Hypothesis
Users attempt to preserve recipes/stories through ‘traditional’ channels, (i.e., writing down recipes on loose paper, typing into a Google doc, relying on memory of spoken words), but don’t have a lasting connection since those channels are easily lost or damaged.
Users attempt to learn about their personal culinary heritage and others’ but feel overwhelmed and only find short term ways to interact.
Users attempt to learn about their personal culinary heritage and others’ but feel overwhelmed and only find short term ways to interact.
Our group have access to NYU Food Studies department at Steinhardt School, through which we send out our signup survey in emails to find our target users who are interested in participating in the following design research activities.
For the survey, we split our our questions into two forms considering time constraints. Both of the survey touched on how people use recipes and how they situate themselves in their food culture.
We then moved onto individual interviews, which also ended up being done via zoom and took about 45 minutes. We used the survey results to tailor some of our questions and ended up asking questions that ranged from abstract (like ‘What does food mean to you?’) to more focused (like “Tell me about a time when you made a dish from your familial or community based culture.”)
For the survey, we split our our questions into two forms considering time constraints. Both of the survey touched on how people use recipes and how they situate themselves in their food culture.
We then moved onto individual interviews, which also ended up being done via zoom and took about 45 minutes. We used the survey results to tailor some of our questions and ended up asking questions that ranged from abstract (like ‘What does food mean to you?’) to more focused (like “Tell me about a time when you made a dish from your familial or community based culture.”)
Primary
Research
Research
To gain more insights from different perspectives, we decided to host a series of online design activities where participants can express their ideas and thoughts in a more visualized approach. Our team built concrete instructions that we can lean on and host several sessions with 3 different users.
All of the participants are required to create something through hands-on practices, which enabled us to hone in on specific areas where we lacked sufficient data, particularly in understanding user values regarding food preparation, correlations between users and their food identity, and the specific needs users have regarding recipe structures.
All of the participants are required to create something through hands-on practices, which enabled us to hone in on specific areas where we lacked sufficient data, particularly in understanding user values regarding food preparation, correlations between users and their food identity, and the specific needs users have regarding recipe structures.
Design
Workshop
Sessions
Workshop
Sessions
Data
Visualization
Visualization
We keep doing our research and visualization synchronously. And through emails, signed up surveys and activities, we are still getting more people interested in engaging in our project. And we keep adding these data points to our visual models and updating them on a regular basis.
Our affinity map contains the data we get from our survey results and interviews, which provides us with insights of different levels of how people engaged in and situate themself in the food and culture.
Through our empathy map, we see this large scale of needs and motivations, from the desire for emotional connection to more utility aspects - like a certain way to improve their cooking skills or health conditions.
Our affinity map contains the data we get from our survey results and interviews, which provides us with insights of different levels of how people engaged in and situate themself in the food and culture.
Through our empathy map, we see this large scale of needs and motivations, from the desire for emotional connection to more utility aspects - like a certain way to improve their cooking skills or health conditions.
Persona
We then moved onto our 3 personas, which represent our understanding of who our users are in terms of interacting with food and culture.
At this stage, we have realized that the problem that we originally assumed might not be the "right" one that users are currently struggling with. The situations are complicated, and marginal data have to be considered in further endeavor of piecing those stories into a whole picture.
However, it's worthwhile to ground ourselves in research and continuously reframe needs of our users throughout the process. With this foundation, we are able to advance to the next stage armed with more targeted questions to better understand broader individuals.
However, it's worthwhile to ground ourselves in research and continuously reframe needs of our users throughout the process. With this foundation, we are able to advance to the next stage armed with more targeted questions to better understand broader individuals.
Synthesis
Reflection
We also recognized that research methods provides essential values in packaging the data and, more importantly in pitching our solutions. With the confidence of leveraging our perspectives across different methods, we would never stagnate but always evolve in various directions as we push past boundaries and limitations.
