CSA Connect

CSA Connect

Role: UX Design

Overview

This mobile app is a recipe sharing resource and social platform for members of community shared agriculture programs. Through interviews and research, I discovered there is a need for CSA members to more easily find recipes for the produce they receive and connect with other members. View the full presentation.

CSA Featured Image

CSA members encounter new and sometimes overwhelming amounts of vegetables each week. They turn to websites and cookbooks for recipes and information, and communication among members is limited. There are missed opportunities for CSA members to to help each other by sharing their knowledge of how to prepare the fresh produce they receive.

Primary Persona

Eve needs an easy way to get information on processing and cooking large quantities of vegetables. She would also like to find a way to share what she learns with other members of the CSA to help others with the same concerns.

Persona

Competitor Analysis

A look at the key features needed to attract the target market.

Competitor Analysis

Feature Prioritization

Based on the research of competitive websites and the users’ needs, these are the necessary features for a successful product.

  1. Weekly share. This updated list will help users find the most pertinent information about the ingredients they have on hand.
  2. Blog and event calendar. Posts and updates about the farm and CSA members will help users stay connected to the community.
  3. Submit recipe. Users will have the opportunity to share their own recipes and contribute to the community.
  4. Search by ingredient. Having an index of the most common ingredients found in a CSA share will be a convenient way to browse the content.
  5. Global search. If a user has a specific need this will be the fastest way to search. Including a faceted filtering method will help users narrow the results based on the ingredients they have on hand.
  6. Rate recipe. Ratings will be a good way to rank recipes for the order they appear in search results. They will also promote member interaction, helping to build the community.
  7. Comment on recipe. Like the rate recipe feature, comments will promote interaction and is also a space for members to ask questions. It came up in my interviews that working with CSA shares got a lot easier with experience, so this can be the opportunity for seasoned members to pass on their knowledge.
  8. Save recipe. This is a regular feature in recipe apps and will be expected here. Since some vegetables repeat over a few weeks’ shares, it will be helpful for members to save a recipe in order to find it again quickly the next time they want to make it.

User Flow and Site Map

Two paths a user may take to save a recipe to her list of favorites is depicted in this user flow, and the site map represents the structure of the app’s content, including features that will be added in future iterations.

UserFlow-Sitemap-2

Card Sorting

Using OptimalSort, I gained insight from users on how to organize the content of the app.

Card Sorting

Sketches

After synthesizing the data I collected from my research, I began sketching the key frames of the app.

Sketches2

Paper Prototype

After revising my sketches, I tested them out with users as a paper prototype. The biggest insight I gained from these tests was the need to make the navigation more clear by adding a back button to interior pages.

PaperPrototype2

Wireframes

After sketching out lo-fi wireframes, I rendered them in Sketch, adding annotations to document interactions.

Hi-Fi-Wireframes-5

Interactive Prototype and Usability Test

iPhone6mockup-small During my first round of testing, I discovered that there was confusion with the naming of certain sections. Additionally, I found that the ingredient information pages could be combined into two tabs instead of three. These adjustments are reflected in the current prototype.

View my interactive prototype in InVision and explore the key features of the app.

Next Steps

The current prototype represents this project’s MVP. I’m looking for a vegetable-loving developer to partner with and am eager to get started on the visual design. Features I’d like to focus on next include a shopping list creator to help users plan ahead for cooking, an organizational tool to keep track of the recipes a user has already cooked, and a more robust interface for adding personal recipes.


Posted

in

by

Tags: