, decision, checking ingredients needed, double checking the prep steps, to step by step instructions, plating and finally to eating.

I intentionally chose to layout recipes in two layouts.

The first, for the glance and scroll cook —quickly scroll down to recipe ingredients and instructions and glance at photos.

The second, for those more invested —click the simple viewer play button and move through a quickly click/drag navigation which displays video segments for each step, critical instruction step (and all previous steps), and includes an easy access tab to view ingredients at any time.

I ran 5-testers aged 18-65 through the sprints hi-fi prototype. Users had fun and found the information easy to access and search. The prototype suffered from the expected downfalls of not having ready made video segments —meaning the simple viewer had to be explained and imagined (sub optimal for a simple viewer!).

Going forward, accessibility should be considered and audio instructions and search patterns should be added.