UX Case Studies: Tasty Ah, Apple’s A pp Store. An amalgam of applications, the App Store offers something different for every user that scrolls through its never-ending rows. As an average user, I tend to avoid these uncharted app waters. However, for today’s piece, I voyaged into the App Store to look at Tasty’s app and its UX. As a writer for a UX Company, I am aware that in order to have s olid UX, an app needs to be applicable to any type of user with any range of experience. Thus, I selected an app that specializes in an area I’m not familiar with: cooking. Normally, my version of cooking is boiling water, throwing in pasta and coating my al dente masterpiece with red sauce. Voila! Five-star cooking, in my book. Thus, for the purpose of this analysis, I am an amateur chef- at best. Which makes me an ideal candidate for Tasty’s step-by-step cooking app. Will this app make cooking seem easy? We will see. Tasty is self-described as a “food recipes and videos” application. Created by Buzzfeed, Tasty boasts 4.9 stars on the App Store with 112.4 K reviews. With this high level of user engagement, this foodie app is rated #9 in the Food & Drink category, which is any mobile app developer’s dream! In its App Store description, Tasty asserts that it is my “new cooking coach.” As a mediocre chef, I am clearly skeptical of this claim. Yet, all uncertainty aside, I dive into this culinary creation and download the latest iOS 10 version of the app. Get your aprons on folks, we’re about to get cooking. Onboarding Delving into Tasty’s app, we are welcomed by an aesthetically pleasing sign in page. Tasty’s UI is rather adorable: a bright blue background, with multi-colored pieces of food peeking out from the screen’s corners.
Tasty’s account creation options are stacked at the bottom of this page. From the get-go, Tasty’s UX is versatile and they welcome any type of user. Users can create an account using their Facebook profile, their phone number- or shocking enough- with no information inputted at all. Users that don’t want to make a profile, do not have to. Tasty allows users to bypass this onboarding step with the “maybe later” option. After I select the “log in with a phone number” option, the screen shifts to the next step. However, Tasty incorporates a creative detail in this progression. While waiting for the next page to load, there is a tiny donut that dances up and down on the screen. I am so amused by this minor detail, I almost didn’t notice the app lagging. To illustrate their app loading with a piece of food, I thought was an imaginative UX detail. For my account creation, I am required to: input my phone number, get texted a verification code, enter that code into the app, and create a username. To my
annoyance, many of the usernames that I inputted were taken. A necessary evil for many onboarding processes for apps; however, for a food app, I thought so many steps was overkill. But all of a sudden, my qualms about the number of steps to sign-up was resolved. Users are able to scroll and select a piece of food as their profile photo. Tasty’s UX allows users to personalize their profiles. I got to choose a smiling piece of pizza for my profile- my favorite food. All is well in the food universe. Before I could get started on my new Tasty food regiment, I am b ombarded with a pop-up. For UX design agencies, pop-ups are typically a no-go; however, I thought this one was well placed. Tasty inquires if I am vegetarian or not, and promises to show me recipes with meat or without, depending on my choice. I thought this was an innovative feature of their UX: the user is able to customize their dietary preferences and restrictions.
Main Interface After I answered the series of questions presented to me, I am-- finally-- brought to the main page. I am greeted by rows of colorful looking recipes and their corresponding
categories. Upon scrolling further, I was pleased to discover that the app has clever names for their food categories, like “Okie Dokie Artichokie,” for example. At the bottom of the main interface, the page is organized by the tabs, “Discover,” “My Pages,” and “One Top” (as seen below). A solid setup for Tasty’s page, their UX is user-friendly and their layout makes sense. If I ‘discover’ a recipe I want to cook, I can save it to ‘my page’ for future reference. The flow of the main interface seems self-explanatory. However, the “One Top” tab is dedicated to the sale of Tasty’s new cooking pan. Tasty tries to sell the pan in-app with the options, “Order yours today” or, “I have One Top.” A savvy marketing move, placed conveniently next to the other features of the app. If we click on a recipe on the “Discover” tab, we are transported to an informational page on that particular dish. I selected an “Avocado Quinoa Power Salad” to learn about. As soon as I selected the meal- after the donut loading icon- I was brought to its interactive recipe page. Tasty incorporates a quick step-by-step video at the top of the page that shows the dish being made. For any user that struggles with cooking, Tasty made it look easy. Their experience continues with an ingredients list and a slowed down version of the video at the top of the page. Tasty made me feel like even I could make that ‘powerful’ dish. Tasty’s easy to use design doesn’t stop there. To make the dish even more convenient for their users, Tasty’s app offers to ‘export’ the recipe’s ingredient list. That’s right. Tasty is making your shopping list for you.
Final Verdict As a writer for an a pp development agency, I applaud Tasty’s clever UX and appealing UI design. Furthermore, as a mediocre chef, I praise how easy their recipes seem. One thing’s for certain, I have found my new recipe book. Sayonara, bland pasta with red sauce.