MealPrompt is a mobile app that helps busy individuals cook more frequently by providing quick and easy-to-follow recipes that can be accomplished in under an hour. With MealPrompt, users can input what they have in their pantry and get recommendations for simple meals using only a few fresh ingredients so they can stay economical and keep costs low.
Despite the numerous benefits of cooking regularly, like eating healthier meals and saving money, many people struggle to make cooking a regular habit in their daily lives. This can be due to various reasons such as lack of time, lack of knowledge on how to cook or plan meals, lack of motivation or interest in cooking, or simply feeling overwhelmed by the task.
👋🏻 From our user survey, the top 3 main reasons that prevent respondents from cooking more frequently were lack of time (76%), lack of motivation (68%), lack of knowledge or skills (28%), and high cost of ingredients (20%).
As a result, individuals may rely on eating-out options or pre-packaged meals, which can negatively impact their health in the long run.
👋🏻 From our user survey, 64% of participants cook several times a week, and another 28% cook daily.
Therefore, it is essential to identify ways to encourage and motivate people to cook more habitually to improve their overall well-being.
Frequency:
According to recent research, it can be seen that a majority of people cook at home more than a few days a week, with a majority reporting cooking dinner more than other meals.
But, some participants found it challenging to cook more frequently due to lack of time, knowledge or skills, motivation, and the high cost of ingredients.
Resources:
Many individuals use various resources like cookbooks, recipe websites or apps, Youtube, and meal delivery to aid in their home cooking. However, numerous participants have yet to utilize meal planning tools or apps to assist with meal planning.
Cooklist and My Fitness Pal are the most commonly mentioned among those who have. While some found Cooklist overwhelming and expensive, others appreciated the app's concept.
Meanwhile, participants value My Fitness Pal for tracking their macros but find the manual tracking process exhausting and inconvenient.
One User Interview reported following reputable influencers that aligned with their healthy ideology.
Time:
On average, participants spend 1-4 hours on meal planning and grocery shopping per week, with most spending 1-2 hours. Most participants feel satisfied and accomplished after cooking a meal, but some feel worried about the mess or stressed about cleaning up after cooking and eating.
User Interviews (4):
How can we encourage people to cook more habitually to improve their health and well-being that address the barriers of time, cost, and cooking expertise?
Based on the problems and needs of saving time, money, and expertise, something that could do the following would be great. This solution would not only be able to show a user what they are cooking but also be simple to follow recipes and an accountability tool that can keep a user on track to form cooking as a habit.
User Story 1: As a busy professional, I want a cooking app that helps me save time by providing quick and easy-to-follow recipes that can be prepared in under 30 minutes.
Definition of done
User Story 2: As a budget-conscious eater, I want a cooking app that suggests affordable recipes and helps me plan meals to save money on groceries.
Definition of done.
User Story 3: As a beginner cook, I want a cooking app with simple recipes, step-by-step instructions, and video tutorials to build my cooking skills.
Definition of Done
Landing Page:
Onboarding Process:
Home Screen:
Recipe Details:
Pantry Integration:
Cooking Assistant:
Meal Tracking and Feedback:
Focus on the User: I realized that it was more effective to focus on the people who did cook rather than trying to address the barriers of non-cookers solely. Sometimes it’s not about creating an entirely new experience but enhancing existing ones. There are likely problems there!
User Research Rocks: Conducting user research and digging into the data gave me awesome insights into what target users want. This helped me shape MealPrompt to better serve busy professionals, budget-conscious eaters, and beginner cooks. Surveys are a great baseline, but the real fun is in the user interviews. Using Otter was also really helpful in recording and transcribing so that I could have great conversations genuinely and gather more insights than if I were to fiddle around on my keyboard. I know more about some people's cooking habits that others may never uncover!
It’s Iterative: Nothing is set in stone. You are just creating something usable every step of the way. Gathering peer feedback during the peer reviews showed me the importance of iterating and continuous improvement in product development. Getting feedback from peers during the peer review process of my Product Spec was super helpful.
Embrace the Process: Co.Lab has taught me a lot about embracing the process versus focusing purely on the results. Having something done is better than making something completely perfect the first time.
Communication is Key: My internal communication used to be 💩. This opportunity to present the product spec and convey its value proposition concisely and compellingly highlighted the value of being much more contextual in my language, ensuring clarity and less assuming that people know what I’m talking about. It’s also been very refreshing to ask nothing but open-ended questions without an agenda, which was always different in sales and recruiting roles. Never discount the power of “Tell me more about that!”.
Be problem-first: I’ve always been a big sharer of things that interest me, and would always spend time building tools and sharing them with others in hope they would use it. I would get discouraged when they didn’t. This Co.Lab Sprint has shifted my perspective on finding the problem first versus trying to start with the solution to fit the problem that might not even be there. Building MealPrompt provided an opportunity to learn and utilize new tools for problem-solving.