Taste Like
Web / UX Research / Interaction Design / Visual Design / No-code development
Role
Lead Product Designer & Bubble Developer
Team
Co-founders, Product Category Managers
Links
Timeline
September 2022 - April 2023
Tools
Figma, Bubble.io
Final design
Problem
Amidst the increasing variety of alternative protein products flooding the market, consumers encounter the challenge of sifting through vast information and deciding which ones to try.
Why it matters: Decision paralysis can hinder consumers from making confident choices, leading to unsatisfactory experiences with new products.
- A solution to this would help drive the adoption of alternative protein products, benefiting both consumers and the industry.
Research
- Gauge consumer sentiment towards alternative protein products.
- Identify critical considerations for consumers when buying alt-protein items.
- Uncover pain points experienced on current platforms.
- 11 survey respondents.
- 6 individuals for follow-up interviews.
- Age range: 18-64 years.
- Prior experience with alternative protein products.
1. Survey
2. User Interview
Findings
Survey
- 9 out of 11 also considered environmental sustainability.
- Followed by cost and then nutritional content and ingredients.
- “Lack of impartial information about taste and quality of the product”
- “Lack of ingredient transparency”
- “Method of processing and extraction are usually not disclosed…”
Interview
“There aren’t a lot of products to try in grocery stores, and the information online about new products is hard to filter out.” - Justin, Student
“Proteindirectory.com allows you to search for companies, but products are not listed directly on the page.” - Steve, Investor
“Many people have allergies to specific alt proteins, so it would be good to have a simple method for filtering allergens.” - Laura, Food Technologist
Affinity Mapping
After gathering qualitative responses from the survey and interviews, I organized them into an affinity diagram and identified several key themes.
Recommendations
After gathering insights from the surveys and interviews, I came up with the following recommendations for our new alternative protein directory:
Vision
Prioritization
Given the fast-paced nature of our startup, we employed a user value vs. effort prioritization matrix. This decision-making tool helped us objectively assess and decide which features would yield the highest user value relative to the effort required for their development, ensuring optimal resource allocation and strategic focus.
Discussion Forum
I worked on the end-to-end design and development of the discussion forum while my co-founder worked on the other features. Below, I explain some of the key design decisions I made.
1. Discussion Cards
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- While this expands the vertical real estate, its impact is mitigated by limiting the discussion text preview height to 250px.
- This ensures discussion cards don't consume excessive vertical space while still providing users with a sufficient preview of the post before they decide to click into the discussion.
- This includes user details and timestamp, the discussion title alongside the category tag, and any relevant product tags.
- This layout allows users to scan pertinent details at a glance quickly.
Upvotes are right-aligned, providing visual distinction from the comment, share, and save buttons.
- This alignment not only encourages user engagement—akin to a 'continue' button on the edge of a dialog/modal—but also enhances scannability, particularly when navigating through different comment levels in the comment section.
2. Inline Tagging
- This feature facilitates swift and accurate product referencing.
- By clicking on the highlighted tag, users are seamlessly directed to the respective product page, creating a seamless and user-friendly exploration process.
3. Top Mentioned Products Sidebar
- This feature offers a snapshot of key products that the discussion is focusing on, thereby promoting an efficient and guided browsing experience.
- This feature facilitates immediate context acquisition and understanding, enhancing the user's product comprehension.
Reflection
Working within the dynamic environment of a startup focused on an emerging market — alternative proteins — was an exciting experience. I gained a deeper understanding of the diverse technologies employed in the alternative proteins sector and their potential to contribute to environmental sustainability significantly. The startup culture also allowed me to propose innovative ideas, such as the discussion forum, and the opportunity to bring these ideas to life using tools like Bubble.io.
- Given our startup's dynamic environment, aggressive timelines, and finite resources, a qualitative research approach was the most suitable choice.
- I devoted considerable effort to structuring the survey, aiming to achieve an optimal balance between quantitative measures, such as Likert scales and ratings, and qualitative, open-ended responses.
- Perhaps new AI tools like Merlin could revolutionize the landscape of open-ended surveys.
- At first, I thought Bubble's "drag and drop" editor would make things easier, but it was quite tricky. Despite the minimal coding, this process improved my computational thinking skills.
- My existing coding expertise proved beneficial, particularly when I had to supplement Bubble's capabilities with custom JavaScript and CSS to achieve certain functionalities.
- Overall, I'm thankful that I got the chance to learn this new skill, and I even used it to build my own college marketplace app.
- At times, certain features were not feasible due to development complexities or potential performance degradation. Wearing both the developer and designer hats enabled me to balance the complexity of my design against aesthetics and functionality.
- This experience honed my ability to make informed trade-offs, considering not only the user experience but also the technical feasibility and business implications of design decisions.