To begin my research, I first did digging into the meaning of the title, "Foodie." A 2020 Forbes article describes a foodie as a person who seeks “to inspire and nourish not just their bodies, but also their hearts, their conscience and their minds.” For many food-lovers, eating is not just a means of survival, it's a purposeful and full experience. These days, many foodies are looking to learn from their food as well. They want to discover new flavors and experiment with nutritional alternatives to classic dishes. With the turn of the pandemic, many have also become house-chefs. They're going out and bringing back recipes they want to recreate at home.

Considering this, I delegated tasks to each of my team members and had them interview food-lovers in their community. My goal was to observe and understand the behaviors and patterns of foodies from various backgrounds. In total we interviewed 10 users, ranging from age 20 to 38, and had them complete 3-4 tasks for usability testing as well as answer some follow-up questions. 

01 Usability Tasks using Yelp

• Search for a coffee shop within 10 miles of your current location

• Search for a new restaurant you would like to try 

• Add this new restaurant to a "bucketlist" on the Yelp

• Post a review for a restaurant

02 Interview Follow-up Questions

• Search for a coffee shop within 10 miles of your current location

• Search for a new restaurant you would like to try 

• Add this new restaurant to a "bucketlist" on the Yelp

• Post a review for a restaurant

Our Findings

Through these interviews we confirmed our suspicion that most food-lovers were turning to friends for recommendations rather than apps like Yelp or Google. When they do turn to apps like Yelp, it's to look at product pictures and menu items. For a majority of our interviewees, photos play a crucial role in determining whether or not a restaurant is worth visiting.