Standard recipes do not give their readers access knowledge on how abstract food's properties (AFPs) interact with each other.
As part of a school project at Carleton, we wanted to know if the process of modifying recipes could be improved, to reduce user task burden through display of AFPs (taste, texture, smell, consistency, etc.) and AFP information?
To find out, we designed an experiment to test user's ability to modify a recipe based on their existing knowledge. And we tested wether or not the presented interface of the recipe helps their confidence and knowledge throughout the activity.
We gave participants two chocolate cookies, baked from different recipes. And then we presented them with one out of 3 different interfaces:
We asked participants to attempt to modify the given recipe (recipe of first cookie), so that it matches the recipe of the second cookie. We them tested their confidence levels and knowledge on AFPs.
We believed that providing AFP information would increase user confidence and their ability to make changes to a recipe by reducing their mental workload.
We were inspired by the work of Kenji López-Alt, who created a comprehensive guide to modifying cookie recipes, one variable at a time.“The Food Lab: The Science of the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies”
If you are interested in this research, you can download our full work here.
