Baba is an UI/UX exercise, during which I conceptualized a website and app for foodies to discover traditional recipes of different cultures. Users can save, comment, share, and rate recipes creating a vibrant community.
Roles in the project
• Communications Designer
• UX Designer
• UI Designer
Project deliverables
• Communications Designer: logotype and branding guidelines.
• UX Designer: product concept, benchmarking, creation of personas, user journeys, site maps, wireframes, user testing, prototyping.
• UI Designer: high-fidelity mockups, design system, web and app main screens and flows interfaces.
Problems
Many traditional recipes get lost down the generations. Some times tastes change, ingredients become rarer or the culture that sustains those foods becomes threatened. I could not find a digital service or network that focuses on traditional recipes and their specificities, even though we live in an era of fusion gastronomy and globalized eating habits.
Solutions
By understanding the target audience, especially chefs, gastronomy workers and food scientists, I created personas that helped me understand the user’s needs. On the one hand, a clear focus on recipes, well categorized and easy to navigate with clear instructions, would be paramount. On the other hand, social networking was also fundamental, because Baba’s team cannot cope alone with the amount of content creation and moderation required. Another feature/service is the FoodieClub, offering three subscription plans to help monetize the service and engage the community. User’s, in this case verified patrons, would receive per post different goodies, such as curated books, rare ingredients, event invitation, restaurant discounts, masterclasses etc. provided they live in global cities.
Lessons learned
To identify a problem we need to have an emotional connection with it. I love eating and cooking new foods and I also have a strong interest in social anthropology. It was by linking this two interests that I realized the loss of cultural diversity in gastronomy, a problem that can be tackled with UI/UX Design. I also used this exercise to talk about this concept with a lot of friends and family to test it out. After validating my idea, I tested it even further with prototypes, and iterated it to the point where I was very satisfied and confident that this could be a real and useful service.
