Assignment 1 ​

Interview Plan ​

Task 1: Hunch ​

I would like to build a social media app centered around food. The focus could be eating out, at-home recipes, or both, and people might use the app as a food diary or a way to connect with others over food.

Task 2: Interviewees ​

A major consideration when first starting to live independently is food. Between grocery budgeting, meal prep, and figuring out where and when to eat out in a new area, there are many complicating factors. As such, I would like to interview a recent college graduate, preferably someone who has transitioned to a new living situation within the past few years.

In addition, I am curious about the perspectives of someone who travels often. How do you decide what to eat when in a new city or country? Does food help you connect with a person or place?

People in general may also have various associations with food; for some, meals have a stronger tie to familial relationships and cultural background, while for others, it can be more related to friendships. With this in mind, I would like to interview people who grew up in different food scenes (i.e. suburban area where you typically drive to restaurants vs. environment full of small food shops/stalls). I would also be curious to interview someone older and hear about what food has meant to them over various stages of their life.

Task 3: Interview Strategy ​

Conversation starters (social media):

• Introduction (name, age, occupation, where are you from/living now)
• What social media apps do you use?
• Have you ever seen food-related content on social media? What was the content, and did you enjoy or interact with it?
• Have you ever posted or sent something food-related to someone? What was the food? What was the context of the situation? (i.e. where and why)
• If you have posted food content more than once, what type of food content do you usually post?
• How often do you post or send food-related content?
• What are your food habits? How often do you eat out vs. cook from home?

• Are you curious about other people's food habits? What would you want to know about the food habits of your family? Your friends? Strangers?
• Are you more curious about at-home cooking recipes or local restaurants? What interests you about one choice more than the other?
• How much do you know about what other people cook? About where they eat out?

Deeper questions:

• What significance does food have to you?
• Have you ever had a conversation with someone about food? How did the topic come up, and what specifically did you talk about? Did you learn something about yourself or the other person?
• Can you remember a memory where you connected with someone over food? Did you enjoy the experience? What about that situation made you connect with another person?

More niche questions:

• I know you travel often. What drives your food choices when you explore a new location?
• If you were to share your food-related experiences from your travels, what would you want to highlight?
• What was the food scene of your childhood like? How does it differ to your current environment?

Note-taking strategy:

• Focus on listening during the interview
• Only take note of things to follow up on during the interview
• Review the full recording afterwards and take extensive notes then

Interview 1 Report ​

Interview 1 Notes ​

• interviewee info: 23 years old, live in Ventura County, CA, mechanical engineer
• uses Reddit, has Facebook (mostly for communicating with some groups)
• has Snapchat and Instagram but never uses them

• sees plenty of food-related content on Reddit
• is subscribed to r/cooking, r/steak, r/burger, r/stupidfood
• r/stupidfood --> people make fun of exceptionally unhealthy or pointless foods (or if it looks disgusting)
• would subscribe to another subreddit if something "cool" comes up (i.e. if he sees a photo of a dish that looks cool, he might add it to his feed to get more cooking ideas)
• has not posted anything publicly, but has messaged his own ice cream recipes to people

• cooks from home mostly to save money; how often he eats out varies because he travels a lot
• sometimes it's 75% home cooking, other times it's 25% (i.e. if he doesn't think he will be home for long)
• "do I live to eat or eat to live?"
• delicious food is one of his reasons for living 😄 (delicious food, trying new food)
• delicious food could include interesting flavors, enjoying what's familiar
• yesterday (at time of interview), went to this interesting restaurant specializing in exotic meats and had elk flank steak; chose the restaurant because it was highly rated and open when he was searching; found by searching Google for restaurants in San Diego (was in the area for work)

• because he travels for work, he doesn't have much downtime on travel, so he says, "I feel like the best way to experience the location I'm traveling to in a condensed timeline is, well, food" (9:50)
• usually looks for good restaurants/eateries to try on the day he lands, then makes a list of options to choose from during his time in the area
• chooses places mostly based on photos; not looking for anything in particular (also looks at reviews, since "the reviews do offer some reference, but they're not always accurate"; usually doesn't spend too much time looking closely at specific review comments)
• what kinds of photos make you really want to try a place? --> presentation; he looks at signature dishes, dishes that look aesthetically pleasing; also looks at menus
• spends a couple minutes looking at photos for each restaurant; usually just trying to get a feel of the place, sometimes it's a specific dish he wants to try
• doesn't share much about his food exploration; mainly takes photos of dishes that look pretty and saves them

