User Research In-Depth
Methodology: To achieve this understanding, I employed a multi-faceted approach as part of this course project:
Surveys: I distributed surveys to gather quantitative data from a broader audience. This helped me identify general trends, such as current high consumed snacks, how often people buy these natural products, diabete/dietary restrictions, what snacks they have been consuming, what snacks they are willing to replace snacks with artificial sweaters with, and the challenges they frequently face in creating a variety of sweet treats with ie low sugar.
User Interviews (7 participants): I conducted in-depth, qualitative interviews with 7 individuals who regularly cook and actively seek recipes using low sweet chocolate bars, jelly candies etc. These conversations were crucial for diving deep into the users personal journeys – from the initial thought of "What natural food products are really delicious
to consume? What natural food products can I use to create new snacks/desserts?
My focus was on understanding their emotional responses and specific behavior's at each step.
Competitive Analysis: I precisely analysed a range of existing recipe inquiries from Low Sweets and their kitchens. This allowed me to identify current their market strengths, weaknesses, and, most importantly, where a significant gap existed that Low Sweeta and their own recipe data base could uniquely fill by bringing together their products and other guaranteed natural products for their out of the bag snacks and larger uses of their products to produce new and experimental products for home cooks. Bundle products together for one delivery.
Key Insights: Through my research, several critical themes emerged that directly informed Low Sweets's design and features:
Information Overload: A significant number of users felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of “natural” products available across the internet.
Ineffective Filtering: Many struggled with the inability to effectively filter ingredients
they knew they did not want to consume. The hours of searching and looking at ingredients to make sure the products did not contain palm oils, canola oils, or artificial stevias some “natural products” contained.
Fragmented Experience: Users expressed much frustration with constantly jumping between different apps and websites just to piece together complimentary products/ find recipes or find all the necessary websites to order all necessary ingredients that are truely natural.
Demand for Visual Guidance: There was a strong, consistent demand for a one stop shop, where you could easily order ingredients from different manufactures and be assured of the high quality of the products.
Quick & Healthy Ideas: A recurring desire was for easily accessible healthy and quick snack ideas, catering perfectly to busy lifestyles.
Centralized Saving: People deeply desired a single, organized place where they could easily search for and save new recipes, ingredient links and bundle products together
for one delivery.
Inspiring & Engaging: Foster a sense of culinary exploration and enjoyment through curated "ideas" and unique kitchen tested recipes.