The Knorr ‘Chefmade’ project is a digital initiative to promote sustainable alternatives to everyday foods and raise public awareness of sustainable consumption through Knorr's products. Knorr partnered with a series of chefs and restaurants, creating sustainable set menus, content and dining experiences for users using Knorr's approved ingredients.
The project was unique as it straddled the line between native product and web ad campaign. As UI and Product designer on the team, I worked with a CX designer on the native app, the web app, and the digital campaign hub. My innvolvement included the content strategy for the apps and hub, and how this content was integrated into the native experience.
The digital experiences had to be tailor-made to their environments, exist inside the Knorr brand, and perform as usable apps and conversion tools for the campaign. The apps and campaign hub also needed to house the campaign content and champion Knorr's sustainable ethos on all touchpoints, providing insight into sustainability and helping address consumer behaviours towards food sustainability.
Based on the content strategy, create synchronised native and web apps that allow users to browse and book dining experiences based on location, cuisine, popularity and availability. Create a cross-platform hub to house content related to the Knorr sustainability initiative, integrating the content into each touchpoint organically.
Campaign Hub
The initial launch and traffic point of the campaign was the web portal, a site that housed both the web booking platform and campaign content hub. This content related to sustainable ingredients, Knorr recipes, Chef insights, and the food industry's sustainability efforts.
Native App
We were aware early on that users wouldn’t be using the app and campaign hub consistently, and that the end-to-end user journey wouldn’t be linear. Users on the campaign hub had differing expecations to users who downloaded the app, therefore the USP of this app would need to deliver based on these unique needs.
The native app consolidated the campaign hub's content and booking platform into a mobile first environment and content format. We focused on perceived user journeys and motivations, treating each piece of content (an interview, recipe, or list) as a potential touchpoint on the journey to make bookings depending on users motivations.
From recipe book to platform
By pivoting away from Knorr’s text-heavy design to a lighter, photographic layout we made the experience of browsing and finding inspiration much more intuitive. In testing, we saw users spent more time engaging the app, viewed and downloaded more content and booked quicker after the new imagery style was introduced. The brand pivot is filtering into the global Knorr platform due to its success.
Exploring on the go
The team and I focused on making it as easy as possible find places through the app by extending the filtering systems and giving access to curated lists from the content hub through the search function. We designed tools to allow users a variety of discovery routes, and focused on making each search flow as efficient and organic as possible.
Bespoke booking experiences
Unique interfaces were created based on focus group tests for the two booking. Repeating design patterns and information hierarchy created a base level of visual consistency. This allowed us to focus on creating interfaces that were optimised to each booking platform. The app also allowed for booking management, meaning it was completely self-sufficient from the web platform.
By balancing Chefmades business needs and digital priorities, the team and I successfully created a product and campaign that balanced content strategy, conversion, and users requirements in two distinct yet connected platforms. The exploration and digital standards we created during the design phases have also left Knorr with a deep resource pool to improve it’s digital design standards, brand storytelling, and technical capabilities.
The platforms have been well received by both stakeholders and focus groups, and are currently on course for a limited release with test restaurants and beta users.
If you have a new project, opportunity or are in need of some digital design assistance, I would love to hear from you. Just fill out the form below to get in touch and I’ll get back to you pronto!
If you're interested in following my latest escapades, or are just in the mood for a good old stalk, here are the social channels you will find me on.
