Hero image of Teen Chef showing mobile screen mock-ups.

TEEN CHEF

Reduce accidents while learning to cook favorite recipes for teens 13+.

Team

Project Mentor &
Peers

My Role

End-to-end
UX/UI Designer

Tools

Figma, FigJam &
Optimal Workshop

Timeline

80-Hour
Solo Project
Introduction
Teen Chef is an educational case study designed during my time at DesignLab.
How young is too young to start cooking?
We all know the benefits of cooking our own meals, but can kids start cooking on their own as soon as they reach their teens?

This lifestyle app was designed to teach young adults how to cook and, by doing so, provide the foundation for this life skill that will benefit them throughout their life.
Discover
Objective
There was much to discover. Many questions and doubts regarding whether such an app was needed, wanted or even safe.
Methodology
  • Secondary Research
  • User Interview's
  • Affinity Mapping
  • Competitive Analysis
Competitive Analysis
As there were no similar cooking apps geared towards teens, to my knowledge, I conducted a SWOT analysis of products a teen might use alternatively if inclined to cook.
Competitive analysis of major competitor's comparing their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats.
Additional Research
What are teens capable of in the kitchen? The main difference is older kids have more autonomy.

Abilities of 10 - 13 yr olds

(Needs supervision or parent nearby)
  • Use of oven & stove w/ supervision
  • Knife skills w/ supervision
  • Peeling, slicing etc.
  • Basic hygiene & kitchen & food safety
  • Planning the family meal
  • Following a simple recipe
  • Finding ingredients in cupboards & fridge
  • Using a peeler
  • Whisking, balloon whisk or handheld mixer
  • Using heat on a hob, oven and microwave
  • Making salads
  • Opening cans

Abilities of 13+ yrs old

(May need supervision or parent nearby)
  • Use of oven & stove
  • Knife skills- Peeling, slicing etc.
  • Understanding basic kitchen & food safety
  • Food hygiene - washing hands regularly
  • Math - counting, dividing portions, doubling recipes, adding and subtracting
  • Recognizing ingredients and learning their origin
  • Recognizing kitchen equipment and learning how to use it
  • Reading and following recipes in order to create the final dish
  • Following instructions - young children are particularly inclined to want to add more, jump stages or taste when they shouldn't
  • Different tastes, textures and foods
  • Time and patience- The science of "cooking“ and what happens to things when you apply heat or cold
  • Dexterity, fine motor skills, coordination, carrying or pouring without spilling, opening containers and packets, weighing
User Interview's
At this point in the research I think it’s important to note that a quick search on google reveals close to zero cooking apps geared towards teens.

Either there is no market for this kind of product, teens are using adult cooking apps or the need hasn’t been fulfilled, but one glance at the SWOT Analysis reveals adult cooking apps can be difficult even for adults.

User interview's were conducted, one in-person and two remote, following a brief survey to weed out teens who had a desire to cook. The goal of the interview's were to gain a deeper insight into the desires, skillsets & expectations of potential users.
Affinity Mapping
What was revealed was that food & kitchen safety was a major concern that needed to be addressed.
Affinity map chart showing categorized groups of interview responses.
Summary
The purpose of this round of research was to discover if there was a need or desire for this product and if it was safe.

Safety was an issue and some supervision was necessary. Abilities depended on exposure to cooking within the home.
Define
Objective
Define for whom and what problem this product serves to solve.
Methodology
  • Personas
  • HMW & POV Statement
Personas
Say hello to Chris! He’s a teenager with busy working parents who are divorced. As the oldest, he prepares meals for himself and his younger brother regularly.  
Persona card of primary user named Chris who cooks for necessity.
HMW & POV Statement
I’d like to explore ways to help teenage kids learn basic cooking skills because it will teach them a life skill that will benefit them for life.

How might we make learning to cook fun, easy & safe for teenagers?
Ideate
Objective
How can I design a product to fulfill the needs of the user.
Methodology
  • Product Features
  • Information Architecture
Product Features
As this is an MVP version, I just focused on the core task a user would perform, which is to search for a recipe, select a recipe and to make it.

