Swaadam case study: Homemade food delivery app

7 min readApr 19, 2021

Let's start by introducing the avatars of the team

Team members

Design Process

A train stops at several destinations to reach its destination. And here, we followed a process to come up with a functional approach.

| Empathize

About the app

Swaadam

A home food ordering app where people can sell/order home-cooked food and contact potential customers within a locality. A platform that would help individuals with their cooking hobby/ earning income/ wanting to learn or teach how to cook food at home.

Why this app?

1.People who want to sell or order homemade food in small quantities need a way to connect to nearby individuals who sell the same so they can sell/buy as well as earn by taking orders (more like a hobby).

2.People who want to learn/teach how to make food from/for nearby individuals need a way to seek help through online cooking channels with one on one assistance so they can make their meals on their own with the same taste.

3.People who are looking to give orders for specific events/parties in small quantities need a way to hunt local individuals who provide the same so they can benefit hustle free home-cooked food.

4.People who are looking for monthly or weekly homemade food subscriptions need a way to interact with individuals/ providers so they can avail of the service temporarily.

Survey Analysis

Primary research

While working on Swaadam, we needed to learn about the home-cooked food delivery market as well as the users who would be interested in buying it. We conducted desk research to study the buyers and sellers, further delving deep into the users’ profiles.

Benefits of the app

After studying existing apps, we came up with our USPs and understand the importance of the app to people.

1.Eat healthily and lead a stress-free life

2.Sell as well as earn by taking orders

3.Schedule home-cooked food

4.Talk about food and share interests

5.Enjoy good home-cooked food and stop feeling homesick

6.Get food of different tastes, traditions, cultures, and states.

Target Audience

1.Housewives

2.Migrants

3.Old People

4.Event Planners

5.People with dietary restrictions

6.Adventurous/ Experimental people

7.Tourists

8.Charitable Organisations

9.Unemployed

Secondary research

Competitive analysis

We researched existing apps to understand how can we make ourselves better from other’s pros and cons.

FoodyBuddy

As a foundation for this app, the concept of a Shared Economy is applied.

We thought, “What is that one thing which is being made around us every day that everyone can share? Home Cooked Food!”

PROS

1. Can discuss food like quora

2. Can make everything from scratch, even menus like in Canva.

CONS

1. No Dabba ordering system

2. No mention of peanuts, lactose, gluten, etc in foods

My Khaana

With the MyKhaana app, you can order home-cooked meals from home chefs around you — instantly!

PROS

Badges for Chefs to upgrade
Order history

CON

Confusing interface
Cant select the food option with one click

Myma

One looking for Breakfast, Lunchbox (Picked in the morning), Lunch, or Dinner checks all the nearby options and selects one meal, and asks Myma to prepare food for him/her.

PROS

Has a wide range of filters
Clean Interface

CONS

Only restricted to Maharashtra
Home cooking classes

| Define

User Persona

Buyers

Age: People who are 20 years old have contributed most to the survey.

Category: Migrants, students, the elderly, and the adventurous have shown more interest in the survey.

Meals: Most people eat meals cooked by either their parents or cook.

Migration: Most of the people have moved to new cities.

Preference: A lot of people prefer home-cooked food over ordering restaurant food.

Order food: People mostly order food from Zomato or Swiggy.

Use: Most people have not yet ordered home-cooked food.

Traditional gatherings: Most people order traditional cuisines for family cultural gatherings.

Review: A lot of people feel a home-cooked food delivery app will bring out a healthy change in lifestyle.

Sellers

Age: People between age groups 21 yrs and 37 yrs have contributed most to the survey.

Customization: Most people don’t find much difficulty cooking for family members who have health conditions or food allergies.

Contact: Most of the cooks contact or reach their clients via WhatsApp and phone calls.

Employment: Some members have lost their employment during the pandemic.

Entrepreneurship: People are willing to link their catering business to an app, while some are confused.

Empathy mapping

We performed empathy mapping to place our shoes in buyers and sellers’ perspective which helped us enhance the perception and hence deliver better service

Buyers

Sellers

Findings

Problem statement

| IDEATE

After the research, we were pepped up for crazy brainstorming.

After the brainstorm, it was time to organize ideas collaboratively on the basis of ease of implementation and uniqueness.

Information architecture

Analyzing ideas helped us understand the importance and relevancy of features. The next step was arranging the organizing the features in a mindmap.

Activity flow

To help us visualize and identify the different elements of the process, and the interrelationships among the various steps, we made an activity flow.

| Design of the App

Here came the interesting part, designing the visual language of the app. We started by referencing to crack the look and feel of the app.

To give a “Ghar ka khana” feeling, we decided to go with the desi and colorful look of the app.

Branding

The name

After discussing several names for the app, we decided to call it, “Swaadam”. This app aims to bring people together from all over India through the appreciation of taste and tradition. Thus the Sanskrit name “Swaadam” translates to taste.

The logo

To reflect the diversity of culture, lifestyle, and food on the app inspired by the four directions spanning over India.

Visuals

Color palette

The color palette is selected to establish a connection with the target users. The rich palette is seen in cuisines from the subcontinent predominantly. The colors have been inspired by delicacies like Indians masalas, pickles, dal and Pudina chutney.

The typography

Butler: Butler is a strong serif font inspired by a mix between Dala Floda and the Bodoni family. It was chosen for its legibility and to set relation with the rich, striking attributes of Indian cuisine.

Oxygen: A minimal sans serif font, used across the internet by web browsers, desktop, laptop, and mobile devices. It is used as a complimenting typeface to bring a balance to the interface of the app.