YeksGreen is a digital product (responsive website and dedicated Mobile App) that helps young Nigerian adults learn how to cook healthier meals. The goal of YeksGreen is to help increase awareness of the benefits of eating healthy by educating young adults on how to cook healthier meals for themselves.
This is a personal project based on designing the User Experience for social good. I believe that UX designers can do social good as a direct or indirect part of user experience design by embarking on a personal project or joining one with a social organization.
I designed the User Experience for this product in 5 core stages; EMPATHIZE, IDEATE, DESIGN, PROTOTYPE AND TEST.
These days young Nigerian adults depend so much on junk and processed foods which are not entirely healthy, while life expectancy keeps decreasing.
Design a responsive website and mobile app for social good helping and encouraging enthusiasts to learn how to cook healthier Nigerian recipes.
Brand Design, UX Design, UX Research, UI Design - from concept to delivery.
I assumed that the users I just “interviewed” represent a large segment of the audience for the project. I had to figure out; What concerns or problems seem most important to users? What kinds of features might I add into the product to address these concerns? Be as specific or general as I need to be.
In the interviews with people who said they were very likely to use a product like YeksGreen, we were able to identify the following user groups:
Group 1: Working young adults willing to eat and stay healthy. These users:
Group 2: Students who are young adults enthusiastic about healthy living. These users:
I conducted interviews to understand the users I’m designing for their needs. The primary user groups identified through conceptualization and research are young Nigerian adults. This user group confirmed initial assumptions about YeksGreen users, but research also revealed that common natural ingredients are available in most localities and do not require much hassle to source.
Other user problems included a good number of online tutorials that are not concise and detailed enough to help make delicacies easily.
I carefully chose 4 competitors to analyse, which are Simply Recipes, a website that offers recipes and cooking advice for home cooks, Serious eats, a website that offers rigorously tested recipes, and science-driven cooking techniques, All Nigerian Recipes, a Nigeria-based website that offers Nigerian food recipes, and 9jafoodie, a Nigeria-based website that also offers Nigerian food recipes.
Simple Recipes and Serious Eats are direct competitors to YeksGreen, while All Nigeria Recipes and 9jafoodie are indirect competitors to YeksGreen.
These are representations of the user group.
I used the crazy 8s method to generate possible screen ideas for the App.
This holds information about the pages, and other files on the website, and the relationships between them.
Taking the time to draft iterations of each screen of the app on paper ensured that the elements that made it to digital wireframes would be well-suited to address user pain points. For the home screen, I prioritized a quick and easy way to narrow down the search to help users save time.
As the initial design phase continued, I used the graceful degradation approach, making sure to base screen designs on feedback and findings from the user research.
I conducted one round of usability studies involving 5 participants whom I chose via a survey.
Determine if users can complete core tasks within the prototype of YeksGreen App. Determine if YeksGreen App is difficult to use.
Findings from the first study were arguably positive, hence a second study wasn’t carried out since time was limited too.
Round 1 findings:
Having no negative feedback from the usability study, I went on to add life to the Lo-Fi wireframes to birth the Hi-Fi mockups
Even though the initial low fidelity study indicated that users had no issues using the Mobile App and website, I went on to send the high fidelity prototype out to 3 users for feedback - all were positive.
Based on user feedback from the 2nd usability study, YeksGreen mobile and website is intuitive, easy to use, and helps accomplish the goals of the end user.
Participants who used the YeksGreen products first-hand attested to the fact that it solved a major problem for them and the society at large.
"...Well, I think overall it’s a very good product considering what it is trying to achieve... a shift from the junk culture."
Designing user experience for social good requires a degree of empathy with users and understanding exactly how you can solve their problems. Research is of utmost importance to ascertain where you can make a significant impact through your design.
