The Convenient Cooking App:
It’s What’s on the Menu for the Modern Cook!
The Story of Convenient Cooking
I was recently challenged to create a concept for a product companion app. A product companion app controls a product by using an app on your smartphone. The product title for my product companion app that I created is called Convenient Cooking. I will begin by showing you the final product and then cover some of the steps I took to create my app, highlighting some of the special features it offers.
Here is a video showing the Convenient Cooking app final design, demonstrating the app pages in the order that a user might click on them as they use the app:
Product Overview Statement
The Convenient Cooking app allows you to operate your oven from a remote location by using your smartphone. Cook, defrost, preheat and clean your oven with ease. It also includes a timer so you can set it ahead of time.
What is the app’s purpose?
The purpose of the Convenient Cooking app is to make life easier for modern cooks. You can set your oven remotely to do three major functions: cook, defrost, and clean.
Target Market — Who is this app designed for?
The target audience for the Convenient Cooking app is people who want to cook but are not always at home to do so. These people are likely to be single working adults or college students. They lead busy lives and would like to come home to a hot meal. This app provides them with a way to get their meal started or completely cooked before they arrive back home. They can enjoy the convenience and ease that the app provides to them.
Convenient Cooking — The First Course
In the early stages of the project, I make some preliminary sketches of the app as follows:
From this basic starting point, the project evolved and changed as I developed it. By the end of my project, the Convenient Cooking app contained eighteen main pages as follows:
The app uses the following main pages:
· Home page
· Preheat
· Preheat timer
· Cook
· Cook timer
· Return
· Time bake
· Preheat time bake
· Preheat time bake timer
· Cook time bake
· Cook time bake timer
· Cook done
· Defrost
· Defrost timer
· Defrost done
· Clean warning
· Clean timer
· Clean return
Home Page and Oven Logo Feature
Since this is the first page that people will see when they come to Convenient Cooking, I wanted my home page to be simple and straight to the point. This design choice was made in response to the brand’s intended personality, which is that of a kitchen oven. The gray color resembles a stainless-steel oven door which is a common fixture in many kitchens. This oven feature on the home page was chosen to set the stage for cooking remotely and is meant to remind people of their oven at home.
Navigation Buttons
Another feature of the home page is the navigation buttons. They are located at the bottom of the page, which is a common convention among apps to place navigation at the bottom. Each navigation button takes you to a different operation, either cook, defrost, or clean. The navigation buttons have icons on them which are common conventions to help people find the function they are looking for, either by reading the words or by viewing the icon.
Color Scheme Design
I ultimately chose the colors gray, black, white and cyan. The main reason for this design choice was that I wanted the app itself to have the look of a real oven. In many kitchens, the oven is either black, white or stainless-steel (gray). Sometimes the digital clock has cyan numbers.
User Testing Results
I conducted several user tests after designing my prototype, and I benefited from constructive feedback to make improvements to my app. I changed some font sizes and colors for better readability. As a result of user feedback, I also added a new feature letting users know when the food was done, or the cycle has completed. This feature enhances the way the app performs. I have detailed the changes and the reasons for them below.
Changes as a Result of User Testing
• 1. Increased Font Size for Navigation Button Labels
All users thought the original font was too small. As a result of user testing, I increased the size. The first two testers commented on this as an issue because they thought they were hard to read.
“The bottom line of printing is hard to read.”
• 2. Consistent Capital Lettering
The original app displayed some words in all capitals but other words had an initial capital with lowercase lettering. As a result of user testing, I decided to use first letter capitalized and the rest of the word lower case. All testers pointed out the inconsistency of the style of lettering across the app.
“I notice the capitalization is not consistent.”
• 3. Temperature Number Label Change
The original app only used a number to show the temperature. As a result of user testing, I added the word “degrees” behind the number. The first tester noticed that it would be clearer to say degrees rather than just have a number without a label.
“I’d have an easier time figuring out the temperature if the number had degrees behind it.”
• 4. Add a Completion Indicator Page
The original app had no separate page informing the user that the requested action is complete. As a result of user testing, the first tester suggested that such a page would be helpful. Therefore, I added Completion Indicator Pages to the app.
“How do I find out when the oven has finished?”
• 5. Change Color
The original app was black and white and cyan. As a result of user testing, the third user suggested the app should be lighter in color. I decided to make the black a lighter gray.
“I think the app looks too dark. I feel like the color would be better if it was lighter in some way.”
I greatly benefited from my user testing and was able to apply that information to my final product. After making these revisions, my Convenient Cooking app is just the recipe for making a piping hot meal whenever the user is ready!
