Introduction

For many, cooking has always been stressful. Planning meals for you and your loved ones, nailing down what recipe to try (and hopefully succeed) all while trying to maintain a healthy diet. As the world continues to cope with the effects of the pandemic, cooking at home is more prevalent than ever.

So let’s make it more enjoyable.

Problem

With many people returning to the kitchen due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the work from home movement, it’s no wonder that new challenges have arisen. Planning weekly meals, grocery shopping, and attempting new recipes all bring fatigue to the kitchen. Many have found themselves in the kitchen more than ever before, but with little resources. Instead of branching out, people view cooking as a chore.

If there’s one thing we’ve seen is that there has been a disconnect between learning and enjoying cooking.

Solution

Imagine if there was a way to take cooking classes through your stove in the comfort of your own home. Meet Stoven, an interactive stove where you can take online cooking classes right in the comfort of your kitchen. Instructors cook on those same exact stoves as you are, so you will never have to second guess yourself or your products. Instead of endlessly scrolling through Google-searched recipes every week, you could tune in to world-renowned chefs across the globe teaching you right in the comfort of your own home.

Stoven allows you to virtually follow along in real-time with world-renowned chefs. Tap into the thousands of recipes with both an interactive class and a list of ingredients you would need to participate in the class. Partake in challenges to help you become a better chef, all on a modern stove. 

Everyone uses their stove differently so Stoven can also be used as just a normal stove. You could even display recipes for hands-free viewing for when you have a lot on your plate.

Research Overview

When researching similar competitive products for cooking at home, it seems that many people are longing for the at-home experience to be reimagined. When thinking of successful at-home experiences, we thought of the company Peloton. Bringing fitness and convenience right into people’s homes, they helped create not only a healthier lifestyle for people but also a community.

What if we could do that with cooking? The modern stove hasn’t changed and many people rely on it regularly to help them cook. What if it could make them a better, healthier chef?

Secondary Research

When looking at statistics about cooking in the past year, saving time in the kitchen and generally spending less time on meal preparation were common goals among those surveyed. On average people were cooking the same meal 28 times since the COVID-19 pandemic started. 43% of respondents wanted to spend less time planning out their meals.

Primary Research

When conducting a survey we focused on trying to gather what issues people were having with home cooking. Through this research we found that most respondents were cooking more than 5 times a week at home, spending over 1 hour in preparation of cooking and over 85% of respondents were cooking the same dinner multiple times.

Survey Testimonials

When I shifted my focus on taking classes, we asked my respondents “What is one thing you wish you could change about your experience cooking?” Reading through the responses validated my choice in focusing on taking classes on an interactive stove compared to being able to connect with friends and cook together. 

One thing we learned through this research is that most respondents did not feel as comfortable in the kitchen as I thought.

User Personas

Based on my secondary & formative research, we were able to use the data we gathered to create user personas of potential Stoven users. The demographic of my survey included members ranging from young professionals to retired adults. 

Having a diverse set of user personas helps me make better design choices for all. During the design process our user personas helped us to visualize what problems we need to solve and the goals we will help our users to achieve when using Stoven.

User Journey Map

After creating the user personas, we used those to create user journeys. Each user journey was based on how someone would find and participate in a cooking class by using the stove or by the Stoven app. By writing out each step the user would have to take & their feelings while doing it, we made sure that the user would complete this task as easily as possible. These helped inform my design choices down the road when we were creating the interface.

User Flow

Next, we moved on to a more in-depth user flow. This user flow that we created for each of my personas informed all of the routes the user could take to complete different tasks throughout the Stoven experience. Since this is targeted to cooks of all ages and technical skills. We wanted to make sure that the experience of finding and participating in the class was as easy as possible with this being mounted behind the stove.

Competitor Research

To start the visual components of my brand, We first researched competitor stoves & interactive cooking branding & logos to see what was working and what wasn’t. We noticed that many of the stove companies used mostly typographic logos with minimal illustrations or design elements in the logo. When researching cooking logos were very friendly and inviting logos that involved some visual language that alluded to it was cooking.

