Summary
This was a whiteboarding challenge that I received during an interview that I decided to tackle in my own personal time as an exercise. I went through the design process and created a high-fidelity prototype for a magical cooking app.
Background Info
I'll be honest. Back when I had to do this whiteboarding challenge live on Zoom, to be frank, I bombed it. I didn't realize the mental block it left me after that time. I had taken quite a blow at my confidence. So, I figured that I had to overcome it by tackling it and move on.
The Prompt
Your company has a magical machine that can cook gourmet meals in minutes if you put ingredients into it. Design an accompanying mobile app for it.
The Process
✷ Explore the problem
- Investigate and dissect the prompt
- What problems does this solve?
- Answer who, what, why, how
✽ Gather context and constraints
- Define user and business goals, ask questions to set constraints
✦ Ideation and scope
- Use the "How Might We" framework to generate ideas
- Prioritize ideas and set scope to design
⁕Information Architecture
- Sitemap for mobile app
- Wireflows
✷ User Interface design
- High fidelity UI design
- Prototype for the chosen flow determined by the scope
✧ Part 1 - Understanding the machine ✧
Exploring the Problem
First, I wanted to investigate this magical food machine itself, since the mobile app is an extension of it. What problems did this thing solve and for whom?
What I imagine this magical, Dr.Seuss-esque machine could look like
Problem assumptions
I took some time to brainstorm some assumptions about what problems this machine solves.
✽ Lack of skills & knowledge
To make gourmet food, a person needs the skill, knowledge and time. Not everyone is a chef.
⁕Food for the soul
After a long day at work or feeling bummed, good food can be the light of someone's day.
✷ Lack of time
People don't have time to cook, especially if it's for a gourmet meal. They're busy and want to skip the long process (prepping ingredients, etc) to tend to other tasks like studying, work, etc.
✦ Lack of energy
People are sometimes too tired to cook. Some working people will take a nap right when they get home because of how tired they are and then may end up ordering delivery.
✽ Disabilities
Some people have disabilities that can affect whether they're able to cook or handle tools. Ex: Parkinson's disease causes tremors.
Also, what even is "gourmet food?"
My assumption is that gourmet food is stuff that you could expect from Hell's Kitchen and higher. It is also about the quality of presentation, so anything can be gourmet. A hamburger can be gourmet.
Who's This For?
I then made assumptions about who this machine is for to keep in mind who I will be designing for. Who experiences these issues?
- People who are busy and can't invest their time and energy into cooking. So sometimes, they choose to eat quick foods like instant ramen or order delivery.
- Not the best cooks. For some people, cooking is just not their thing. Not everyone has an interest or enjoy it.
- Enjoys eating good food but is not interested in the actual cooking part. They much prefer to eat out and going to new restaurants they find on social media.
- Lacks energy to cook. They may be sick, tired, have to cook a lot of proportions for family, etc.
- Physically unable or trouble with cooking. This can mean disabilities where their motor skills are compromised where cooking can be unsafe.
- Can afford the luxury of this expensive machine. Probably higher-middle class at least. This machine is like... the newest iPhone of air fryers. The PS5 of microwaves.
Constraints & Questions
I then defined constraints and addressed questions I had about the prompt.
- How is revenue generated?
> Users must stay subscribed and pay a monthly fee to use and have access to the database of recipes. - Whats the process of getting the machine to work in order to get a meal?
> The user turns it on, chooses a meal from the touch screen, put in the ingredients (doesn’t need to be prepped), make sure dishes, bowls, etc necessary are loaded. Choose start and wait for a few minutes for the food to be ready. - Can it only cook 1 meal at a time?
> No, you can set the quantity of the meal that you want. But it has to be the same recipe. If you want to cook another recipe, it gets queued. - Who are we as a company?
> Company of 200 people - How long does it take to make a meal?
> Depends on the difficulty but each operation will take less than 5 minutes to cook - Does it need the exact ingredients?
> No, some ingredients can be missing. It will just use what it has. - Etc... There's a lot more but they're not super important to list them all here.
The current experience
Understanding the current experience helps to find areas of opportunity and pain points that can be helpful when designing the accompanying mobile app.
Finished work, commuting home via public transit or drive through traffic.
Status: Hungry, tired, just wants to get home.
Commute is about 30 minutes.
During that time, they listen to music and go on social media on their phone. They also think about what they should eat when they get home, but can’t remember what are the available options on the machine.
Maybe they can just eat what they ate last night again. They don’t want to think about it too much since it takes energy to try and remember what food options there are on the machine. Also, because they’re tired from thinking all day. They just want to sit and relax and listen to music.
They get home and browse on the machine for a few seconds but are just so hungry that they just choose to cook what they ate last night. They already know they have most of the ingredients so it's easier.
They choose what they had last night, pop the ingredients in and wait for 4 minutes. They lie on the couch to stretch and relax.
They hear a DING! Dinner is ready and they get up to eat. The food is good.
✧ Part 2 - Designing the mobile app ✧
Exploring the problem (again)
So now that we've gone through the current experience, why build a mobile app for this? I brainstormed some problem assumptions.
✽ Convenience
To make gourmet food, a person needs the skill, knowledge and time. Not everyone is a chef.
⁕Food exploration is lacking
After a long day at work or feeling bummed, good food can be the light of someone's day.
✷ Lack of time
People don't have time to cook, especially if it's for a gourmet meal. They're busy and want to skip the long process (prepping ingredients, etc) to tend to other tasks like studying, work, etc.
✦ Lack of energy
People are sometimes too tired to cook. Some working people will take a nap right when they get home because of how tired they are and then may end up ordering delivery.
✽ Disabilities
Some people have disabilities that can affect whether they're able to cook or handle tools. Ex: Parkinson's disease causes tremors.
Ideation
I used the How Might We framework to help me ideate. I generated as many HMW questions as I could, centered around the assumed problems and goals. I then prioritized features based on impact and feasibility for an MVP and made-up team power.
✷ You've reached the end, thanks for reading! ✷
