Baloo

Baloo is a cross-platform tool that helps kids learn how to cook healthy recipes.

UX designer designing an app and responsive website called Baloo from conception to delivery.

Project duration: Nov - Dic 2021

The biggest problem parents face when cooking with their children is safety and keeping them entertained.

Conducting interviews, paper and digital wireframing, low and high-fidelity prototyping, conducting usability studies, accounting for accessibility, and iterating on designs.

Design a multi-platform tool for social good that enables parents around the world to teach their children how to cook healthy food.

I conducted user interviews, which I then turned into empathy maps to better understand the target user and needs. I discovered that many target users who cook with their children agree that cooking with their children helps them be more resolutive and independent and also creates a stronger relation, however is not easy to keep their children entertained and sometimes cooking can be a dangerous activity.

Safety

Parents care about the safety of their children, cooking evolves by cutting ingredients and that can make cooking a dangerous activity.

Difficult to understand

Sometimes when users cook with the help of a cooking book, it might be easy for adults but not for their little children.

One of the biggest problems that users face when cooking with their children is keeping them engaged and entertained.

Entertainment

Primary

Name: Erika

Age: 35

Occupation: Nurse assistant

Secondary

Name: Maria

Age: 37

Occupation: School teacher

Maria is a 37-year old school teacher who is divorced and raise alone her little son. Maria cooks sometimes with her son. when she doesn't find an interesting recipe, she made it up. For Maria the most important is the safety of her son.

Erika is a 35-year old nurse assistant who is married and has one daughter. She doesn't cook often with her daughter but when she does, she finds difficult to keep her motivated to finish the recipe. She would like to make cooking looking like a game to her daughter.

Goal: Cook a healthy recipe with her 8-year old son

Persona: Erika

Paper Wireframes

The process below begins with my initial ideas wireframes, then moves to mockups, and finally to the high-fidelity prototype. Taking the time to draft iterations for each screen of the app on paper ensured that the elements that made it to digital wireframes would be well-suited to address user pain points.

I then took the responses through a card sorting exercise to find common themes amongst the participants. 

Home options: Some users agreed that they would like to see at the menu the list of the like items instead of recently viewed and also they would like to have personalized recommendations.

• The menu at the bottom: We found out that users find it uncomfortable to scroll down to see the menu.

• Small videos: For some users was really hard to see the videos because the videos were too small and didn't have the full-screen option.

High-Fidelity Prototype

The hi-fi prototype followed the same user flow as the lo-fi prototype and included the design changes made after the usability study.

Impact

Users shared that the app made having a healthy diet and lifestyle accessible to kids. One quote from peers feedback was “I would love to have this App so I could learn how to make fun and healthy recipes with my son”

I learned that even though the problem I was trying to solve was a big one, diligently going through each step of the design process and aligning with specific user needs helped me come up with solutions that were both feasible and useful.

• Conduct research on how successful the app is in reaching the goal to teach kids to eat healthier.

• Add more educational resources for users to learn about healthy food and its importance in children's growth.