User Feedback Report

User Feedback Report of “Hearty Meals”

-by Joni, Gizelle, & Janna

Reflections on Preparing for Testing

Goals for User-Testing

Going into testing, we hope to get useful feedback about our Hearty Meals delivery system. Our group aims to learn how (and why) the user chooses recipes and the process of how the user orders online then receives the package.

What we want our users to accomplish to help us learn

Our users will accomplish the tasks of opening a delivery package and preparing the meal. The users will also evaluate our recipe cards and educational information. With this initial user testing, we are unable to simulate the process of coordinating with a social worker prior to discharge from a hospital. After testing with our user we would like to ask evaluation questions regarding our prototype, which include:

-How was the process of ordering Hearty Meals?

-How was the delivery and packaging of Hearty Meals?

-Were the recipes simple and easy to follow?

-Were the ingredients separated and labeled?

-Is the “sodium intake graph” understandable?

-Did it help you understand your daily sodium limit?

-How long did it take to create a meal?

-How did it taste?

-Were the CHF daily cards useful?

-Do the users keep the CHF daily cards and Recipe cards?

-Do they just throw them away?

-Where do they keep them?

Finding our users

Since we were unable to use our prototype with a CHF patient, we chose a pair of our parents to try out a Hearty Meals package.

Reflections on Testing

Prototype Assumptions

Our assumptions in creating the “Hearty Meals” prototype were that it would assist in helping our users have access to a healthy, low-sodium meal and would alleviate trips to the grocery store. We want to see if users find our prototype to be useful and educational. The goal is to make heart healthy dieting easier for the typical CHF patient, therefore improving self-management at home. For this prototype, we are unable to provide an actual delivery system where an order is processed and created, therefore, our focus is on how the user chooses meals with our heart healthy menu and the presentation of the actual package.

Testing Our Audience

The CHF audience which we had initially interviewed were actual patients admitted in the hospital. Since we were unable to follow up with them regarding a meal delivery, we used our prototype with our parents for user-testing. Although they are not CHF patients, they were closer in age to the average CHF patient. These users can still benefit from having a heart healthy diet.

Prototype Difficulties

We did not find anything specific that our participants had any difficulty with or got stuck on. They found the recipe instructions simple and straightforward. Since we could not create an order processing system, the users did not get to experience submitting an order. The users can still choose recipes and place it in a “cart”, but the “online ordering” feature was disabled for this prototype. It still does not prevent our users from receiving a Hearty Meals package.

Did you come across any people on the extreme ends of the spectrum, who either avoid anything related to do with your project's medium (going to the hospital, using a smartphone, going online, etc.) or , on the other end, people who have developed their own hacks for the problem?

We were only able to use one of the group members’ parents for user testing due to difficulties in scheduling. The parents were open to going through the process of choosing recipes and preparing meals. Due to the small test user sample size, we were not able to retrieve more opinions for the prototype. Also, the users were one of the group members’ parents, which could lead to biased opinions.

Was there any common experiences or opinions that stood out?

Both users seemed to be happy with the simplicity of the recipe and education cards. The users found it easy to prepare the meal and kept the recipe and education cards in their kitchen. The users also found the sodium content card interesting.

Do you still think your medium (app, website, product, space design, etc.) is effective?

Food delivery services like Hearty Meals offer many benefits, including nutritious meals for seniors that can be catered to meet their specific dietary and nutrition needs. In this situation, a low salt diet is necessary for CHF patients. The meal delivery will help CHF patients from exerting too much energy when they grocery shopping and allow them to spend more time with their families at home.

User Testing Summary

Delivering the Meal

We explained to our testers that Hearty Meals’ mission is “to make incredible home cooking with food low in sodium accessible to CHF patients” by delivering locally sourced ingredients for dinner to your doorstep. We explained to our testers that we would evaluate Hearty Meals’ service experience, from delivery through meal preparation. For our user testing, participants walked us through the unboxing of ingredients and reflected on how their dishes turned out.

Unboxing the Meal

We simulated a delivery to the users. They eagerly opened their boxes, which we had pre-prepared. Each ingredient was portioned to the amount needed in the recipe. As they pulled out one ingredient after the other, they referred to the included instruction card to make sure they understood what they were looking at. They felt it was nice to see the nutritional information and the information about sodium. They were not aware of the daily sodium limits. Although it took one parent a minute to understand, they felt it was helpful to visualize the sodium level of the meal. They suggested to perhaps have a picture of how much sodium was permitted per meal.

Cooking the Meal

About 30 minutes later, our users successfully completed cooking their meals. They were proud in the resemblance between their completed dish and the photo in the instructions. They felt the experience overall was a success.

Looking Ahead

Future Changes

After our user testing we decided to make a few changes for our product. One big change that we are already developing is an online website for Hearty Meals. This will assist our customers in ordering food recipes on a weekly basis. It will also be the source that social workers can use to make arrangements for the patients before discharge.

Currently our recipe card has only written instructions. Another change that we may include is having step by step pictures for our recipe instructions.

For this user testing, we simply put the required ingredients together in a package. For our final product, we will individually seal each ingredient with a label specifying what it is and its measurement.

We have thought about incorporating a reward program or points system for customers who order regularly from us. It would be a nice way to keep them engaged and continue with our service.

Suggestions we’re considering

As mentioned previously, one suggestion was to have a picture of how much sodium was permitted per meal. We will look into this as a possibility for our nutritional information cards. Another recent suggestion is for our users to answer quiz questions about CHF in order to receive a reward (free meal or discount).

Suggestions we may not consider

From the class feedback of our Prototype presentation, one of the suggestions was to collaborate with a grocery and supermarket in the community, where the particular patient lives. It was suggested for the customer to pick up pre-selected ingredients from their grocery store. However, this may not be a solution for us because one of the goals of Hearty Meals is for the convenience of having healthy food brought directly to the customer.

Are you confident you are solving the “right” problem?

Our group is confident that Hearty Meals is solving the right problem. Low salt diet aids in management of CHF patients, as eating the right diet plays a role in staying healthy, thus prevent hospital admission. It is a simple, yet effective way to improve self-management.

Future Rounds of Testing

Moving forward, we should have enough time to do another round of user testing before the end of the semester. We will conduct another round of planned iteration with the same test users.

Is it to work on your business model?

The next step for our group is to work on the business model. Hearty Meals as a meal delivery subscription that aim to make home cooking with foods low in sodium more accessible to CHF patients. Our focus is on our customers and suppliers. For the customers, service is convenient due to step-by-step recipes that are appropriate for beginners and experienced cooks. Menus change based on seasonal needs. For the supplier, Hearty Meals will create a distribution channel so food is local and fresh. Then develop distribution centers with refrigerated warehouse and packaging operations.