slim palate
role
designer
time
winter 21
tools
figma, github
develop a user-friendly site that can accommodate to a wide clientele
goal
develop deeper understanding of best ui/ux practices within a classroom setting
impact
One of the trendiest chefs in social media, Joshua Weissman is popular on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram because of his bright, comedic personality that presents easy-to-follow and great tasting recipes. Considering that many college students move out for the first time in the beginning of their academic career, Joshua's videos and short snippets are great resources to learn dishes that range from simple, 20 minute recipes to extravagant, rich-tasting dinners that looks like they were from a bougie restaurant. One of his first platforms on the internet was his own personal blog and recipe website, Slim Palate, which he started when he was only 16 years old. His last recipe post is dated back to 2017, and now he's currently 25 years old.
Considering the age of his website, the heuristic evaluation of Joshua Weissman's website 'Slim Palate' yields a multitude of usability issues. One of the most outstanding issues is the flexibility and efficiency to use--the website lacks typical cooking website features like "jump to recipe" or "save recipe", making it more difficult for beginner chefs to navigate and organize recipes. Second, there is little room for user control and freedom. Users on his website can't easily navigate to the previous page they were on, and the only real exit button is navigating back to the beginning. Third, there's not a good match between the system and the real world. The design of the website is very stagnant and unresponsive to user interaction, while the layout is difficult to follow. Joshua Weissman's recipes are also oddly organized and result in user interactions that aren't ideal. A fourth concern is the unorganized and unpleasing aesthetic of the website. The cluttered design is messy and hard-to-navigate, and also sports very boring colors.
Considering these factors, I'll be conducting a usability test to fully understand whether the website's design has an impact on the user's ability to complete frequent and common tasks. The test will observe the overall user satisfaction and efficiency of Slim Palate. The first task will ask the user to search for a simple steak recipe, to see how quickly and efficiently users can navigate the website to find what to took. This task questions the website's user control and freedom as users attempt to search for something that they need. The second task will test the website's help and documentation for users who have any questions. The user will be tasked with finding out answers to general questions, and whether or not they can contact someone about the website. The final task will be to start from the home page and look for a new dessert to test the match between the system and the real world, considering that the website's functionality is somewhat cumbersome. In conclusion, the purpose of the usability test is to pinpoint the user experience and overall improve the usability and functionality for the user.
background
Considering the age of his website, the heuristic evaluation of Joshua Weissman's website 'Slim Palate' yields a multitude of usability issues. One of the most outstanding issues is the flexibility and efficiency to use--the website lacks typical cooking website features like "jump to recipe" or "save recipe", making it more difficult for beginner chefs to navigate and organize recipes. Second, there is little room for user control and freedom. Users on his website can't easily navigate to the previous page they were on, and the only real exit button is navigating back to the beginning. Third, there's not a good match between the system and the real world. The design of the website is very stagnant and unresponsive to user interaction, while the layout is difficult to follow. Joshua Weissman's recipes are also oddly organized and result in user interactions that aren't ideal. A fourth concern is the unorganized and unpleasing aesthetic of the website. The cluttered design is messy and hard-to-navigate, and also sports very boring colors.
Jack Nielson's 10 Usability Heuristics for UI Design can be read about here.
research
heuristic evaluation
designs
low-fidelity prototype
The purpose of creating and testing this low-fidelity prototype is to see whether the features being introduced are implemented properly, are useful to the audience, and if there are any issues with them. By having participants use the features and see any difficulties or advantages that they experience, I can further the advancement of these features by better modifying them. The tasks will specifically ask the user if the features are useful, if there's anything odd about them that can be improved on, and if the user can find out how to use the feature itself.
These three features will be introduced to the website to improve user experience and ease of access.
Recipe Time Tool: Finds recipes that is within the time frame you need it to be.
Favorites Bookmark: Gives the user the ability to save recipes they want to use in the future, and users can access all their favorited recipes in a specific tab.
Recommendation Tool: Compiles user ratings and reviews on the recipe and recommends which recipes are the most popular with the highest ratings.
More information on the lo-fi prototype can be accessed here.
hi-fidelity prototype
The purpose of the high-fidelity prototype is to see whether or not my design of 'Slim Palate' is cognitively functional, if the impression on users is positive or negative, and what further user feedback can be discovered to adjust and improve the prototype. The prototyping also serves to discover any mistakes in the design and to fix them immediately to ensure that the user experience is simple and seamless.
To ensure that the mobile application is accessible, I conducted a WCAG color-pair contrast test. Both of the light and dark mode variants with their respective font colors passed the accessibility checks.
More information on the hi-fi prototype can be accessed here.
conclusion
Overall, I was happy with my end result of the mobile app design. I was able to generally implement the three features I originally came up with. I learned that understanding true user experience was putting myself into the users shoes and thoughts and imagine the thought process to really be able to create the best experience. Throughout the project, I found how easy it is to make simple errors that could be accidentally overlooked, which lead to cumbersome issues and obstacles for the user browsing through the app/website. I also learned about the various processes that go behind-the-scenes of product design, like the impression testing, cognitive walkthrough, heuristic evaluation, and usability testing. I never knew that there so was much extensive research and testing behind the design of a process, but it now makes so much sense that all this work is put into finding what design is really the most ideal. These hard skills were some of the biggest things I've learned throughout the course.
The project also taught me different types of design and ideas that I could implement into website and app design. It widened my creative knowledge into what I could possibly create and the different concepts I could follow with an application design, which I extremely appreciate as UI/UX is what I want to pursue as my future career. The overall experience has been priceless as I've been taught a variety of techniques, skills, and methods that I would need as a future UX researcher or UI designer.
To see the complete documentation, check out my GitHub here. If you just want to see the final case study in GitHub, click here.
A usability test was conducted to understand the website's design and it's resulting impact on the user's ability to complete frequent and common tasks. The test will observe the overall user satisfaction and efficiency of Slim Palate. The first task will ask the user to search for a simple steak recipe, to see how quickly and efficiently users can navigate the website to find what to took. This task questions the website's user control and freedom as users attempt to search for something that they need. The second task will test the website's help and documentation for users who have any questions. The user will be tasked with finding out answers to general questions, and whether or not they can contact someone about the website. The final task will be to start from the home page and look for a new dessert to test the match between the system and the real world, considering that the website's functionality is somewhat cumbersome. In conclusion, the purpose of the usability test is to pinpoint the user experience and overall improve the usability and functionality for the user.
More information on the usability testing can be accessed here.
usability testing
UX Storytelling is important for the purpose of understanding what the user needs, accomodating their motivations and desires, and to make their experience as easy, memorable, and satisfactory as possible. For my project, UX storytelling is imperative so I can modify and adjust Slim Palate to cater to a wide variety of people--from students, to full-time workers, and more. By imagining different populations of users, I can diversify the features, effectiveness, and utility of the website.
Two personas and journey maps were developed to visualize the possible user population for Slim Palate.
