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This is the final pitch video for my app, SocialChef!

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Final reflection

Overall I’m ok with my final output, it’s not something I would’ve expected to make but I think there’s an interesting journey behind it and I did learn a fair bit along the way. Whether or not it solves my hmw I’m not exactly sure, but even now after all the research and testing I’ve done I still don’t really know how to solve the problem.

It has evolved from being just for elderly people, as I think it can be opened up to anyone and there are many future potentials. I got some really positive feedback that people liked the concept and thought it was novel so that was great. Ultimately I feel like this is something that could really be cool and I use, however whether it solved the issue is debatable

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My final prototype for the app, clickable and usuable

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Final Product/ Branding+Aesthetics

I went with the name ‘SocialChef’ as I felt it kinda combined two of the key elements to my solution, and rolled off the tongue quite well-in addition I checked if anyone was using the name and didn’t appear so.

The colour palette was kept bright to be open and inviting to people, and sine my final solution is kina open to anyone it has a general appeal that doesn’t just extend to elderly people.

The display font is a cursive font titled ‘Pacifico’; I went with this after testing variations as I thought it was reminiscent of the typical ‘fancy restaurant’ aesthetic, and that feeling of sort’ve putting on a bit of effort to make something special is what I want the app to emulate. So I used visuals like thin borders similar to what you’d get on menus, to try and make it feel a bit more luxurious, because there is something nice about setting a table when you have guests coming, and I want to carry that feeling of excitement and anticipation through to the visual design. 

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Week 12

Final refinements + further prototyping and testing + branding/aesthetics + pitch video

I kept refining my prototype and the screens, trying to make sure everything was easily accessible, things looked clickable, type was readable- all the final details to polish it off. Once I had finished this in SKetch I imported it into Adobe XD for prototyping as annoyingly you cannot export Sketch prototypes. Despite this inconvenience I am glad I made this move, as XD was something I had wanted to try out for a while. i had weighed up either XD or Proto.io but after finding out the link to the hosted prototype expired after the free trial I decided XD was a better long term investment into my work. 

Quick video of my prototyping workflow here;

https://vimeo.com/367567961

I also refined the branding of my project, titled ‘SocialChef’. I tried to keep the copy and the aesthetics light and inviting, although one concern I had was that perhaps the minimal, flat icon style would be too modern for elderly people and they might not like it, but I think that the user of my service has changed slightly. I would still say my app and the idea is aimed at elderly people, but due to the shift of the overall idea to planning events with friends, I think this opens it up to practically anyone, so this style works for this purpose.

I also worked on my pitch video, although I had quite a bit of trouble with after effects- it crashed probably about 40 times before I got it working, which severely impacted my workflow and was a major roadblock.

I started with a storyboard mapping out corresponding visuals to best explain my product and the context of it, I think I did a decent job. Ifound linking some of the information I was presenting together so I hope it doesn’t confuse the viewer , as this will be the sole piece explaining it to them

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Week 11

Final week! Last user testing+ prototype development+ project doc

So this was our second to last week basically, so I concluded my user testing by revisiting one last participant and seeing what she thought of the changes made, and how that impacted the app. 

I worked on making sure that everything fit to scale and looked right on the actual device, making sure type was readable, buttons clickable etc. I kept my prototype synthesis in view so that I could quickly refer to notes I found and implement the feedback. 

One key insight that came from my user testing was the importance of allergy notifications, as this is especially vital for elderly people who are impacted by this more. So I made that a bigger page element so people could view this easily.

I borrowed designs from the noun project by Juraj Sedlák and altered them as need be to be clearer, or designed myself, based on research I did into common allergies. The red is a bit irritating so I tried to use sparingly, ensuring that it highlighted this key information

Having it viewed from the perspective of someone familiar already with the concept was useful I think, as she already had a bit of understanding of the background to it and knew what areas to point out to me. However obviously that familiarity means my prototype wasn’t viewed with fresh eyes, which may have been detrimental slightly. 

I also got a classmate to review it and test the usability of the prototype, and she gave useful feedback in terms of things like font sizing, colours, hierarchy and layout that perhaps the average person may not have picked up on. One big shift was the colour palette; originally my project had been on short term memory so I had been using blue and yellow (the colour of forget me nots) as I felt it was low in contrast and thus wouldn’t irritate an elderly persons eye. But my classmate suggested that green would work better and appear fresher, which after making the change I do think it looks better and opens it up a lot more, making it friendly and inviting.

BEFORE

AFTER

Also started putting together my project doc based off all of this semesters work, trying to establish a readable hierachy and keep it on brand with the colour scheme. I did some test printing to check font sizes and layout, pictured below

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Pitch video script

Got a case of Deja-food? Cooking the same meals day in and day out, where’s the fun in that? 

Cooking is such an important part of life, but it can feel like such a chore sometimes. Dining out or premade meals are a quick fix but long term effects can result in disinterest in eating and a reduced appetite which can result in serious health problems. 

Social eating has been proven by psychologists to promote positive eating and cooking habits, providing social contact, mental stimulation, a sense of altruism and above all encourages eating.

