Problem Statement

Rooted is an app design concept that Vegan and Vegan curious could use to find restaurants that offered plant based and vegetarian food options; as well as educate themselves about the benefits a plant based diet had on the environment and on the body.

The target audience consisted of vegan and vegetarians and those who wanted to transition to either.

We included recipes that one could incorporate in their diets. We wanted to offer courses for sale, that we would create that would educate the user further about health, diet and lifestyle changes. I worked in a team of 3 and my role was mainly designing the UI.

Personas

Luke is a 25 year old sales rep that wants to try a new diet because he is allergic to dairy; He is what we call vegan curious. What we discovered about the vegan-curious is that they have health conditions that force them to look into alternative foods to eat. The key thing with vegan-curious people is they want to hold onto the comfort foods they enjoy and are interested in recipes that resemble meals they're used to eating but healthier versions.

Barbara is a mom of two and she is a vegetarian. Animal rights are important to her, and it's part of the reason she chose to become a vegetarian. Based on the data we came to the conclusion that vegans and vegetarians want the same things, which are conscious about the environment, the livlihood of the animals as well as whole body care for themselves.

Research Questions

Discovery Interview

As part of the discovery interview, we developed research questions to better understand who our users would be.

We interviewed 25 people between the 3 of us. In addition to the vegan, vegetarian and vegan-curious we also interviewed omnivores and pescatarians. We were interested in seeing if any were strict to their specific diets and lifestyles or were they willing to incorporate meat or veggie items depending on their diets.

We took the responses that were the same or close and narrowed down who our users would be and built the journey map that included our personas' pain points and needs.

Lo-fi Wireframes

Low Fidelity Wireframes

Each member came up with a variety of screens, for the challenges we wanted to offer, I had the idea to make each meal of the day a suggested meal the user could incorporate in their day; as well as offer the user educational tips that could encourage their choice to change their dietary needs.

Once we did our usability tests we learned we needed to adjust our navigation of the app by including actual back buttons. We use one in our daily lives but with smart phones, specifically Samsung, I can swipe my thumb up on the lower right of the screen and it goes back to the previous screen. So it was easy to overlook such a common button.

The users that tested the app preferred videos to receive information that educated them. So videos were an important factor to showcase recipes and tips to inform the user. Having inviting images were appealing to some of the users, it enticed them to want to try different foods. The idea to include good to know tips in the app came from the users wanting to know how they were:

Reducing their carbon footprint.
Saving the planet.
Saving animal lives.
And helping themselves by taking care of their health.

UI Design

Designing the UI was my favorite part. Bringing everything to life, adding color and images. I took the lead on the design aspect. Green was a color the team agreed on but I insisted on the blue because based on color psychology blue was a favorite among users. Blue signifies trust and dependability, and it complements the green so well.

When designing the cards and buttons I like to include rounded corners because it make things look more modern. It was an important factor to include dietary preferences, types of allergies, texture preferences and health concerns such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol so that the app could suggest foods, restaurants and tips based on those preferences.

Hi-FI Wireframes

Conclusion

This project was useful to me because at the time I was transitioning into becoming vegan-like. I was, and still am, the vegan-curious. Every now and then I indulge in some pork bacon, but I incorporate more vegan friendly dishes as often as I can. I thought about what my needs were as someone who fit one of the personas when making sure someone that loved food, like I did could find alternative ingredients to make foods we love without compromising on taste. In addition to discovering myself and how I fit in the journey to becoming vegetarian, I also got a feel for working in a group environment. I learned how to resolve conflict when the group members don't see eye to eye. Most important I learned how to compromise and communicate effectively.