CREATE - future cooking companion
Mali Baumeister (Product Designer), Yvonne Weimar (Product Designer)
HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd
2022 Wintersemester - 2. Semester Master
UX/UI Design, Implementor, Documentation Manager
In the future, creative artificial intelligence will impact many industries and large parts of our lives, and this development will not stop at the cooking industry. As AI technology advances, creative AI in cooking could revolutionize the way we create and prepare food. AI algorithms could analyze and understand the chemical and sensory properties of different ingredients. The cooks can use this knowledge to develop new recipes, experiment with flavor combinations, and optimize cooking techniques. This would lead to the creation of innovative and personalized dishes and open up new possibilities for the culinary arts.
In our scenario, an agricultural reform of the European Union has emerged in 2027. It provides for a sustainable, diverse agriculture in the future. A central point of the reform is the financial support of farms that practice organic farming. This also applies to small farms, which can also promote regionalism. On the other hand, the end consumer will also benefit from the reform by paying lower VAT on sustainably produced food, such as fruit, vegetables and pulses. We all now have affordable access to organically grown food. But how will future developments affect us as consumers and the way chefs work?
By 2027, we expect artificial intelligence to be integrated into most digital programs, assisting users with many types of decisions. In line with the title of our semester project, our project focuses on the creative process of recipe development by chefs. In this process, our AI tool acts as a supplement in the kitchen.
Vision
We believe that...
... agrarian reform can pave the way for sustainable diverse agriculture.
... food is more than just eating. There is a creative process behind its preparation
... and a connection to our nature and culture.
... a conscious diet, a sustainable diet entails
... artificial intelligence does not always have to mean personnel savings
... artificial intelligence can and should support creativity and the creative process.
Professional cooks
In addition, we would also like to address the private users and provide them with easy access to cooking.
We applied all the new methods we learned from the book 'Shaping futures' published and taught to us in private lessons by our super-great professor Benedikt Groß. These are the 'Future Wheel', the 'Future Cone' and 'The Thing from the Future'. In order to better assess the receptiveness of private users to dishes suggested by an artificial intelligence, we planned and carried out user tests with students and professors from the Hochschule für Gestaltung (College of Design).
We baked a cake based on a recipe from the OpenAI software (Playground). The expectations of the cake before the taste test and the evaluations after the taste test were compared. At first, many test subjects were skeptical that an artificial intelligence would be able to hit all the ingredients and taste the cake. However, the results were consistently positive. However, when asked if they could imagine cooking with the AI, the majority remained skeptical.
How can the acceptance of AI in the cooking process increase?
So we talked a lot with experts like the famous food activist Hendrik Haase or the professional chef Eberhard Braun about how KI can be integrated into the modern kitchen and how it works. Hendrik Haase, for example, explained that he reads recipes differently, combines a lot, cooks intuitively, and changes his recipes depending on the season.
"Of all the very, very important qualities a chef must have,
accuracy is a core competency." - Eberhard Braun
"I am not a recipe cook." - Hendrik Haase
1. Technology interferes with enjoyment.
Tracking, monitoring, and intervening in eating behavior.
2. One-sided cultivation keeps monoculture consistent.
If KI tools only give suggestions on how to plant and grow ingredients efficiently, it won't promote biodiversity and our fields will dry up. Danger of one-sided eating habits due to KI suggestions
3. Users forgets to be creative in his own cooking process.
The user forgets to be creative in his own cooking process.He forgets to be creative in mixing ingredients. He should be able to bring his own creative ideas into the process and keep his sense of taste trained.
1. KI should be transparent when used in the food preparation process, but should not observe or direct the user's eating behavior.
2. Generate a lot of knowledge about which ingredients are seasonal at the time of preparation. KI should combine old with new to create a variety in taste experience
3. The user can decide whether he wants the help of the KI or not, or whether the KI should generate a whole recipe from one or two or all the ingredients he has selected.
CREATE stands for "create" and "eat". By circling different ingredients on the drawing area, a recipe
is created. The products contributed by the AI are highlighted in green. Items added by the chef himself
are highlighted in orange. This composition is reflected in the logo. The orange color is predominant because
it should be clear that the cook can decide for himself at any time how much support he wants to receive from CREATE.