In terms of color palettes it seems as if most stove companies used muted color palletes with a lot of grey's to signify strength & durability, the interactive cooking brands used much brighter colors. As much as we enjoyed typographic logos I wanted to add an actual logo itself that can live on its own either with or without the typography that it included along with it.

Logo Overview

Now that we had done extensive logo research, It was time to move on to sketching the logo for Stoven. The main goal was that we wanted the logo to be appealing to both ends of this product, We wanted this to feel sturdy and solid due to the fact this is an actual stove & to be fun and inviting since this is an interactive stove to learn and share.

Overview

This was a unique task brought to us by our instructor to challenge the limits of what UX design could be. We were tasked to create an interface that was not mainly a mobile app or desktop. Besides the design of the interface, we also had to dream up what this stove could potentially be. Many UX designers including myself were so comfortable designing for mobile or desktop so this was especially challenging but this really helped me step out of my comfort zone and think of what the future could hold for technology & design.

Blueprints

When this idea first came to mind we wanted the stove & the interface to be connected in some way. I thought of the company Peloton & how seamlessly the interface & the bike work together. When they deliver the bike to your house you just plug it in and start riding. We wanted the same experience for users when they were to receive their Stoven stove. When thinking of our users, research & talking to our professor we decided that so many people use stoves differently that there should be an option to have the Stoven interface retract if the users are not taking a class. We thought it’s important to think of every possible use this could have when designing.

Stove Interface

The interface of Stoven along with many things was informed by our research. Since most people feel stressed out about cooking, we wanted to make the experience as easy as possible for users. Since this interface will be incorporated into the stove we wanted to make the cards as readable as possible for people using Stoven while cooking. Getting the users into the app, choosing a class, and starting a class is something that we focused a lot of time on making as few clicks as possible.

Mobile Interface

Thinking about how many people access recipes, we thought about how the mobile app would play into Stoven’s experience. We thought it would be important that the app would mostly serve the purpose of choosing classes & getting ingredients since the main experience is the Stove. 

Having a shopping list feature in the app would help users feel more comfortable and plan out their meals beforehand so they are not scrambling to get ingredients before their class. Having this would also promote users to expand the classes they take beyond based on what ingredients they have in the house.

With Stoven’s mobile app you could have the ingredients sent right to your phone and swing by the grocery store before heading home to take part in the class.

Merchandise

Thinking of how this brand could be extenuated. We tried to think of what someone would want along with a stove we thought that the best thing to incorporate with the branding is cooking utensils. The biggest draw to buying a Stoven stove would be that you are cooking on the same stove as your instructor. 

Including products that Stoven users could purchase so they have the exact same utensils as their instructor would help make the users feel more comfortable cooking & have a way to connect with their favorite chefs.

Social Media

When we thought of how many people would consume information about Stoven we thought social media would come into play to inform users about the upcoming live classes. Many times companies use their social media to get important information to their users in real-time. 

With the fact that some of these classes are taught live, we felt like social media would play an important role in helping users reserve classes that are coming up & are time-sensitive.

Promotional Videos

Thinking of how important social media plays into the overall branding and promotion of a brand I created two small video segments that could possibly play on billboards, television, YouTube ads or even bring it back to social media and post it on their page.

We thought these are important pieces to consider especially at the start up level of a company to drum up interest in the brand and want to learn more about it.

Conclusion

Working on this project helped solidify my choice into focusing on UX/UI Design as a career path. I have learned so much about UX/UI design  during this project, while also learning how to utilize branding to bring an idea to life. 

One of the most unique takeaways from this project was learning the value of my research. Being able to effectively design using research & thinking of all users instead of designing what “looks cool’’ felt like a huge step in the right direction for my career.

Being able to work with my professor each week through the entire design process to craft this idea into what it is today was extremely valuable. This helped me become a better designer, constantly challenging myself each week. I look forward to pushing myself further in UX/UI design in my career moving forward.

Credits:

Designer: Brett Sweeney
Art Direction: Abby Guido
Institution: Tyler School of Art and Architecture — Graphic and Interactive Design
Class: Senior Brand Identity (UX/UI Focus)
Medium Article: Stoven: Home Cooking Reimagined
Citations: How the pandemic is shaping home cooking trends, 2020. SmartBrief.