• sometimes has conversations with co-workers about food; mostly small talk, discussing what they cook or bake; occasionally exchange recipes (sent friend an ice cream recipe), but sounds pretty rare
• conversations are more on the general scope of what people are eating (i.e. stir fry, cookies, etc.)
• is somewhat curious about what other people are eating, mainly because he thinks it would help with his eating habits
• when he hear what someone eats regularly, he might also think "do they look healthy" and keep that in mind
• had a co-worker who was very fit, and apparently he only ate one meal a day, although that meal was said to be very protein heavy
• would be interested in a feed with health suggestions on recipes, general, diet/eating habits
• would be less interested in the eating habits of family or friends
• main reasons for following food-related content are either health-related or driven by curiosity (i.e. about travel)
• interested in both local restaurants (where to go if he doesn't want to cook) and new recipes to try (what to do if he wants to cook)
• does not know much about where others go out to eat, although sometimes people bring it up, since it is good office small talk

• (significance of food) Japanese curry always takes him back; reminds him of home
• he goes out of his way to use the same curry blocks that his mom used growing up at home; they taste good, and it's familiar (there's a sense of home, and it hits the spot when he misses childhood)

• comments on Reddit posts every now and then, including on the food-related subreddits
• there was a time when someone posted "first time making a burger, how did I do?" with a picture, and a bunch of people noticed it looked a little raw; he thought it was funny that someone posted the Gordon Ramsay "it's rawwww" GIF; he posted a very informative reply comment offering some bullet points listing some tips for next time
• most of his cooking knowledge comes from Google, some lived experience
• enjoys reading comments on food posts (Gordon Ramsay GIF was a favorite one!)
• reasons for choosing reddit over another platform: it's more topic-focused then most other social media; also more anonymity
• main reason for using social media is to get information; not really interested in people's personal lives or random things out in the world, and he thinks Reddit matches those needs better
• has Reddit on his phone ("much to my detriment"), and whenever he is idling, if he has internet connection, he will probably be scrolling on Reddit or looking through Google News ("those are the two ways I prefer to waste my time" xD)
• he just looks at the Reddit feed, and because he is subscribed to food-related stuff, food content pops up
• also subscribed to topics on video games, politics (has to be careful not to fall into rabbit holes, in which case he unsubscribes/mutes)
• does not turn on notifications for Reddit, ("it's how I waste time; I don't live to use Reddit")
• in his experience Reddit is a fairly even mix photos, photo galleries, video, and just text
• food-content skews more photos-heavy
• what posts seem more popular in food? --> pictures of very delicious-looking and nicely arranged food, usually asking for feedback (and they tend to get phrased)
• Reddit does have labels to help sort through posts; some food-related labels are "I made," "I ate," or questions-related
• for r/cooking, most posts are "I made"
• most posts he sees are people showing off cooking skills (mostly home-cooking, but some people make restaurant dishes at home)

• is mostly interested in at-home cooking posts; he finds restaurant posts less relevant because they are usually not at a nearby location
• for at-home cooking, sometimes people post the recipe, and if they do, he saves the recipe; does so by copying the recipe text (either recipe text in the post or text instructions/ingredients from a recipe linked in the post; does not save much from the actual Reddit post itself)
• if there is no recipe included, he moves on

