UX & UI Design / Personal Project
—
Hell's Food
There are many apps that people can use to find restaurants and what type of food they want. However, what if you want to narrow down the search by spiciness and try some new hot flavours that you didn't know existed? The idea of Hell’s Food, an app for finding hot food nearby, came up with this question.
Why do we want spicy foods?
NICHE MARKET
Not everyone likes spicy foods. But for those who like spicy foods, they always want to try new hot flavours that they havenʼt tried yet whether itʼs because of curiosity or other reasons.
Burn fat and lose weight
Depending solely on eating spicy foods will not make you lose weight. However, with a good diet plan and exercise, the capsaicin in spicy foods can help you burn more fat and boost metabolism which can be ultimately beneficial in losing weight.
Challenge accepted
Thereʼs nothing that can stop thrill-seekers looking for a challenge. Whether trying Buldak Bokkeum Myun that went viral on YouTube or beating an impossible spicy food challenge in a restaurant, if you are adventurous enough, you just gotta try it.
Stress be gone
Studies have globally shown that when people eat spicy foods, their brains release chemicals such as endorphins and dopamine which boost their mood. Therefore, eating spicy foods can help you relieve stress and make you feel happy.
Hurts so good
Itʼs nice if the food tastes so good but it can also be nice if it hurts so good. Benign Masochism (a term coined by psychologist Paul Rozin at the University of Pennsylvania) refers to people who enjoy feeling pain, explains why some people just love the burning taste.
HELL’S FOOD CONCEPT
Hell's Food core function is to specifically find spicy foods that are available in restaurants nearby and allows people to discover many different types of hot dishes.
1. Problem
Hard to search for spicy foods available nearby
2. Solution
Design an app that finds spicy foods available nearby
3. Function
-
Searches spicy foods available nearby
-
Allows users to review how spicy was the food that they ate and share their stories in a community
-
Recommends new spicy food menus that might challenge or interest users to try
-
Provides fun facts related to spicy foods. e.g., "why do people like the burning taste?", "what is the spiciest pepper in the world?", "capsaicin, piperine, allicin... different types of spiciness!"
4. Target Group
-
People who like spicy foods
-
People who are thrill-seekers and like challenges
-
People who relieves stress by eating spicy food
-
People who are looking for spicy food as diet food options
5. Goals
-
Find and list out spicy foods around the world
-
Build a community where people can share their experiences and thoughts
-
Provide a useful and good app in terms of UX & UI
6. Similar/Related Apps
-
Zomato: a restaurant search app that provides information, menus and user reviews of restaurants
-
Happy Cow: an app specifically for vegan and vegetarian which lists sources of vegan, vegetarian and healthy food
-
SkipTheDishes: a food delivery app where you can find and order food from restaurants nearby
But wait!
How do you know if the spicy food you searched for is legit spicy or not?
TWO-STEP HEAT CHECK
In order to know how the food is spicy in their liking, users can go through a two-step heat check to get more accurate information.
Method 1: Overall Restaurant Heat Rating
The overall heat rating (just like a star rating in products and stores) of a restaurant can give users a quick summary of how hot the restaurant’s foods are.
Method 2: User Tolerance
When people review a food, they are required to state their tolerance level on the spicy food that they are familiar with such as Tabasco sauce or Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The tolerance will then be shown on the review so that it allows other users to grab a useful insight into how comprehensive their heat rating is.
Scoville heat unit, also known as SHU, is not used since it's not that intuitive as to how one actually can feel spiciness.
CONTENT MAP
A content map is made to map out not only the necessary contents of Hellʼs Food but also other things such as fun facts about spicy foods that might interest its target users.
SITEMAP
Improving on the previous content map, a sitemap is made to imagine user flows on faux mobile screens and any miscellaneous steps that they might need to take.
WIREFRAME
Based on the sitemap, wireframing certain core functions (above: from searching to reviewing) was done to visualize the app structures in more detail. Then I asked my friends to do test runs with a paper prototype and obtained valuable feedback for improvement.
MOOD BOARD, COLOURS, TYPOGRAPHY
After researching and wireframing, it was time to come up with a mood board, colours, and typography that show the overall look and feel of Hellʼs Food app.
LOGO & TAGLINE
After some logo design iterations, the final logo is made with a tagline, “it hurts so good!”, that goes well with the Hellʼs Food concept.
PATTERN LIBRARY
Going further into UI design, I made common elements that will be used in Hellʼs Food app. To match Hellʼs Food concept, some buttons are designed to resemble fire and devil.
PROTOTYPE
After designing UI elements, I finally made a clickable prototype that demonstrates how Hellʼs Food looks and works.
