Pantry Buddy is a gamified recipe app that aims to simplify cooking by helping users plan meals with ingredients they already have at home

Busy schedules and limited energy can make deciding what to eat challenging, often leading to the ease of food delivery or quick, convenient meals. Pantry Buddy addresses these pain points by empowering individuals to rediscover the joy of home-cooked meals.

In this section, I will demonstrate how each feature of Pantry Buddy evolved from low-fidelity wireframes to high-fidelity prototypes, and finally to the final iteration following user feedback during Usability Testing. This iterative process was crucial to ensure that the features were user-friendly, engaging, and effectively addressed the identified pain points.

For Pantry Buddy, this was an opportunity to engage users by earning badges for completing recipes and showcasing how much money they saved by cooking at home.

Based on user research, a primary barrier to cooking at home is often a lack of motivation. Introducing a gamification element aims to enhance the enjoyment and engagement of the cooking process, potentially influencing users to cook more frequently.

After completing a recipe, a notification screen will present the user with a summary of their accomplishment. During the design process, I focused on creating a simple and enjoyable way to showcase this achievement. I chose to highlight three badges, including one that shows how much money the user saved compared to eating out.

In usability testing, participants had positive feedback about the badge design by including fun icons, however connected the icons imagery to what the badge communicated. Because of this misalignment, I updated the Badge emojis or icons to eliminate any confusion with future users.

1. Summary of badges earned from completing the recipe at low fidelity

2. Emphasizing unlocking the cuisine badge at the top and with overall progression badges earned

3. Replaced the Badge icon with the specific cuisine flag that was unlocked from the recipe

4. Replaced Recipe icon with a utensil instead of a food item to avoid confusion for the user

To view all the badges the user has earned, the Badge Summary Screen will also display their overall progression and badges yet to unlock. This screen is designed to motivate users by allowing them to track their progress and strive towards unlocking new badges.

During usability testing, participants expressed that the History section did not logically fit between the 'Your Badges' and 'Badges to Earn' sections. Initially, the design intended to show badges earned from each recipe, highlighting the cuisine type. Due to this not being communicated effectively to participants, the History page was removed, and cuisine badges were displayed separately from recipe history.

1. Summary of Badges earned, with history of Recipes completed

2. Updated History to include Cuisine icons

3. Included a section “Badges to Earn” to  incentivize users to complete more recipes in app

4. Removed History section, will include Recipe History in a dedicated screen

5. Badges to Earn includes 2 types of badges, Progression Badges and Cuisine Badges to unlock

Recognizing the everyday fatigue users experience, the app needed to be as user-friendly as possible.

User interviews highlighted that many users do not track their pantry items, leading to duplicate purchases and forgotten ingredients. Automating this process makes it easier for users to stay organized and reduces the effort required to plan meals."

"From the competitive research, the highlighted feature of the apps included multiple methods of inputting ingredients from home or after grocery shopping.

1. Ideation of input methods for kitchen set up

2. Adding a short description with icons to communicate the input method

3. Enlarging text with a darker color

To achieve the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), I conducted usability tests where participants voted for their preferred method. Uploading a receipt after grocery shopping emerged as the most popular method for inputting kitchen inventory. This will be demonstrated in the final prototype section of this case study.

The Inventory-Based Recipe Cards feature generates recipe suggestions based on the ingredients users already have in their kitchen.

Tailored recipe suggestions simplify the decision-making process for users who struggle with what to cook, encouraging them to cook rather than eat out. This approach also directly supports the goal of reducing food waste by suggesting recipes that utilize available ingredients

The Recipe Screen displays recipes that can be prepared using the inputted ingredients. Each Recipe Card initially shows the number of available ingredients, along with a short description and title to aid users in selecting a recipe. However, usability testing feedback indicated that the card was overcrowded with information, with 60% of users not noticing the ingredients information. In response, I iterated to make the number of available ingredients larger and more noticeable

The recipes adhere to standard formats, including required ingredients, tools, directions, and a brief description. Maintaining familiarity in this feature ensures ease of navigation through the recipe completion process.

Usability testing revealed that 20% of participants were unsure about the meaning of the "tools" icon in the summary. In response, I enhanced the prototype by making some summary icons clickable, directing users to more detailed information on the chosen recipe screen.

View the full case study and prototype here! https://www.afraalam.com/pantry-buddy-case-study