Interview 1 Summary ​

 As an adventurous person who has a need to cook often, the interviewee seems to prefer food inspo content. He mostly interacts with food online by scrolling through ideas and then saving recipes to try. I was surprised that he was not interested in bonding with individuals over food, since I do personally connect food with memories of places or specific meals I have had with friends or family. Nonetheless, it was also interesting that his choices sounded very practical, and he had an interest in exploring foods that I do not usually have in mind. Based on this, I wonder if a food inspo page with options to filter by tags might be a useful feature to incorporate in an app design.
 I also found the conversation about healthy eating habits surprising. The interviewee was very candid about the fact that thinking about food habits (with regard to other people as well as himself) makes him conscious about health, and he might make choices or inferences based on what appears healthy. This was unexpected because health was not at all a consideration I had when I first had the idea of food-related app, and it does raise concerns to consider for design (i.e. should people have a degree of privacy or protection over food choices? could some content be triggering to those with eating disorders? while many aspects would likely be inspiring, could food-centric social media create particular negative interactions between users?).
 Lastly, there was a part of the interview that emphasized how food content can be entertaining. Specifically, the interviewee mentioned a funny post where commentors gently made fun of a Reddit r/cooking post with the Gordon Ramsay "it's rawwwwww" GIF. Thinking of the post and quoting it made both me and the interviewee laugh for a bit, and the interaction has led me to consider another approach to food social media based on cooking and interactive feedback.

Interview 2 Report ​

Interview 2 Notes ​

• interviewee info: 55 years old, senior software engineer, lives in SF Bay Area
• mostly uses computer/PC, sometimes phone
• uses Google Chat, Line, Facebook, each with different groups/purpose
• also uses YouTube
• rarely uses Twitter or Instagram ("younger generation")

• uses social media mostly as a news resource or for entertainment (i.e. free movies)
• follows some Youtubers for different topics (i.e. financial, news, social event critique)
• does see a lot of food content, mentions Food Network
• sees a lot of people sharing cooking online (various cultures/cuisines)
• some channels share restaurants or vlogs about travels/food

• never posts anything online; is more of a media consumer/watcher
• does share food-related content with friends (i.e. links to good restaurants)
• first, he tries a restaurant himself, then if it's good, he shares the place with friends (i.e. sending a photo of what he ate)
• shares lots of small things with friends (i.e. cool gadgets, other small things)
• when people share something good with him, he may not look into it right away; instead, he might look back a few weeks later to go back and find it
• chat interactions happen quite often, so if it's just a few days, it's easy to go back and find something, but if it's a week or more, it is difficult

• shares things over social media a few times a week
• things used to be sent over email, but now with social media, people can easily take a picture and share
• uses different platforms for distinct purposes (email --> on PC, primarily work-related; social apps --> on the phone, photo sharing with friends)
• at different times of the day, uses different devices/apps (at work --> PC, after work --> phone)

• 90% eats at home, 10% eats out
• routinely eats salad, and then cooks other dishes
• chooses dishes primarily based on health; is not diabetic but likely pre-diabetic, so makes sure to eat greens and limit carbs
• meal choices are largely based on experiences of his wife, who is diabetic; she did a lot of research into healthy meal choices and they adapt the advice into their diet
• eating out is a treat; they don't need to cook, but it is also harder to have control of diet for those meals
• before the pandemic, they would try new restaurants more often, but now they mostly stick to their favorite places (since most new places haven't been very good lately)
• when trying new places, usually hears from friends, neighbors, social media

• does not pay much attention to what strangers eat
• "Social media is like everything in your life. It's like everything in everyone's life" (18:57)
• many restaurants use social media to promote their businesses (i.e. Youtube ads)
• most of his friends are like him in that they hear about things from social media
• at his age, he is more focused on his diet/health, so he does not focus much on what others are eating; he mainly shares healthy habits and foods with friends (share how they eat healthy)
• much of this comes up during social group interactions/small talk

• is both curious about new restaurants and new recipes to try sometimes; if something catches his mind, he keeps it in the back of his mind and tries it later (for example, recently he saw a special recipe for Mediterranean-style chicken, but he hasn't had a chance to try it)
• when he sees things he wants to try, he saves it in his "favorites" list (uses both bookmarks and Youtube favorites/folders)
• is an organized person, so he has separate folders for different categories of saved content (i.e. food to try, restaurants to try, fun things to try, hiking trails to try)
• for food-related folders, he has 15-20 links in each folder (sometimes, he will keep links in the list even after trying them)
• when he needs to do clean up in the links, he usually deletes stuff he did not like and saves stuff he did like to another folder

