✿ Languini Project ✿

Research Findings

As the first step in our research, we conducted surveys to understand our audience's interests and cultural engagement. These insights helped us shape the direction of our app. We found that most respondents are interested in learning about their own or other cultures, especially through language and food. Additionally, 23.3% don't know how to cook their cultural dishes, highlighting a gap we can address.

Following the surveys, we conducted 10 interviews, uncovering key insights:

• People spend 30 mins to 1.5 hours cooking and prefer shorter recipes for busy schedules.
• Learning cultural foods and languages strengthens bonds with loved ones.
• Pictures and videos improve learning and enhance the user experience.
• Users enjoy rewards for completing tasks.
• Simpler instructions and concise recipes are preferred.

These findings guide our app's design, making it engaging, efficient, and rewarding while fostering cultural appreciation.

Additional Research Insights

Our competitive analysis revealed that no existing app fully integrates all the features we aim to offer. Language-learning platforms like Duolingo, Rosetta Stone, and Babbel excel in onboarding, skill-level options, and progress tracking but lack recipe-related functionalities. On the other hand, cooking platforms such as Allrecipes, Yummly, and Umami provide recipe descriptions and ratings but lack structured learning tools, skill tracking, and progress monitoring.

This gap presents an opportunity to create a unique app that combines cultural learning with interactive cooking experiences, offering structured lessons, skill progression, engaging visuals, and user rewards.

Initial Concepts

As we wrapped up affinity mapping and user flow development, we transitioned into the design phase. We started by creating our style guide, where I, as a graphic designer, played a key role in selecting colors and fonts. Ultimately, we chose yellow and red to capture the vibrant and inviting energy we wanted for our app.

While finalizing the style guide, our UI/UX team began sketching wireframes, ensuring that our core features—such as the cookbook and recipe layouts—were prominently highlighted. This process helped us refine the visual and functional aspects of the app, setting a strong foundation for the next stages of design.

Iterations

Next, we moved on to creating our low-fidelity (lo-fi) and mid-fidelity (mid-fi) designs. Throughout this process, we iterated constantly—refining our designs, identifying new features to incorporate, and removing those that proved impractical. This continuous cycle of improvement allowed us to shape a more streamlined and user-friendly experience.

Development Process

For the high-fidelity (hi-fi) designs, my role as both a graphic designer and UI/UX team member was crucial in bridging the visual and functional aspects of our app. We began implementing our style guide, incorporating colors, typography, and other design elements to bring our vision to life.

One of our standout features was the sticker collection system, where users earn stickers after completing recipes. This required our graphics team to design a cohesive set of stickers that matched the app's aesthetic. Additionally, during this stage, we developed our logo, Languini, a smiling noodle!

With these elements in place, our hi-fi designs took shape, transforming our ideas into a polished and engaging user experience.