OVENHOOD
Micro bakers often find challenges with connecting with customers to sell their products and be a part of a community to support each other. They are always looking out for opportunities to participate in local events/markets to increase their presence, gain some sales and acquire new customers. However, they lack ways to keep themselves informed about such upcoming events/markets. Also, there is no such platform yet, that helps them directly connect with potential customers, manage orders & delivery, share their personal journeys as well as support other local bakers. All of this is not only keeping them away from expanding their customer base but also prevents them from being part of a community where they can exchange advice, build confidence, and share knowledge with fellow bakers.
Scope: Research and design
Role: UX Researcher/ Designer
Duration: 14 weeks
Tools:
Problem Finding
Baking has been really popular ever since the Corona virus hit the world. A lot of people lost their jobs and started their own personal business after discovering their talents in baking. In no time, baking became one of the most popular and fast growing trends.
Even though it is so popular and people love bakeries and love to support small businesses, they also do not always know how to reach them. Also, the bakers themselves do not know how to communicate with each other and to get higher reach to sell.
And based on that we have found our problem space mentioned above.
we started digging deeper into the problem space to have a clearer and more focused perceptive about the problem. So we started by using The Methodkit Building Blocks and Product Development.
Methodkit Building Blocks
Timeline
Methodkit Product Development
We started the research process by doing a mini competitive analysis/ market research to see what is out there similar to our idea and what they are doing good and what is not working.
This part of research helped us to learn from others mistakes and to not copy any existing product. It also helped us create a clearer idea on the features we want that will address the solution we want to create.
The main questions we have asked them:
How did you start your business?
Tell us more about your journey and how you dealt with any hardships?
How did you reach where you are now?
What system do you use to advertise yourself or manage orders?
If you have a magical wand, what would you change in your experience?
The JM won’t be shown here.
We have created a journey map that is divided to 5 stages:
1. Dreaming Big 2. Getting Started 3. Facing the chaos 4. Seeking Solutions 5. Thriving
Part of this journey map is what's happening to most of the bakers/ users we are targeting. It is not in depth because this is the headlines they go through but deep inside each have their own journey and struggles. This is why the application we are trying to build is wide and offering so many features to accommodate all needs for all bakers/ users.
We have added Ovenhood to our journey map in hopes of creating a perfect experience after all of the hardships our target audience is facing.
Secondary Research
Our timeline is only for 13 weeks from the beginning of brainstorming and trying to find a problem that it is also a trend to solve.
Through these 13 weeks we have done the concept development, we have done research and went out to talk to people, and of course we have started designing the initial ideas we have and iterating them to have a final product of our main features.
This is not the final timeline though, we will continue working on this project to create the full experience for the baker and the customer, and do usability testing at some point so we can have a full solution to bring to life.
Research
Secondary and primary research.
Secondary Research
The primary research method we used is interviews to talk to real life bakers who has businesses that either bloomed and now is successful, or bakers who unfortunately had to shut down their business, because the lack of information or the lack of support.
we started this process by going to the street and asking small bakeries if we can talk to the owner or have a phone call with them, and we ended up interviewing 3 bakers, two in person and one was a phone call.
We also tried to reach out to most of the business owners on social media in hopes of having an interview with them, and we were lucky enough to meet with someone who we have tried their desserts before.
Our interview process lasted for 3 days and we have interviewed 4 people to get a glimpse of their stories.
Micro bakers face significant challenges in gaining visibility, managing customer interactions, and expanding their businesses due to the lack of a centralized platform. They rely heavily on multiple channels and social media, which often fail to provide consistent engagement or sales opportunities. Additionally, there is no dedicated space to gain community support or share experiences with fellow bakers, leaving them isolated in a competitive industry.
And therefore, this highlights the need for a solution that helps bakers connect with customers easily, manage their orders efficiently, and grow through support from a community of fellow bakers.
The problem understanding process includes:
Affinity Diagramming . Persona . Journey Map . Concept Mapping . Brainstorming on research analysis . User Flow
After conducting interviews with four micro bakers, we took the time to carefully analyse the collected data to uncover insights. To do this, we used sticky notes and a colour-coding method, which allowed us to group similar responses, identify patterns, and form key themes. This collaborative approach helped us organize our findings into actionable insights.
Through this process, we identified five critical areas that can highly contribute to the growth of micro bakers' businesses and sales:
Knowledge-Based Content
Personalization
Marketing and Sales
Quality
Finance
This concept map gave us a clear and structured view of the entire problem space, user needs, and potential solutions.
It helped us organize information, outline the challenges micro bakers face (eg. visibility, order management, and lack of community) and also provided a clear direction for designing features that address the critical areas (knowledge-based content, personalization, marketing and sales, quality, and finance).
Taking into account all the analysis we obtained from affinity diagramming and concept map, we brainstormed further to explore and define the features and functions of the platform we planned to build. This process involved further analyzing the challenges faced by micro bakers and identifying opportunities to address their needs.
Persona
Concept mapping: just an overview
Concept mapping: Brainstorming/ Sketching
Primary Research
Problem Understanding
Affinity Diagramming
Journey Map
Concept Mapping
After creating the concept mapping we have created three user flows to highlight the user’s interaction with three different features.
User Flow
In this stage, we built on the insights we gained from the analysis and brainstorming to design the platform. We started by creating a clear Information Architecture that organized the platform’s structure, ensuring a smooth experience. We then made sketches and low-fi wireframes to explore design ideas and improve them step by step. Also, we created mood boards to gather inspirations and decide on the visual style of the platform. Finally, we designed hi-fi wireframes that brought our platform to life, combining all the functionality and features into a polished design.
This approach helped us to design a solution that truly meets the needs of micro bakers.
Problem Solving
We created these mood boards to gather ideas and inspirations for the application’s mood, appearance, colours, fonts and logo.
This helped us to come up with ideas for our final designs and set a visual style for the application on mobile and web.
Mood boards
Sketches.
High Fidelity Wireframes
Mobile Wireframes
Login
Community/ Social aspect
Orders
Desktop Wireframes
Shop
Profile
Welcome to OvenHood, a place where bakers and their stories come to life. “It’s your oven, your story—so bake it beautifully!”
OvenHood is a one-stop platform for bakers to share their passion, grow their bakery business, and connect with a community that supports and celebrates them.
Moments from our research journey
This project showed me that you can really turn passion into something real! I have always been obsessed with baking and getting this opportunity to combine art, design and baking into one project has been a great privilege.
