Application
Design
Category
UI/UX, Brand Identity
Wege Ma Moc
(Veg Has Power)
This is an application project that is designed to support users in reducing or completely eliminating meat from their diet, offers the option of a vegetarian or vegan recipes. In addition, the application in its service includes Vege Map, id est the ability to search for restaurants with a plant-based diet in your vicinity, thanks to this, even the most busy people will be able to take care of their healthy eating habits.
What I learned from the report?
From the report, I learned, among other things, that 3.2 million Poles do not eat meat, and as many as 55% of Poles see health benefits associated with the consumption of products that are a plant-based alternative to meat.
Despite the fact that many people are getting more and more information about the negative impact of factory farming on the environment and unnecessary suffering of animals, unfortunately, very few people know that the WHO classified processed meat to the first group of carcinogens.
Therefore, it was important for me to ask myself the following question:
How can we reduce the amount of animal products consumed in Poland by people who are interested in changing their eating habits to positively affect health, the environment and animal welfare?
Competition Analysis
MVP
In the next phase of the project, I created the MVP, which, however, changed after the IDI research, which I will show in the next steps of the project.
Protopersons
Subsequently, based on desk research, I created three protopersonas aged 24 to 35. According to the “Roślinniejemy” report, more than half of people on a vegetarian or vegan diet are under the age of 35. As research shows, young people are the group most willing to give up the consumption of meat products.
IDI
The next step in working on the project were in-depth interviews with 5 participants (about an hour of conversation with each) to better understand the problems and benefits of future users.
I wanted to find out what the meal planning process looks like in the surveyed people. How often do they eat meat? How many vegetables do they eat? What prevents them from maintaining a healthy vegan and vegetarian diet.
From the IDI, I learned that:
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The meat shortens the time of meal , which makes them sure about the nutritional value, and thus, among the interviewees there was a fear that on a meat-free diet they would not provide the body with the right amount of nutritional value;
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In addition, in one of the answers, the respondent questioned whether plant-based dishes would have the same taste as traditional dishes with meat or fish;
“Eating meat is not about the meat itself, but about the taste.”
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Some people suffer from various food allergies, which often makes it difficult for them to make decisions about their diet;
“I don’t drink soy milk because I have hypothyroidism, so soy is not recommended”
“I am more focused on healthy products than on the eco slogan itself”
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Cooking time is important to them;
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Most feel that there is not much choice for non-meat eaters in regular restaurants, which can be a hindrance in changing eating habits;
Questionnaire research
According to the survey conducted for the project on a group of 101 people, approximately22.8% of respondents have food allergies. Among the most common are lactose intolerance 77.8%, allergy to gluten 38.9% and nuts 22.2%. On the other hand, 52.5% of the respondents declare that they like plant products that imitate meat very much and often buy them.
In addition, in one of the answers, the respondent questioned whether plant-based dishes would have the same taste as traditional dishes with meat or fish;
MVP Changes
In addition, after the research, I realized that in MVP, instead of a calculator that would calculate the user’s impact on the environment, a map function that shows restaurants with plant-based cuisine in the vicinity is more needed. I came to the conclusion that this will be the best solution that will make it easier for users to make changes in their diet, despite the lack of time.
Empathy map
Customer journey mapping
In the next phase, I moved on to mapping the user journey to better understand how I can simplify the process and help users achieve their goals more effectively. So I thought it would be important to:
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extensive database of recipes that imitate meat dishes;
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the ability to share data and recipes with other users;
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category of quick and simple dishes that are perfect for any events.
Information Architecture
Having the whole research process behind me, I developed an information architecture, which in the next phase I subjected to the analysis of card sorting.
Conclusions
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Based on the research, I made changes to the navigation bar. Instead of 5 buttons in the menu bar, I decided to use four buttons;
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I moved the Profile to Hamburger, where I also placed functions such as: Favorite Dishes, Selected Dishes and a Shopping List;
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Users also drew attention to the page with recipes, where the ability to filter dishes, for example by regional dishes, turned out to be important;
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Interesting ideas that came up and which I will not use: adding photos and recipes of your own dish and the ability to share it with other users. Placing a section in Profile called Your Recipes.
After analysis
Lo - Fi drawings
Conclusions after usability tests
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after the tests, I decided to resign from the “Selected dishes” section, because for most users they coincided with the “Favorite dishes” section;
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I resigned from the “Saved recipe” button in the calendar, changing it to “Choose a recipe from favorites”;
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I changed the icon from the menu bar – “Calendar”, because notebook was too much associated by users with “Recipes”;
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I added information for the user to the map and product selection page also a skip button in the post-login section in case the user doesn’t want to go through the initial series of questions.
Style Guide
How did the idea come about?
The idea of the Wege Ma Moc application was born for the first time when, after various conversations with people about sustainable development, I understood how many people have a problem with thinking about a plant-based diet as a permanent everyday solution. It is know that any change in habits is associated with considerable effort and the need for internal determination, which in the long run may be problematic in taking action to change the existing patterns of thinking.
While developing the idea, I conducted desk research, thanks to which I came across the report “Roślinniejemy” from 2019 – “Summary of public opinion research on consumer attitudes of Poles towards plant-based products and dishes”.
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The answerers are often afraid that cooking vegan or vegetarian dishes is too complicated and time-consuming;
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For people who are already on a vegetarian diet, switching to a vegan diet seems dangerous in terms of the possibility of protein deficiency, and sometimes legumes have a bad effect on the body of the subjects, which can be a big obstacle for them;
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Another determinant turned out to be time, which is to a large extent an obstacle in making decisions about changing culinary habits and expanding one’s knowledge in the field of plant-based diet;
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Some of the interviewees believe that plant products that imitate meat are an interesting alternative to classic meals;
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It happens that the answerers have doubts about their culinary skills, which is why they need easy and tasty recipes at the beginning;
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The most important for them are the opinions of loved ones they trust.
“My friends can tell me a nice recipe. Thanks to them, I develop my culinary skills.”
The image comes from the results of a questionnaire survey.
Personas
Based on the conducted in-depth interviews, I created four personas that I referred to throughout the project development process. Undoubtedly, thanks to personas it is easier to adapt your solution to the needs of users, both in terms of functionality and appearance of the application.
Usability tests
In the next phase of research, i.e usability testing on the prototype, I created a set of 10 tasks.
Then I decided to do a review of applications that have the goal of reducing meat consumption among users. After I chose the three products closest to my idea, I started to analyze the competition.
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without doubt, all of the selected applications had very good ratings in both the App Store and Google Play
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what caught my attention is a completely different approach to the visual issues of the compared applications, for example, in the Quit Meat app, chaos creeps in due to the graphic design and repetitive information, additionally there are very, additionally there are very few regulations in it;
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in the next application “Stay Vege”, which encourages the user to take a 30-day challenge with a vegan diet, the problem of users is the inability to choose between a vegan and vegetarian diet;
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in the Plant Jammer application, a great advantage is the flexible approach to composing your own favorite ingredients. It takes more time to get to know the amount of functions than in other applications, but the pleasant visual experience makes up for it.
Conclusion
The Value Proposition Canva
User Scenario
Lo - Fi
Hi - Fi
What have I learned?
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First of all, I understood the importance of UX research while creating a project, how testing with users helps to properly understand and respond to their needs;
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I got acquainted with the process of creating a product and that the original vision of the project is not always the final one;
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In addition, I realized how important it is to look for the simplest solutions to a given problem.
