Purpose

We used the “directed storytelling” technique to better understand our users’ mental model of the entire cooking process, as well as their informational and emotional needs for the cooking experience.

Process

To situate the discussion of the overall cooking process, we started our interview by asking users to describe the last time they cooked something they had not cooked before. From there, we followed along with each user's cooking process paying particular attention to how occasion, company, and perceived difficulty affected recipe selection. Subsequent questions elicited reflection on the experience and how the users' personality came across in the cooking process. Lastly, we inquired about the last time they received a recipe suggestion or advice from someone else to gain better insight into emotion and information transfer in human to human communication.

Interview Subjects

We interviewed four users from our initial target user group with various levels of cooking experience:

We combined these interviews to create a document organized by high level elements which were relevant to all the four cooking scenarios. From this document, we were able to get insight into the specific elements which were common among our interview subjects, and which ones differed. This was later used to collapse the four users into two personas.

Key Insights

Constrain Then Browse

• The primary search is based on a limiting criteria (e.g. "I'm looking for recipe with fish", "I know I have to cook a vegetarian dish")
• The selection of a particular cookbook is the offline analog of this process
• Secondary searching takes the form of browsing through a list of suggested recipes
• Subjects evaluate these recipes to see if they conform to the cooking occasion, the requirements of the audience, and the abilities of the cook
• While browsing, constraint satisfaction is necessary, but not sufficient
• Additional recipe selection is heavily influenced by emotional appeal (e.g. "I am looking for something with fun ingredients")

Event-Driven Cooking

• Time is less of a "constrain" or "browse" criteria
• Subjects were more willing to shop for ingredients, rather than look for recipes which made use of existing ingredients
• Health is less of an initial criteria for the "constrain", but is still relevant for "browsing"
• The preferences of others who are part of the event are a primary "constrain" criteria
• While browsing, subjects were looking for interesting/unique, but also safe recipes

Routine Cooking

• Time and health are very important as both "constrain" and "browse" criteria
• More desire to utilize existing materials/ingredients
• Lowered cost to exploration
• Cooking for many meals is an additional search criteria (shelf life of food and versatility)

Existing Recipe Systems

• 3x5 cards of favorite recipes placed in a "recipe box"
• Post-it notes placed in cookbooks marking favorite recipes
• Writing copious notes about modifications made and suggestions for next preparation in the margins of the recipe page

Importance of Family for Advice

• They provide a context behind the food and ingredients, which is lacking in most cookbooks
• They provide critiques of found recipes and suggest modifications to recipes (substitutions for hard to locate ingredients and for more authentic recipes)
• Cooking provided an entry point for conversation, which usually shifted to other matters and strengthened their relationship

Recipe Difficulty Assessment

• Ingredients used were the primary factor in assessing the difficulty of a new recipe

Rewarding and Desirable

• Subjects felt cooking for themselves and for others provided them with a great sense of accomplishment
• Unanimous desire to cook more often (cooking was not seen as a chore for our target user group)