Fraunhofer Portugal
Understanding and Optimising the journey for a meal recommendation app
I was one of researchers working in a mobile application to prevent elderly malnutrition. It was brief to the team that the senior population is growing in number and malnutrition is one of the main reasons in senior citizen health decline. Therefore, we were tasked to work in a mobile application that integrated algorithms capable of combining the dietary needs, desires and budgets of seniors, and generated a meal plan that later could be converted into a shopping list for online delivery.
The biggest challenge for this project was the fact that the platform was targeted for elderly citizens in Portugal. A significant number of elderly citizens in Portugal have low levels of literacy and technological literacy, which caused a lot of frustration among the participants.
Platform
Android Mobile Application
Year
2015-2016
Research Outline
Competitive Testing
In-Depth User Interviews
Affinity Diagramming
User Experience Mapping
Research Approach
Competitive Testing
The first research task that we performed was competitive testing. We collected data from a variety of companies specialising in food delivery and nutrition in order to identify the current needs, behaviours and motivations of competitors and the competitor’s customers. The competitive testing also allowed us to have insights regarding future opportunities for our product.
In-Depth User Interviews
Competitive testing was followed by in-depth user interviews. We interview 8 elderly citizens to gather insights about the online experiences.
Affinity Diagramming
Affinity diagramming was used to collect the data from competitive testing and in-depth user interviews. These data was clustered into categories to help synthesise information and provide a visual representation of the research.
User Experience Mapping
Using the data collected and the insights from the affinity diagramming, we created a user experience map. The experience map allows us to share the findings with stakeholders in a visual format. Additionally, it made easier for other members of the team to refer back to the findings.