Sorcerer's Apprentice | Dana Dellus-Neeman

Sorcerer's Apprentice

Subscription boxes to learn baking

conceptual project

Why?

What?

A subscription service to teach you how to bake. A monthly box with all the ingredients pre-measured to make a baked good from scratch. Each month learn a new technique, encounter a new ingredient, or just perfect a recipe. It's all made easy with as the box has everything you need.

During these hard times when we're compelled to stay home a lot (because of the covid-19 pandemic) a lot of people have started new hobbies, among them is cooking and baking in particular. As a baking lover, I asked myself how to encourage someone who never baked but wants to very much to take that first daunting step and set foot in the kitchen. I was very inspired by similar services abroad (such as Hello Fresh and Blue Apron) and wondered how come they were non existent in Israel. Combining the two and creating a monthly subscription box in order to learn baking seemed like a great solution.

Personas

Limor Gamzo

Age: 32

Marital status: married with two children

Lives in Rosh Haayin, Israel

Limor is a young mother of two young children. She works in human resources for a tech company. Time is a rare commodity for her, but every once in a while she loves to have a homemade cake or cookie, especially during the weekend. She sticks to a basic recipe or two that she knows works, but never ventured outside her comfort zone and never really experimented with baking. She doesn't have the time, she doesn't have the patience and she's afraid of failing and wasting ingredients. She wished she had more time and confidence to try new things. She's jealous of her friends and other moms who can whip up a delicious tart or browny easily. But her biggest regret and sore point is that she wishes she could make her childrens' birthday cakes by herself (instead of buying them).

During the pandemic she's been desperate to find new ways to keep her children from watching so much television and is looking for new creative ways to entertain them during those long confinement weeks. Since she now has more time than usual, she thought about baking with her children but is still nervous about new recipes (and mess). Baking blogs seem to show only the easy parts, and when she does try a recipe from a blog it never looks like the pictures, which only discourages her.

Inbal Shalom

Age: 26

Marital status: living with her boyfriend of two years

Lives in Ramat Gan, Israel

Inbal lives in Ramat Gan with her boyfriend and dog, she works as a junior graphic designer in a marketing firm. She loves her work but also loves her free time during the weekend when she can unwind and relax, often going back to her parents (or her boyfriend's) for the weekend. She loves to cook and has a subscription to the New York Times just because of the cooking section. Together with her boyfriend, they will cook dinner together and try new recipes they see on social media, blogs, and chef cookbooks. They love to try new things and will often go out to eat, trying new places. She loves cooking utensils shops and will have a hard time leaving one empty-handed.

Inbal also loves baking, and will bake ahead of weekends, especially when she goes for a friday night dinner with either of their families. She loves to impress and has been wondering how to take her baking skill up to another level. She knows the difference between baking powder and baking soda, and what's the difference between whole grain flour and regular one. She wants to challenge herself a little with new techniques and learn to bake harder and more complex recipes and keep surprising her family. She also loves bragging about her creations on social media, and will regularly post instagram stories.

Inbal is very passionate about sustainable living and cares very much about the environment. She recycles everything she can, taking the time to wash all the plastic food containers before placing them in the recycling bin. She always has a reusable bag in her backpack and uses only a reusable water bottle. She eats red meat moderately, as she is aware of the carbon footprint created by the meat industry. She also just switched to compostable poop bags for her dog. She hates the overuse of plastic, especially in the food industry, and wishes more companies made the effort to switch to reusable containers.

Existing user narrative

User crave something sweet, but have no idea how to make it.

Desired user narrative

User sign up for a subscription box.

Survey

To further understand potential users I did a survey within my close circle. These are the results:

92%

Say they cook with their phones or tablets next to them if they are trying a new recipe.

78%

Said that the recipes online are often misleading or look easier than they actually are.

84%

Would try a subscription box for baking.

45%

45% of users say they would add more recipes to their box if they were given the chance.

64.5%

64.5 % of users say they would rather watch a video than follow written steps.

Conclusions

1. The subscription boxes should be divided by difficulty. From new baker, moderate baker and expert baker, so that everyone has a box.

2. The recipe page should accompany the user through the baking process, anticipating everything they could potentially need. The design should be friendly and clean in order not to intimidate the user.

3. The tone of the recipes and other information on the site should be unofficial, friendly and direct.

4. Provide ample support by showcasing photos of other people's results on the page, and inviting users to participate in live events. That in order to create a sense of community.

5. Users want to have as much instructions they get (written step by step and video). It's really helpful to see (videos) and be able to read text.

6. To further accompany the users and encourage them to bake more, a selection of seasonal recipes and special occasion recipes is to be available to add to their next box.

Photography inspiration

Introducing the website

Welcome to the recipe page!

Collapsable text

Important text can sometimes obstruct the image, so each text boxes are collapsible and expandable.

Instead of waiting out the whole video to re-watch just one step, users can use the timestamp in the title of each step to jump to that chapter in the video.

Timestamp

Classic recipe

Don't fancy the long road? The step by step instructions? Feeling a little short on patience? I got you, go ahead and skip to the shortened recipe. Users can download it or add it to another app (i.e.a grocery app or google keep).

Mobile Screens

More recipe screens

The recipe page is designed to be a calm space where users can casually scroll through the steps of the recipe.

Extra help

Some of us users need a little extra help when it comes to chopping, peeling or generally treating a produce. I've designed little built in tooltips to help users along the way.

More recipes

In need of a birthday cake? Want to have a baked treat for the weekend? Check out our 'more recipes' and simply add a recipe to your monthly box.

We also go live!

Still don't get the recipe? The meringue doesn't look like the picture? No problem, register to a live baking event and bake alongside one of our professionals.