But researchers have found that people aged over 55 were most likely to dine alone than other age groups with the average adult eating 10/21 meals alone every week. 

So how can we redefine cooking as an engaging and fun activity rather than a chore, and make people want to cook?

The solution is SocialChef, a new way to cook and dine with friends. Created originally to engage elderly people in cooking, socialchef allows you to easily host and attend dining events; it’s like a dinner party planner, but so much more. 

SocialChef enables you to dine, host and browse our tasty recipe database, allowing you to share food and have fun while doing it. 

The host feature allows you to plan your own ‘dining event’ where you choose a recipe, pick your guests (synced from your devices contact list or connected social account) and set a date for them to attend. SocialChef makes cooking quick and easy to plan, meaning you can spend more time on the important things; food. 

Speaking of, with the Dine feature you can view official SocialChef events happening in your local area, where you bring a plate of food and share with your local community. With ‘Dine’ you can mix with your neighbors allowing you to find new people and new food. You can even share recipes straight from your device to someone else’s, making swapping recipes easier than ever before. 

Want to cook but not in the mood to host? Not a problem, with the ‘My Cookbook’ feature you can still access the SocialChef recipes, whether you want to build up your collection of digital recipes by exploring the app, or even upload your own. 

SocialChef is available no matter how skilled… or unskilled a chef you may be, whether you’re a seasoned pro or an eager novice, there’s something for everyone. The best part is anyone can use SocialChef, as our recipes even come with step by step instructions and video tutorials to help you out. And with the review feature, you can master your favorites and share your skills with others. 

SocialChef is unlike any other service out there, and is the solution to your cooking boredom. Our mission is to bring good food and good people together, so download the app today and let’s get cooking.

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Dunbar, R. I. M. (2017, March 11). Breaking Bread: the Functions of Social Eating. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40750-017-0061-4.

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Week 10

This week I did some more user testing, this time I volunteered for a university organised testing session where people from the creative technologies displayed their projects and had members of the public/ university test them. 

This was a useful session as I got honest feedback from completely random people who didn’t have the background knowledge of knowing my project; I had to be able to articulate it for myself and explain things in simple terms. I also screen recorded the session to review, but only thing is I don’t have audio to explain the actions, as I figured it would be inaudible due to the large space and other participants. One of the negative aspects was that whilst it was great I had heaps of participants coming and looking at my work, it didn’t leave much time to write notes on their comments or digest the information; every time someone new came to my booth I was already talking to someone else so I had to switch my attention between the two (and some of them wouldn’t put written feedback).

Some of the feedback I received was:

There needed to be a greater emphasis on the allergies, as this is a common threat for elderly people, and indeed anyone, so when dining with other people this needed to be transparent

Another theme was that a lot of people liked the idea, and could see its use, but said they themselves would not use it. This was a bit frustrating and paradoxical, but was an issue to work through. One student said “well what do I get out of it? Like a coupon or does it help with extra credit”. So perhaps the incentive of eating with strangers where you don’t have to cook is not a realistic one, in truth even I don’t think I would want to dine with random elderly people (maybe vice versa)

I conducted some of my final user testing this week

I tested my mid-fidelity prototype on a 62 year old man, who whilst on the younger end of the elderly spectrum was probably more where I need to be focusing my demographic. He had a lot of feedback, and this was a session I managed to screen record and also film so I could visualise his reaction to things too. Very useful. I also tested my prototype on a 80 year old woman, again sort of reaching the end of the spectrum in terms of age but perhaps getting these two extremes was beneficial. 

The key insight I got from these interviews was that elderly people did not like the concept of dining with strangers at all, so clearly my concept needed to be pivoted despite how late it was. The easiest and most fitting solution was to change it so you would just invite friends, which was fine enough, although I do think there was some merit in the dining with strangers idea. Apps like Uber and Tinder kind of rely on you taking a leap of faith and you meet new people, but given this target user perhaps not the most appropriate solution, so iterating with testing really is key.

These were my synthesised insights; I think perhaps I got a bit carried away with everyones comments, but a lot of them made sense and offered me things to think about. I feel like my app has a lot of potential reaching beyond just elderly based on the responses I gathered.

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Week 9

Further prototype iteration+ User testing

I kept writing a script of questions to test on my user, and tinkering away at my prototype for the user to test. I also worked on mapping out my assumptions of my typical user, and figuring out how to see past these assumptions in order to get the most out of the testing sessions. Attached below is the type of questions I asked users as well as my brief introduction to the project and providing some context.

I sketched out the user flow to map out what screens to where, what features should be accessed and how, what the overall process is. It’s tricky to develop it because the feedback I get keeps changing the app, meaning I have to keep redesigning screens then mocking them up. I always sketch them out first then design in sketch which whilst it may take longer means I’m not diving straight into a high fidelity solution (almost the only way I can stop myself from doing that is starting on paper)

We also mapped out where we were at in terms of workload, which was really helpful to visualise it and process what it meant (and also to sneak a peek at where everyone else was up to). One thing about this project is that doing all of this on our own has been quite tough. The entire project is self directed, which in reality would not be the case. I do wish I had a partner to discuss ideas with and bounce off each other, but I suppose the upside is I can make all the decisions myself.