• food is a pretty large part of his life; he likes cooking and spends a lot of time cooking and eating food
• his social group does potlucks often; people often praise his cooking 😄 so they talk about food there
• cooks from family memory; mom's cooking has a strong influence on his cooking;
• as an engineer, he also likes to experiment, so some of his cooking is his own creativity
• his mom's cooking is from her mom, so it is family tradition
• when he was young, unless he was out playing with friends, he would watch how she cooked and be her "food taster"
• connected with his father over food; whenever they go out together (i.e. a trip or going to a new place), he shares a secret something that he thinks is "the best in town" (i.e. Asian-style pork chop burger)
• says that food is a connection for a lot things, connects him to his mom, his dad, his friends
• when he was a kid, he would be waiting for lunchtime during class

• as a kid, he ate mostly his mom's cooking, but starting from college, he ate at more because he had more of a social life
• before college, he was very busy studying for Taiwan exams, so he did not have time to eat out
• started cooking more once he started graduate school in the U.S.
• would carpool with friends to go grocery shopping, then cook individually
• shared cooking sometimes but not often (prefers his own cooking)
• everyone in college had a different food background

Interview 2 Summary ​

 The second interviewee also had a passion for cooking and some curiosity about eating out, although he shares his food experiences with friends more often via chats. Apart from exchanging photos and restaurant recommendations with friends, the interviewee stated that he often encounters food-related media in the form of promotional content or vlogs. In addition, like the first interviewee, he had a means of saving content of interest (bookmarks and YouTube favorites). Based on this, I think an important design consideration would be some type of customization feature for labelling and saving posts of interest. I was also surprised when the interviewee said that "social media is like everything in your life; it's like everything in everyone's life." I would expect that to be true of most people my age or a little older, but it struck me that social media has become so ingrained in the lives of people at all ages by this point, even if you are not an active user or do not post publicly.
  In addition, I thought the conversation about the interviewee growing up with his mom's cooking and being her designated "food taster" was touching, and I did not expect the interviewee's current cooking to have such strong roots in childhood memories even 50 years later. This came up briefly in the first interview as well, and I feel that food can have such strong ties to memories and emotions, especially in childhood, yet I know very little about the foods most of my friends grew up eating. Consequently, I wonder if a way of sharing the feelings or memories we relate to certain dishes or recipes might be a feature of interest.
  Lastly, I found it interesting that health came up again in this interview (unprompted), this time as a consideration due to the interviewee's age and lived experience. The interviewee mentioned that his wife needed to do significant research to find health advice that worked for them, and I wonder if a food-centric social media app might make this process easier for others in the future. However, this could potentially introduce risks of misinformation related to food-content, and there would likely be concerns over how suggestions for food-related content should be generated.

Design Opportunities ​

Opportunity 1 ​

Saving Content - This design opportunity would involve a method for saving content to be revisited, including methods for organizing or categorizing saved content, which both interviewees said they did regularly with food-related content. Would it be useful to incoprorate tags/labels? Should filtering be a tool? What labels would be relevant, and should they be pre-determined or customizable? Should users be able to change existing tags or add new ones (publically or privately)?

Opportunity 2 ​

Managing Levels of Privacy - Not sure if this is the best name for this, but the idea is that it would probably be useful for some users to distinguish between their own posts, friends, and public content. I would like to explore the best way to design this for a food-related app. For example, users might prefer to have an inspo page with recommended public posts, a separate interface for posts or messages from friends, and another page for organizing their own created or liked content. Is there a concern of food-related content revealing sensitive information about people (i.e. restaurant choices revealing location)?

Opportunity 3 ​

Supported Content Types - This opportunity encompasses the types of content that may be created by users. What content can users post (i.e. drawings, stickers, images, text, video, title/captions, a combination of the above)? What format(s) of posts are allowed? What level of customization is supported in terms of layout or required elements on a single post? Should users be able to post at all, or is content brought in from the internet/other platforms? Can users create a profile? Should there be content warnings? From the interviews, photos are a common media type for food, and vlogs may also be enjoyable.

Opportunity 4 ​

Interactive Features - This design opportunity relates to how users will be able to interact with each other on the platform. How can users interact with each other? Can people reply to or comment on posts? Can they message each other? Should there be likes/upvotes?