Joey Kuriga
1 21 Introduction Research & Data 3 25 What is SeeFood? Persona 13 27 Competitors 15 Packaging Marketing 29 Toolkit
F rom the moment I was born, my Grandmother has been with me. For almost every week of my life I’ve been seeing my Grandma Judy—but she could not see me. Judith Rothchild developed Behcet’s disease soon after she got married 64 years ago, which resulted in her being 100% blind. On every Sunday when my family and I visited her house, she would cook, play piano, knit, read, play board games, and do almost everything a sighted person would do. Being with her for 22 years up until she passed away has opened my eyes to the life of a blind person, and made me aware of the struggles they face in a world that does not cater to disabled people as much as able-bodied people. Seeing my Grandmother cook for my family every week and seeing the different tools she used got me thinking of ways I could make this experience easier for her. When there were instructions on packages, she had to get my Grandpa, me, or one of my parents to read it to her. Sometimes 1 packages would feel the same, and she would have to ask one of us for help once again. If she found a recipe, it would be impossible for her to follow some of the instructions. For example, if something said, “cook until golden brown” or “cook onions until translucent” how could she possibly know what the food looked like with every passing second? Also, she couldn’t really know when produce like fruits, vegetables, and dairy products would go bad. Sometimes when my family went over to her house, my mom would look in the fridge and see that the raspberries started to mold. My grandma would always respond with, “Well I had no idea!” These troubles my grandmother went through had me thinking of different solutions for an easier cooking experience in the kitchen.
Judith Rothchild 2
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Early concept SeeFood wasn’t always the concept it is today. In its early development, SeeFood was just the idea of braille recipe sheets. I then thought to myself, why not go farther? I wanted to do everything in my power to make the kitchen experience an easier as well as fun experience. Where is the fun in a plain old recipe sheet? Once a blind person is done reading the recipe sheet, then what? It doesn’t make the actual cooking experience any easier. They would still have to do everything else, like food shopping, prepping, using dangerous tools, and more. If you have everything you need already in front of you, it removes the boring and tedious part of preparing a meal, which leaves the fun part (the actual cooking) for the SeeFood buyer. Opening a visually pleasing box that comes in the mail is always exciting, no matter who you are. When an Amazon package arrives in the mail, it’s almost always an exciting treat. 5
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SeeFood’s competitors’ recipe sheets have very small print. On the cards they put in their kit, there are step-by-step instructions that are illustrated with styled photographs. For example, the front of HelloFresh’s cards have a photo of what the final meal should look like. Pictures are useful, but using mostly pictures and less type is not that helpful for a blind person trying to figure out how to do something without being able to see it. They may not be able to see, but they can read. Reading and listening are some of the most important things a blind person can do to gain information. On SeeFood’s recipe cards, there will be braille and very large type that will explain what to do in nice detail without being too wordy. There are even some packages within HelloFresh boxes that do not have any description or label. For example, a package of garlic can be seen, but there is no indication that it is garlic. The only way to figure out what that package contains is to feel it (it might be difficult to figure out that shape equals garlic) or look at it with your eyes. The other big companies do have the option to look at the recipe on a digital device, but SeeFood is the only meal kit that will have braille on the recipe cards and food packages. Some people, especially blind many people, are not that familiar with new technologies. Since SeeFood’s audience ranges from young adult to elderly, a lot of older people aren’t used to newage methods of getting information. SeeFood should be friendly towards everyone of every age group. SeeFood also makes sure that every ingredient and meal is easily distinguishable from everything else, so the user does not feel lost while trying to get everything prepared and separated. In the kitchen, a blind person could get two different packages confused, and accidentally use the wrong ingredient and ruin the entire meal. SeeFood will prevent that from happening. The braille and different feel of the packages will tell the user exactly what ingredient it is, what meal it is for, the expiration date, and on the back there will be the nutrition facts. 14
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Technology Apps and websites for blind people should be very simple to navigate. Some elements of other meal kits, such as navigating the app and sorting the ingredients, should be made easier for blind individuals. SeeFood’s website will have very large type, no distractions, and a built-in screen reader that will read everything aloud. The website and app can also use voice commands, for example, the website can ask how many days per week would you like to make a meal, and the customer can say the amount of days out loud. If a step in the instructions needs to be repeated, they can also use voice commands to ask the program to repeat a step. SeeFood’s highest priority is of course accessibility, and a headache-free experience that results in delicious food that a visually impaired individual can make themselves. Other companies, not just food companies, don’t often take accessibility into consideration. The world is full of people who may not be able bodied, and society needs to make sure that everyone is treated equally no matter what disability they may have. SeeFood will gladly welcome anyone. 20