This was a really great resource for thinking of questions to ask; https://www.usertesting.com/blog/prototype-testing-questions/

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Week 8

Prototype Iteration

Went back to ideation after receiving feedback from a user testing session, where I discussed the concept of my solution with an elderly woman, her thoughts on it and had her provide commentary on a screenshot

Some of the feedback I received on the actual prototype, which wasn’t really a prototype but just a screenshot

I then went and tested it on two elderly participants, although I wish I had seperated them into two instead of doing together as they constantly talked over each other.

‘’Research from the University of Oxford has revealed that the more often people eat with others, the more likely they are to feel happy and satisfied with their lives....The results suggest that communal eating increases social bonding and feelings of wellbeing, and enhances one’s sense of contentedness and embedding within the community. ’’(http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-03-16-social-eating-connects-communities#)

‘’It might be that just being around people who encourage us to keep healthful habits or achieve challenging lifestyle goals could help us to remain mindful of our eating, exercise, and other lifestyle-related habits.’’(https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321019.php)

Interestingly apparently socialising decreases your risk of getting dementia, so thats a plus (source; https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/living-mild-cognitive-impairment/201606/the-health-benefits-socializing)

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This was an article I read discussing a communal cooking class that was run in 2013 that was for elderly people. The article discusses the advantages of this program and how it impacted one person in particular, shifting their diet to a healthier one and making them want to cook for themselves. 

This has helped me form my solution better and gain a better understanding of what I want to make and why

Edit: I did some more research and found this is still going in 2019, for about 6 years! I think this shows how beneficial this focus on social cooking and making it fun for elderly people can be, and theres definitely a market for it

One of the issues with this program though is the location of it; these classes are 8 weeks long and are only in a handful of selections, raising issues like travel and money. 

What if this experience could be replicated in your own home? 🤔

http://www.seniorchef.co.nz/

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Week 7

Iterating and contextual document planning

This week we worked on refining our concept and further developing it; one way we did this was by getting our peers to describe our own project back to us, and highlight what the key ideas were memorable/ useful to other people. This was helpful in terms of understanding what people interpreted as my problem and solution based on what I was presenting. If the understood it correctly great, I was on the right track, and if not then how did their thinking shape my project?

The heart of the issue I found through my research was that elderly people had lost interest in cooking, meaning they weren’t feeding themselves well enough.

For the most part they know how to cook; it’s just a case of being disengaged and not wanting to. So how do we get them excited about cooking again?

Well, what do elderly people value/ appreciate? I went around and asked some people, here were some of their answers:

family

connection

tradition

morals/values

familiarity

home life

‘simple things in life’

comfort

quality of life

love

I think the overall conclusion was the idea of connection and interaction

So how do we take these two elements, cooking and connection, and create an engaging format for elderly people to enjoy these two things? This is my goal.

Also a useful resource I found

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Simple interface thats clear and easy to navigate, the kind of clarity I want to replicate in my design

Whilst I’m examining visual layout and accessibility, I want to discuss the idea of having my final outcome digital based considering the user group is elderly people. 

This decision was based off the impression I received about elderly life through my research. With issues like travel and physical limitations, elderly people appear demotivated to travel unless its really necessary- and can we blame them? I figured by creating a digital solution the world is put right into their hands; theres no need for extraneous effort that might dissuade them from these activities, and opens them up to experiencing so much more. 

Of course there’s the hurdle to cross of the older generations preconceived notions about technology and of programs where they have to enter personal information. But I think more and more everyday technology is becoming integrated into daily life (for better or worse), and those that choose not to enter this world, even in the most entry-level of aspects, will be left behind and miss out. 

Also according to research I did the number of older people using technology is almost doubling every year, it really is increasing fast. I found that a decent amount of elderly people use tablets/iPads for leisure (sort of replacing the traditional tv setup...through my research the average elderly person can watch around 8 hours of tv a day...) as the screen is bigger and the touch points are more accessible for them. And of course there’s just the fact that today’s smartphone using middle aged people are becoming tomorrow’s tech savvy old people.

Infograph sourced from; https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/rise-social-seniors

Resources:

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/rise-social-seniors

http://superseniors.msd.govt.nz/health-wellbeing/preventing-social-isolation/index.html

http://aginginstride.enewsworks.com/en/10024/articles/1057/What-Do-Today%E2%80%99s-Seniors-Value.htm

Dashboard for Task Management by Dwinawan for Paperpillar on Dribbble - Web Design & Web Development

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This was my formative presentation slides, unfortunately I had to cut two out due to Tumblr’s upload limits (my interview answer mapping and mood-boarding which I have on other posts anyways). I am a little bit behind the workload for week 6 as I’m not quite up to prototyping and user testing stage yet but I’m hoping based off the feedback I received today I can take some necessary steps forward.

This was some of the feedback I received, which was really encouraging in terms of supporting my idea as I did have doubts that people would see it as a cool/ useful feature