REPEEL

Accessible recipe app

A recipe app paired with a device to help the visually impaired user follow and keep up with different steps of cooking.

University Project

l  8 Weeks

"The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision." Helen Keller

My Role

Presented as a group project for the graduate course “Cognition in Design”. My role was the user research, UI/UX Design, Accessibility Design alongside my teammates, and physical Product Design individually.

Two billions are vision impairment

In the US alone, a well-developed nation, there are 12 millions who are visually impaired.

Challenges of Visual-impaired-cooking

  • Utilizing tools
  • Information access
  • Touching and feeling
  • Safety and consequences
  • Precision and ambiguity
  • Organizing and tracking
  • Item and quality inspection
  • Collaborative cooking and communication

Information access

Precision and ambiguity

  • Lack of details for guide manuals and instructions of kitchen appliances
  • Recipe content does not correspond to how people with visual impairments cook
  • Existing recipe structures are not friendly to people with visual impairments
  • Had a difficult time interacting with the recipe while cooking
  • Making precise steps while cooking can be a huge barrier for people with visual impairments
  • Long learning curve of new methods which makes people stick with their familiar way of cooking
  • Following cooking steps or procedures precisely according to a recipe or instructions

user journey map of visual impaired cooking

Experience cooking blindfolded

Beside researching users experience, cooking when visually impaired, interviewing a couple of visually impaired users, Project team members also tried to experience cooking when blindfolded. Key take aways of the problems are as follow:

  • View and remember recipes
  • Find ingredients from the fridge
  • Washing vegetables
  • Chopping vegetables
  • Add seasoning to marinade
  • Stir-fry in the pan
  • Serve on a plate
  • Put away the dishes

Target Issue

After analyzing different problems in visually restricted cooking, the target issue to work on is as follow
Short-term Recollection

 
Visually impaired users have to rely on short-term recollection to determine the current state of cooking because they lack the ability to see it. This can be tackled by designing an accessible recipe app that focuses on the short-term memory.

Peer Product Review

Yes Chef!

One of the few apps that is specifically designed for the visually paired is the Yes Chef! app. It heavily relies on voice assistant to help user navigate through out the application. However: 

  • Voice input stops working if screen is locked
  • Not detailed when listing ingredients
  • Limited functionality, difficulty in finding the same recipe or resuming after a break
  • Some recipes are single long step

All Recipes

All Recipe is one of the most wildly known recipe application with extended library and user base. However

  • being a more universal service, it is not designed to help the visually impaired
  • Difficult to navigate – too many items in each block
  • Does not recognize double tap (Requires a separate device to click)
  • No description below the recipes
  • No alt text for images

Final objectives and Initial wire framing

Based on the research, the final objectives are as follow

  1. Minimum interaction is preferable. This is because users rely on the accessibility feature or their Android/iOS Devices to navigate. this navigation is in a linear order with no shortcuts.
  2. Special User Interface Design. Visually impaired patients are on a spectrum, from fully blind, to weak sight and color blindness, although the focus is on the extreme side of fully blind users, it should also accommodate others.
  3. Special User Experience. Although accessibility option on the phone provide a different user experience, it should perfectly match the application’s feature, and user needs to know where they are at every step since short-term memory is what it has been focused on.

Accessibility Design Research

  • Use ENLARGED TEXT in Abundance: A significant percentage of the population has trouble reading anything below 14 point Times on paper. Screens are less readable than paper, because of their lower resolution.
  • High Color Contrast: WCAG recommends that the minimum ratio be 4.5:1 for text and interactive elements.
  • Color As an Indicator: Specific combinations of colors, like a brightly pigmented or dark and bold palette, can evoke feelings and influence how people interact with the App.
  • Use Patterns and Textures: using icons, vibrations, and text to show every right and wrong action taken by the user within the application.

Information structure

Design around the accessibility features

User research indicates that blind users typically use the swiping feature of accessibility option when navigating. That means when in an app the voice-over read out the title and with every swipe to “left” and “right” other options will be read. For this, the design of the app should be in a way that it will be the most accessible. So the hierarchy of arrangement is more important than the visuals.

There will be two stages when starting a recipe. One is Preparing ingredients, and the other is the actual cooking. The reason for this arrangement is that the recipe steps need to be sliced in multiple stages, so it would be easier to understand. Blind users rely on voice over so a long statement when spoken would be hard to follow. The other reason is that when they have every ingredient already prepared, the short term recollection would be less of an obstacle.

Prototype

Wristband Companian

In order to maximize the usability of the product, a wristband is designed which controls the app through physical buttons

  • A wristband is more accessible
  • It is not in the way of cooking
  • It is less hazardous

Funtion

There are five actions integrated into the functionality of the device.

 

  • Right: Go next
  • Left: Go back
  • Up: Undo
  • Down: Skip
  • Push: Confirm/Repeat

Business model

  • Free User: Repeel is a free application available in application markets. Users will have access to all features of the app and have limited access to a range of recipes, specifically designed to work best with the application and user interactions.
  • Pro User: Users will have the option to subscribe to a premium membership. In that case, they will receive the Repeel band and access to a wider range of recipes. They will pay off the cost of the band after a few months of subscription.