Savannah College of Arts and Design
2022
Homseek gives college students the power and flexibility to create familiar homily food options by providing a digital recipe and food delivery service to students who are either too broke to afford healthy food, lack the time and knowledge to cook a nutritious meal, or find cooking scary or intimidating. All recipes and content on this site are curated by the students' families and friends, ensuring that each dish is tailored to their talents, time, and financial constraints.
Role
Team lead
Research
Prototyping
Usability Testing
User Interface
Tools
Photoshop
Mural / Miro
Figma
Pen and paper
After effects
Team
Somya C
Kanchi Parekh
Lina Chona
Suhani Patel
Project Intent
The opportunity
When it comes to cooking, young adults (in college) have a difficult time. Time, money, and knowledge are all important considerations when deciding whether or not to undertake it. How can we provide a better cooking experience for college-going kids?
The People
Focusing on young adults who are currently in college (both in campus and out of campus)
The Market
There are currently a few options on the market for swiftly preparing food. However, the majority of those alternatives are either prohibitively expensive or overly complex for a college student. Many are also undernourished or unhealthy.
The Risk
Developing another service that either lacks a good product-market fit or fails to connect emotionally with the audience in order to achieve a more impactful adoption.
Strategizing our Research
Familiarizing with the problem
The research kicked off with some fieldwork in the form of a simple cultural probe where we asked our users, their opinions on their cooking experiences.
While many liked cooking, they found it to be frustrating to do it on a regular basis, and cook the same thing over and over again.
Other found it difficult or intimidating. While some cooked out of obligations of either price or dietary restrictions.
Some find it demotivating to not be able to cook the dishes their family used to make.
Happy
“I find cooking as like -me time through the entire week it’s like assignments, assignments, assignments. But then on the weekend, I can cook and I enjoy it”
Relaxed
“It’s like a fun little break for me, from like doing work”
Obligated
“Sometimes it's just too much work, you already have so much on your plate and then you have to cook. It's just an added thing to do”
Demotivated
“My mom usually gives me recipes, so I feel I’m trying to reach my mom through cooking, so that’s why I prefer home-cooked food”
Secondary Research
Scouring
the Web
Understanding the motivations and practices that drive current consumers' meals, particularly young folks, was critical. We discovered that cooking interest increased significantly during the epidemic, with social media playing a crucial role in making individuals proud of their products by sharing them online.
Meal delivery services have also expanded, as has the market for easy-to-cook gadgets (Air-fryers). People also began to cook more socially, while trying out new dishes and cuisines.
Emotional cook
Their cooking behavior, as well as their drive to do so and enjoy the cuisine, is strongly influenced by their mood or emotional connection to locations, people, or sentiments.
The Picky
cook
Their motive for cooking, and thus the cuisine they prepare, is tied to certain food standards, demands, or preferences.
50%
college students don't prefer to cook
38%
they prepare food few times a week
27%
young adults like to experiment with new cuisines
Adventorous
cook
Their desire to experiment with different cuisines motivates them to cook. They believe that the kitchen is the ideal area to "innovate."
The social
cook
Their culinary skills shine through for an audience. Dinner with a friend or family is the ideal setting for them. The social cooker feels compelled to serve others.
Desperate
cook
This type of cook feels compelled to produce home-cooked meals, whether for economical or health reasons. They don't particularly love it, but they feel forced to do it.
The different types of cooks
Current Experience of Cooking
Conducting Interviews
Understanding what people had to say about their culinary experiences helped us grasp what regular cooks and non-cooks thought about cooking.
We were also able to get more emotional data on what participants searched for in an ideal cooking experience by using a simple image-sorting game.
Space matters
A clumsy kitchen with less natural light leads me to think about dirtiness and clutter.”
Rewarding
cooking
Cooking is a rewarding experience. It makes me feel accomplished and satisfied, by sharing it with others.
Inevitable
cleaning
"After completing the long process of cooking, I feel lazy to wash utensils. But I know I have to”
Cooking
together
“If i'm in the kitchen, its more about the experience with the people around me and not the act of cooking.”
Knowledge is health
By cooking I can know what ingredients are in my food and that makes me feel healthier which is a big motivation
Experimental
cooking
I like trying new things on the kitchen. I enjoy cooking when I experiment and it turns out good
Family Inspiration
My main source of inspiration when cooking comes from my family (mom, dad, nana, sisters). I seek guidance and help from them
Missing home
“Now that I live away from home, yes. I feel more like home, cause again, fast food doesn’t give me the feeling of familiarity.”
No more
prepping
Buying and prepping for a meal is the worst part, I wish i could get it delivered to me directly.
People like to cook, but these are somethings that they miss.
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Quick ideations based from research
Ideation and testing
A number of ideas arose in the form of fast sketches as a result of the innumerable data points and insights gathered, and these were then sorted first by the team on many different criteria, such as Motivation, Emotion, Enjoyment, access to help, nostalgia, accomplishment, social connection and Ease. We later returned to our users and asked them to rank each of the final four Ideas, of which the Family Meal Delivery stood out and warranted further exploration.
Cooking based dating site
A cooking challenge service
Trade of food batches between students
Family meal Delivery
An initial story-board for the service (done by Kanchi)
Information
architecture
The above storyboard and research-driven data points assisted us in imagining the user flow and how the content should be arranged.
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Bringing home food to dorm rooms!
Homseek
The
Parents and Family
Homseek has two main user categories, and one of them is parents or family, where the parent might simply record a family recipe and upload it to homseek, giving into as much detail as they think is important for their child.
They could also move forward and even order groceries (via ordering those through large online delivery services), which would help them manage their time and workload.
Homseek seeks to assist young adults in developing the crucial life skill of cooking by utilizing the expertise we all have available to us - our families.
All previous recipies
Record a new recipe
Preview the recipe
Browse ingredients
Order Groceries
Share
Recipes
Access all recipes and children in one place
Large vivid buttons for ease of use
Add media, audio, and even timer notifications for the recipes
Young
Adults
Homseek makes cooking easier for teenagers by guiding them through the process with the support of their parents. When they receive the delivery, they may simply scan a code to have access to the recipes, or they can open the recipes solely sent by their family.
They can follow the recipes as a list or like a Spotify music playlist, pausing, skipping, and repeating as needed. After preparing a delicious dinner, the recipe and the results can be shared with family members and saved in a digital library.
The key innovation is the skill-level-based recipes offered by family members, as opposed to the generic ones seen everywhere; this boosts confidence and enthusiasm in the skill among young adults.
Receive a package
Open the recipe
Cooking like a playlist
Share the creation
Track your progress
Play the recipe in small timed steps
Preview the recipe step by step
Library of past creations