1. Must-haves

  • Login
  • Sign up
  • Homepage
  • Recipe category page
  • Recipe page
  • Search
  • Emergency contact page
  • Profile
  • Settings

2. Would be nice

  • Meal planning
  • Community
  • Social sharing
  • Food safety & handling
  • Kitchen safety
  • Hygiene
  • Basic cooking methods - how to
  • Basic knife skills - how to
  • Basic cooking skills - how to

3. Icing

  • Gamified elements
  • Video tutorials
  • Progress tracking
  • Advanced cooking how to’s
  • Produce A - Z
  • Cooking tools A - Z
  • Cooking tools A - Z
  • Cooking timer

4. Bells & whistles

  • Food plating
  • Table presentation
Information Architecture
The sitemap shows the broad scope of the product to give the viewer an idea of its possibility.
Sitemap diagram showing how the categories and pages will be structured.
Prototype
Objective
Create the look & feel of the product, by selecting colors and imagery that was suitable for teens. I asked a few teenagers regarding the UI and, although they knew what they liked, they couldn’t pinpoint what it was that made them like it.
Methodology
  • UI Branding & Style Guide
  • Sketches
  • UI BrMid-fidelity Wireframes
  • High-fidelity Wireframes
UI Branding & Style Guide
Getting the branding right was a challenge. The initial primary color palette was a subdued orange contrasted by an aqua blue. The secondary color palette featured hues of red & pink. Suffice to say, this color palette did not bode well with 13 year olds.
Teen chef UI branding and style guide.
Sketches
Before I create digital wireframes, I sketched out some wireframes to quickly validate ideas & solutions.
Early idea generation sketches of mobile screens.
Mid-fidelity Wireframes
The initial sketches featured a series of questions during sign-up, mainly regarding preferences & skill level, as well as a parental consent form, but these were removed as preferences can be set quickly in settings & parental consent can be established prior to when the app is downloaded/purchased.

Login, dashboard, a search page, a recipe page & an emergency contact page were created.
5 low fidelity mobile screens showing login pages, dashboard, recipe category page, recipe page and emergency contact screen.
Hi-fidelity Wireframes
5 high fidelity mobile screens showing login pages, dashboard, recipe category page, recipe page and emergency contact screen.
Outcome
I chose vibrant colors contrasted by pastels. Usability testing will reveal if these colors work amongst other things.
Test & Analyze
Objective
During this phase I wanted to get some feedback on the brand, UI elements, navigation & overall user experience.
Methodology
  • Usability Testing
  • Iteration 1.0
  • Prototype
  • In-depth Exploration of Recipe Page
Usability Testing
Usability testing revealed 3 major areas for improvement, mainly branding related.

Issue #1

LOGO

Participant’s felt the logo looked acceptable, but the colors could have been changed.

Issue #2

BRANDING

Participants didn’t resonate with the brand colors. I felt it was for a younger audience.

Issue #3

GRAPHICS

Comments were made regarding some of the graphics being age-inappropriate.
Iteration 1.0
As a result of negative feedback, I kept the aqua & orange and added lime green. Some of the graphics were changed from cute to witty. This color palette garnered a more positive reaction with the participant’s, but was questioned by fellow design peers as being too colorful & bright.

BEFORE

Branding UI elements that need to be changed.

AFTER

Branding elements that have been changed.

BEFORE

5 high fidelity mobile screens showing login pages, dashboard, recipe category page, recipe page and emergency contact screen.

AFTER

5 high fidelity mobile screens that have been iterated on including the login pages, dashboard, recipe category page, recipe page and emergency contact screen.
Final Prototype
In-depth Exploration of Recipe Page
This is a key page as it showcases issues of skills, safety & ease of use.
In-depth exploration of recipe page describing elements that have been added.
Measure Success
  • Amount of sign-up's
  • Recipe completion
  • No major safety issues
Conclusion
Teen Chef is an educational case study designed during my time at DesignLab.
Executed
MVP for a Teen Cooking App ages 13+.
Challenges
Branding was a challenge. Honing in on different developmental stages & addressing safety concerns appropriately was also a challenge mainly because more research was needed and I had a limited timeline.

Getting constructive feedback from teens was another challenge.
Learned
If this was a real project, discovering if there really is a need for this kind of product would have been further investigated. I think as a product, a “learn to cook, as you cook” for all ages might have a wider appeal.

If I had the time, I would have conducted observational research at a cooking school, interviewed cooking instructors, in addition to budding chefs.

Creating a user journey of someone who had zero cooking knowledge and tailor the user experience for this persona would be most effective.

Ideally, the recipes would grow through crowdsourcing so the app needed to accommodate this.

Safety issues needs to be further addressed, and adding instructional how-to material can help the user grow their skills.
What's Next
Create the flows for sharing a recipe in conjunction with implementing the "learning how to cook" instructions within the recipe. This way I would know how to organize the fields when sharing a recipe.

Observe teens of all age use the app to identify friction areas.

Investigate if the addition of voice assistant will increase safety.

Use of AI when looking for alternative ingredients, searching for recipes based on ingredients on-hand or anything inquiry pertaining to the app.
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