Lifestyle & Community
Meio Community Cooking App
The goal was to reimagine the home cooking experience in co-living spaces while fostering a sense of community.
Role
UX Researcher and Designer
Tools
Adobe XD, Qualtrics, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, MS Office
Timeline
5 months
Research Focus
In India, millennials and Gen Z are increasingly turning to dining out and food delivery, with 34% eating out 2-3 times a week and 18% frequenting fast-food restaurants several times a month. However, this shift towards convenience eating is contributing to health concerns, as India faces rising rates of obesity which is projected to more than double by 2040.
Solution
Meio is a community cooking platform designed for co-living spaces. It operates on a sharing economy model where skilled cooks can collaborate with others who rely on outside food, helping them come together to plan, cook, and share meals. Through in-app meal planning, expenses, and grocery management, Meio simplifies communal cooking, promoting healthy eating and social engagement.
Millennials and Gen Z
Target Audience
Co-living Spaces in India
Context
Process
02
Research and Analysis
We conducted user interviews, surveys, and analyzed in-app analytics to understand the pain points and user needs. We also studied competitor apps and industry trends to gather insights
03
Identifying Opportunities
We conducted user interviews, surveys, and analyzed in-app analytics to understand the pain points and user needs. We also studied competitor apps and industry trends to gather insights
04
Conceptualization and
DVF Testing
We conducted user interviews, surveys, and analyzed in-app analytics to understand the pain points and user needs. We also studied competitor apps and industry trends to gather insights
05
Prototyping and Visual Design
We conducted user interviews, surveys, and analyzed in-app analytics to understand the pain points and user needs. We also studied competitor apps and industry trends to gather insights
Solution Highlights
Onboarding and Profile Creation
A seamless onboarding experience is designed to communicate the app’s core features, leveraging progressive disclosure to make the process intuitive. Users quickly access their co-living community by selecting their residence, thereby shortening the sign-up process.
Offering or Joining a meal plan
Utilizing clear affordances and contextual information, the homepage features two primary actions: offer to cook or join a mea l. Meal cards provide essential details (dish, cuisine, timing, host, veg/non-veg) upfront, enabling easy decision-making
Community Groups
Designed with a community-first approach, the group feature allows frequent collaborators to manage conversations, meal history, and expenses, all in one place, promoting seamless interaction and stronger community ties.
Grocery Management
The grocery management feature allows users to create and share shopping lists for their group meals. To reduce user effort, this feature integrates with BigBasket for grocery delivery, leveraging third-party integrations. The system offers smart recommendations based on shopping lists, streamlining the process and minimizing cognitive load.
Expenses Management
Users can track expenses, split bills and make transactions directly within the app, promoting transparency and control. This feature was designed with efficiency in mind, offering streamlined transactions to ensure a hassle-free experience.
Research Process in Detail
Initial Hypothesis
In a Co-living place, the kitchen being an essential shared space nurses many issues like cleanliness, storage and organization, accessibility, and theft, as it’s used by multiple people with varying habits, which may hamper the communal integrity that co-living spaces seek to provide. With India's millennial population rapidly embracing co-living, addressing these kitchen-related challenges is essential to maintaining a positive community experience.
I hypothesized that disorganized kitchen spaces contribute to a frustrated cooking experience and hence, a fragmented sense of community.
Assumptions
Co-living companies focus heavily on organizing social events but often overlook the practical challenges residents face in shared kitchen spaces. The presumption was that activities like cooking and cleaning are typically isolated to the kitchen, but dining happens in personal spaces, weakening the sense of community.
Preliminary Research to Validate Assumptions
During my initial round of primary research, I visited 8 co-living spaces in Bengaluru. For the most part, I adopted a fly-on-the-wall approach to observe individual behaviors while using the kitchen facilities. Additionally, I conducted semi-structured interviews with several residents, only to discover that my initial hypothesis was completely off-base; the kitchen space was not being utilized as actively as I had anticipated.
The Brief Was Re-defined To
How might we offer a solution that makes kitchens more accessible and the cooking process more convenient for co-living residents?
To deepen my understanding of the context, I revisited the same co-living spaces and conducted in-depth interviews with both residents and owners. I employed behavioral analysis techniques to observe interactions in shared kitchen environments, which allowed me to gain valuable insights into usage patterns and food consumption habits. Utilizing methods such as ethnographic research and diary studies helped me capture residents' daily routines and the underlying motivations driving their food choices.
Emerging Insights
Convenience is Key
Millennials prioritize convenience in their food choices, often opting for quick solutions over time-consuming cooking due to their fast-paced lifestyles.
Accessibility Matters
Residents with access to private kitchens demonstrate a significantly higher frequency of cooking, underscoring the importance of accessible cooking spaces for fostering meal preparation.
Decline of Home-Cooked Meals
The substantial effort required for cooking, combined with the easy availability of takeout and delivery options, significantly discourages home cooking, leading to a decline in traditional meal preparation.
User Segmentation
I identified two primary user types based on their cooking habits and preferences.
Non-cooks who seek convenience but desire healthier options.
Cooks who enjoy cooking but struggle with coordination and costs in communal spaces.
Bridging the Gap with Meio
Style Guide
The style guide ensures a consistent, engaging user experience by establishing clear guidelines for visuals, interaction, and tone. It not only guides users effortlessly through the app but the friendly UI elements also evoke a sense of community and warmth, reflecting the brand's purpose.
User Testing Feedback
After conducting a comprehensive competitive and landscape analysis, I recognized that the operational model of this concept was relatively new. To assess its desirability, feasibility, and viability with the target user group, I developed a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP). This allowed me to gauge user perceptions of the idea and determine how frequently they would engage with the app.
Outcome
Positive Feedback and Validation:
Seamless Coordination
The app's centralized platform was highly appreciated for streamlining meal coordination and simplifying bill-splitting, addressing a key pain point that users faced with fragmented solutions like WhatsApp.
Inclusivity for Non-Cooks
Users who lacked cooking skills valued the app's ability to involve them in the communal cooking process, allowing them to enjoy home-cooked meals while learning in a supportive environment.
Future Considerations:
Flexibility in Meal Planning
The importance of incorporating flexibility into the cooking process became clear, as real-time cooking often deviates from strict timelines, and this flexibility needs to be reflected in the app's functionality.
Cohesion across Features
While users appreciated the range of features, there was a need for greater cohesion and integration across functionalities to enhance usability within the broader ecosystem of the app.