For the logo design and text in the application, we chose the Poppins font because of its clean lines and minimalist style. This makes it look modern and organic. In addition, a sans serif font works well on the screen, making it easy to read. The curves, especially in the first letter, are meant to reference the rounded elements of our artboard in the AI tool.
For our corporate design, we chose colors that are appetizing. We also based our design on the natural color combinations of vegetables and fruits. For example, the orange is reminiscent of oranges, and the green is reminiscent of the leaves of orange trees or the green of an avocado seed. This is where our color palette comes from.
These are it's main functions:
Click on the Plus - Variant Creation
Through the large AI database of foods, the AI holds many alternatives for the user's desired ingredient.
Click on ingredient - knowledge transfer
The alternative suggestions for the varieties are supplemented by the AI with further background knowledge: information on the origin, possible uses in dishes, seasonality and composition of the flavor. In the process, the AI also points out local sourcing locations.
Click on the help wheel - source of inspiration
The AI generates suggestions specifically based on the cook's ingredient selection as to which ingredients or spices would fit particularly well in the dish.
Circle ingredients, click on button "Magic" - recipe generation
If the user draws a circle around all ingredients and presses the "Magic" button, the AI generates several recipes for him based on the ingredients.
Click on button "Record
To complete the generated recipe from the user, there is an option to start a recording via Speech-to-Text and document the steps. The text can also be converted into a video and retrieved later.
CREATE can respond individually to the user and his or her ideas, suggesting a selection of customized recipes. In collaboration with the AI, two creative minds work together to create dishes that can also be iterated in the app. Using an internal data storage system, recipes can be saved directly and accessed anytime, anywhere. The built-in food pairing system helps the chef determine which flavors work together.
The user can find the generated recipes in the navigation bar under the "Cookbook" icon. They are automatically imported into the personal cookbook from the drawing area.
Click on button "REC"/button "Pen" - Personal cookbook
It is possible to record the working steps afterwards. This succeeds
Click on a recipe - recipe preview
Once on the recipe, the user gets again the overview of the background information of the ingredients and can record the working process. In addition, the image of a finished dish can be inserted as a key visual in the header. He can still make small improvements here, as well as vary in the quantities.
Click on the "Share" button - Share with the whole world
Private users should also be able to benefit from the positive performance of the AI tool. By sharing the AI-generated creations of the chefs with the world, private consumers will also get access to the creations. With the sharing function, chefs give their permission for their menu to be fed back into the system.
Most of my work consisted of designing the overall interface of the application. For this job it was necessary to try out as many different variants as possible. For the cookbook, we decided to present all the recipes in a gallery style, with all the shortcuts already displayed for quick access. This helps cooks keep track of things when things need to be done quickly. The detailed view of a recipe contains infographics I designed and interactions that will be used in our final prototype. I also thought of a one-pager that shows all the steps of the recipe. Also, when new people are trained as cooks, they can follow the whole process through automatically generated images, but the app is mainly designed for hobby cooks and those who want to become one. We also tested the whole app with test users as shown in the pictures above.
The most important feature is the drawing area, so it should work very well. My colleagues made the first decisions on the rough structure of the drawing area tool, but I was asked to design the infoblocks, where I was responsible for the typographic hierarchy and the imagery. I also decided what icons, colors, and line weights to use for the drawing area.
CREATE can respond individually to the user and their ideas and suggest a selection of tailored recipes. In collaboration with the AI, two creative minds cooperate with each other to create dishes, which can also be iterated in the app. With the help of an internal data storage system, recipes can be saved directly and are accessible at any time and from anywhere. The integrated food pairing system helps the cook determine which flavors harmonize with each other.
The project aims to draw attention to the future of our food consumption. With Create, we want to encourage critical thinking and raise awareness of alternative agricultural products. At the same time, we want to create a basis for a more active exchange between producers and consumers. We also want to find out how receptive users would be to integrating such a tool.
