University of Michigan School of Information SI 429 — designing an online community

munch logo

A social media app for anyone interested in cooking to explore, gather, and share recipes.

Role

Creating & pitching an online community

Collaborators

2 teammates, both UX students as well

Tools

Google docs, Figma

Tools

09/2023 - 12/2023

Background

“Munch is a social media app for anyone interested in cooking to explore, gather, and share recipes.”

Our team was tasked with designing an online community, one that we could potentially create and people would actually use. We created both the social and technical features of the site, including how they interacted to produce the processes we wanted to encourage.

Design

🍇 Munch aims to encourage education, participation, and engagement of our community via user-generated recipes, shopping lists, and other social interface features.

🤳🏼 Replicating the theory of “peer production,” this volunteer-based content strategy will entice users to build a strong internal structure on the platform. Following the design and user experience trends of popular applications such as Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter), this community-centered content creation approach introduces a low barrier to entry for potential users.

🍴 Initial membership to Munch is free

🍴 Premium Subscription (Munch Plus+):

  • Extra features for full-time content creators.

  • Incentives for engagement, monetary rewards via Creator Fund, and sponsored collaborations.

  • Appeal for average users seeking proximity to favorite content creators or psychological rewards.

“ Munch can be a stage where influencers shine with their popular recipes, or simply a personal cookbook where one can compile their favorite dishes.”

User Scenarios

👵🏼 Betty’s kids don’t visit very often now that they’ve had their own kids, and it gets lonely in the house. They used to love her home-cooked meals, and Betty misses the days of finding fulfillment in keeping their little bellies full. Thankfully, these days Betty can still find satisfaction in sharing her food – with her followers on Munch, who fills the comment sections beneath her recipes with warm support. She’s not only sharing recipes, though. With Thanksgiving around the corner, Betty has been getting busy scouring her explore page for dishes that will delight her grandchildren.

🏃🏻‍♂️ Last month, James began noticing that his physical exhaustion was at an all time high. He decided to do an in-depth review of his diet and realized that his body is typically being fueled by Monsters and fast food. James recognized that as time intensive as his new job is, he still needed to take care of his health. Luckily, James came across the Munch application. For the past few weeks, James has been scouring Munch for meals

Competitive Anlysis

Pepper

  • Similar to Munch with a homepage featuring an infinitely scrollable feed of food from followed creators.

  • Lacks messaging, making it less suitable for building connections.

  • Inferior to Munch in both social and cooking dimensions.

Cookpad

  • Constant promotion of premium subscription.

  • Non-subscribers face limitations, such as only being able to save 60 recipes.

  • Lack of accessibility tags, messaging, and comprehensive catalog feature.

  • Provides an incomplete and unpleasant user experience.

Kitchen Stories

  • Not designed for sharing passion or gaining a following.

  • Limited professional content and community-generated recipes.

  • Professionalism in content comes at the cost of community engagement.

  • Munch is more community-centered and appealing for users interested in sharing and scrolling.

Mockups