Sous Cooking Assistant
Overview
Preparing your own meals has a variety of benefits for both your physical and financial well-being, but fewer people are cooking at home than ever. Over the course of four months, I collaborated with a team of my peers to discover how we could address the pain points of college-age adults wishing to cook at home more regularly using a variety of research methods. The result was Sous, a context-aware, multimodal cooking assistant that aims to streamline the cooking experience.
A detailed description of our research process and methodology can be found here and here.
Timeline
Four months
My Role
UX Researcher, Video Editor, Product Designer
UX Methods
Literature Review, Comparative Analysis, User Interviews, Journey Map, Signal Survey, Expert Interviews, In-Home Observations, Storyboarding, Prototyping
Summary of Findings
If preparing meals at home has so many benefits, why aren’t young adults doing it more often? How can we help them build better habits?
My team members and I learned through a literature review that cooking has many benefits, but that people are doing it less often. After identifying our target demographic with the help of a signal survey, we set out to better understand their habits and why cooking at home wasn’t one of them. We found that there are countless apps and websites available to help people cook, but none of them allowed for completely touch-free interaction. While most young adults use some kind of mobile device in the kitchen, they disliked getting their device dirty with messy hands while preparing their meals. Finally, we found that people struggled with the high cognitive load associated with interpreting and coordinating recipe steps and ingredients. With this information, we developed the following four requirements:
Requirement 2
Allow for freedom with a small, portable form factor
Requirement 4
Allow multiple sources for recipes so users can customize their meals without sacrificing the availability of instructions
Requirement 1
Flexible instructions that allow users to make substitutions
Requirement 3
Easier instructions that give beginner cooks visual cues and don’t require users to touch their devices
“I need a real-time cooking video to follow, but most cooking videos are edited. . .I have to go back to that step, again and again, to make sure I didn’t forget anything. AND I have to switch between the clip and my phone frequently. . .in the end, my phone was dirty and my steak was overcooked.”
Introducing Sous
Sous is a hands-free multimodal solution that gives personalized guidance based on visual context and user’s progress.
Sous is a two-part solution: Sous’s camera is a peripheral device used to “see” the current cooking environment and relay that information back to a cloud service for processing and delivery of feedback to the user via connected device. Users communicate with Sous exclusively through voice, eliminating the need to use icky hands to navigate the interface.
The second element of Sous is the companion app that operates on a phone or tablet. The app is used to display information about the stove or prep environment and guide the user in recipe steps, skills, and techniques.
Illustration of Sous device
Preliminary concept illustration
How it works
Sous is affixed to hood vent, cabinet, wall, in cooking or prep space
Uses camera to enable image processing to glean insights and provide real-time guidance
App can store and search recipes from database or get them from the internet using share functionality
Smartphone and Sous work in sync to provide progress-based instructions
Dynamic voice interface allows user to interact how they want, when they want
System learns user preferences and becomes more accurate
Storyboard exploring a use case for recipe substitution feature
Product Features
Multimodal Interface
Cooking is messy. Sous provides the option for traditional smartphone interaction, voice-only controls, or a combination.
Real-time progress tracking and guidance
Real-time guidance
Sous detects opportunities for technique correction or safety concerns using image recognition and alerts the user. Guidance is customizable based on the user’s preferences.
Context-aware feedback
Sous parses complex questions and provides feedback and suggestions based on what it sees.
Progress-based instructions
Sous uses computer vision to track and guide your progress. Whether you ask Sous for the next step or look at your phone, both will be in sync.
Recipe integration
Users can easily store their favorite recipes on the Sous App by using the device’s native share functionality. Users can also receive guidance on multiple recipes at one time. (For example, when cooking a main and side dish.)
Intelligent, on-demand substitutions
You don’t always have what you need. Sous helps find substitute ingredients that work with the flavor palette of your dish and preferences.
Recommendations based on preferences and habits
Over time, Sous will get to know its users and make recommendations for new recipes to try based on their skill level, preferences, and cooking habits.
Industry-standard recipe storage and search
Offering recipe search within the app will allow continuity within the cooking user journey