When asked “If you could put together the perfect meal kit box, what elements would you include?” 52% of respondents chose to include “Different textured packages to differentiate them.” 52% sounds like a low number, but this specific question was a checkbox based question, not a yes or no question. So, it was actually the third most requested accommodation. The two other highest answers were “Ability to have the recipes be sent to your phone” and “Large type on recipes & packages” in that order. 21
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When asked “What is the easiest way for you to read information?” The two biggest answers were large type and screen reader/ audio. These results shaped SeeFood’s design to where it is today. All type related to SeeFood will be large to accomodate the visually impaired, and the recipes & instructions will be available to be heard through the app or website, with screen reader capability. 23
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PERSONA 25 The data collected while conducting surveys and interviews made a huge difference in the end result of SeeFood. It also helped form personas, which are made up people that represent SeeFood’s target audience. The first persona created was Brooke Jones. Brooke is a 31 year old woman with low vision. She wants to be able to cook for her friends and partner, but she has some trouble trying to figure out how to get organized and get started. Some of her goals include wanting to be able to cook a meal with the least amount of trouble and stress, and she wants to try new things. Brooke is a younger person who hasn’t really tried much cooking in her life, and SeeFood will become her first push into the culinary world. Of course, there are some pain points though. Some things that frustrate Brooke are that her low vision stops her from gathering up the motivation to start new things, and measuring ingredients out can be a struggle. These pain points have been solved thanks to the results of surveys given to individuals with a visual impairment. In the SeeFood meal box, every food that would usually require using a knife will come pre-cut, and that takes some stress off the fact that Brooke struggles with prepping and measuring ingredients. In the surveys, 84% of respondents answered “Yes” when asked, “In the meal kit, would you rather measure out ingredients yourself, or have them pre-proportioned? The ratio of yes-tono was a great one. Brooke does not have much motivation to start learning how to cook, and SeeFood is perfect for individuals who feel that way. Going to the grocery store and having to read packages and get help can be a pain for blind people. With SeeFood, the process of getting the food is significantly easier. Each SeeFood meal kit is delivered fresh to the buyer’s door, and the process of signing up for SeeFood’s service is virtually hassle free. The website is very simple with large text and no distractions, with the option of each page to be read out loud. The buyer can check off what they want and don’t want, look at the meal plans for the week, and make food accommodations like vegan, gluten free, kosher, halal, allergies, etc. The customer can also cancel their subscription at any time.
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Some people may think, “How would a company or person market their product towards blind people, since they can’t see what they’re selling?” The solutions are actually quite simple. The first solution is to use podcasts to advertise. Everyone can enjoy a podcast, even deaf people, thanks to subtitles. In 2020, of the U.S. population had listened to a podcast. That’s over half of the U.S. population. The demographic of people listening to podcasts is also very broad, ranging from age 12 to 55 and older, which covers most of SeeFood’s demographic (20 to 65). The next marketing strategy is to market SeeFood on YouTube. Again, some people may think, “But you have to be able to see to enjoy YouTube videos!” This is actually not the case. Many people listen to YouTube videos rather than watching them. There are millions of video essays, podcasts, reviews, vlogs, and more that do not require any sight to be enjoyed. People also enjoy putting on a youtube video in the background while they do other tasks. YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine and second most visited site after Google, and we watch/listen to over 1 billion hours of YouTube videos a day, more than Netflix and Facebook video combined. There are hundreds of blind content creators on YouTube, and many do ad reads. This is the perfect opportunity for SeeFood to gain recognition. The final form of advertising will come from Twitter. Twitter is a social media platform that is very text heavy rather than image heavy, which is perfect for screen readers. According to the American Foundation for the Blind, both the iOS and Android Twitter apps are quite accessible using VoiceOver or TalkBack respectively. Another function that makes Twitter accessible to blind people is the use of photo descriptions. When a screen reader goes over a photo, it will be able to describe the photo to the user if the creator of the Tweet added a description. The third reason why Twitter is blind-friendly is its lack of long paragraphs. This social media platform has a character limit of 280 characters, preventing users from making long, drawn out paragraphs that can get bothersome for screen reader users to go through. The advertisements on Twitter would be short, concise, and to the point, making it an enjoyable experience for someone with a visual impairment. 28
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