Gensgiving

1. Describe your project (max 150 words)

Gensgiving is designed to preserve traditions by bridging the gap between "cooking by feel" and modern learning. We address the disconnect between generations, where seniors often hold a lifetime of culinary intuition and history while younger users want guidance when cooking and have potential to preserve traditions. Our platform provides a seamless way for older adults to share their stories and techniques so that they can translate traditional knowledge into meaningful digital artifacts. Key features include cookbooks, which allow users to create collections of recipes grouped by categories like cuisine, allowing recipes to unite under common features. With an Adaptive UI designed for high visibility and intuitive navigation, Gensgiving ensures that family traditions are not only stored in a database but are also actively practiced and celebrated. We transform the kitchen into a space of mutual mentorship to make sure that as generations pass, their flavors and stories live on.

1. Describe your research process and findings. If you conducted any surveys or interviews, please include the survey form and/or interview questions here. If you conducted secondary research by pulling from online sources, please include a link to your sources. (Max 500 words) Write your answer here.

Our research process followed an upside-down pyramid structure that narrowed down our research inquiries from broader to more specific topics and concerns. A survey distributed to mainly fellow competitors and students would introduce bias and be insufficient to understand how members of different generations interpreted areas of difference and similarities between generations. Therefore, we first consulted sources that executed large-scale surveys and studies to include a range of generations, from Baby Boomers to Generation Z. The following findings helped us develop constraints to deepen our research:

• 79% of Americans believe there is a “generational gap,” but it doesn’t cause major conflicts. Generations differ in moral values (~80%), work ethic (~80%), respect for others (~78%), political beliefs (~74%), tolerance of racial/social differences (~70%), and religious beliefs (~68%).
• Generational experiences are confounded with age and period effects, so generational explanations should reflect how age, experience, and social context affect people and shape demographics.
• Communication methods and styles are the main cause of lack of understanding between older generations and younger ones. Meanwhile, Millennials and Gen Z utilize similar communication platforms, but exhibit tension due to stereotypes.

Given that differences in experiences and views are shaped by inability to foster communication and compassion across generations, we sought a medium that naturally encourages empathy, storytelling, and shared experience.

Food emerged as a culturally grounded solution. As highlighted by the University of British Columbia, cuisine is deeply tied to identity, memory, and belonging; recipes often function as vessels for family history, cultural values, and intergenerational knowledge. Cooking is not merely a technical skill but a lived practice shaped by personal narrative and tradition, often one that is not passed down through generations due to communication issues. By focusing on food as a shared cultural practice, we identified a way to foster transboundary communication that does not rely on verbal discussion and translation, but on sharing, storytelling, and collaboration.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15267431.2019.1683563 https://www.arts.ubc.ca/news/the-intersection-of-culture-and-cuisine-how-food-shapes-our-identity/ https://languagedlife.ucla.edu/sociolinguistics/intergen-connect-bridging-the-communication-gap-between-generations-in-the-workforce/ https://digitalcommons.csp.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/comjournal/article/1027/&path_info=FINAL_Bridging_the_Gap__How_the_Generations_Communicate._Hannah_Downs.pdf https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2009/08/12/ii-generations-apart-and-together/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7471586/

1. Describe your most important design decisions. What research findings and/or user testing results led you to make these decisions? (Max 500 words) Write your answer here.

Our most important design decisions for Gensgiving were centered on trying to break down the technical barriers that have prevented older generations from sharing their expertise. To address the disconnect between "cooking by feel" and structured learning, we allow elders to take pictures of their ingredients to be automatically updated to the recipe. We also prioritized an Adaptive UI that accommodates aging eyes. Our product implemented fonts like the classic, high-legibility serif EB Garamond for headers to evoke a traditional cookbook feel for seniors and then balanced our website further with a cleaner font like sans-serif Montserrat for body text to provide the structured clarity younger users expect. Research into vision decline led us to move away from harsh, high-glare white backgrounds in favor of a warm, low-strain linen palette, paired with large serif typography to improve cognitive comfort and readability.

The usage of EB Garamond (an older fontscript that was common in the 20th century) mixed with Montserrat (a more modern font) mirrors our intention of evoking nostalgia and emotional resonance in a diverse group of users. This idea was also reflected in our usage of specific shades of reds (Marilyn in Crimson) and orange (Harvest Gold) that were common in the 20th century.

We also focused on reducing "cognitive load" by streamlining the user experience. Instead of complex and multi-layered menus that can be frustrating for those with lower digital literacy, we designed an intuitive navigation system with high-visibility touch targets. This ensures that features like our digital cookbooks are easy to organize by cuisine or other categories without overwhelming the user. By basing our layout on findings related to motor skills and visual processing, we’ve created a space where the technology fades into the background. This allowed the focus to stay on mutual mentorship and the preservation of family stories.

1. If applicable, describe how you utilized AI in your design process in detail. Please explain where AI fit into your workflow, which tools you used, and the specific purpose AI served at that stage. Include a concrete example of how AI influenced a design decision. (Max 500 words) Write your answer here.

When creating Gensgiving, we used AI initially to look through different initial webs templates and responsive layouts. This allowed us to determine a baseline for what kind of vibe we want our website to convey. We decided to go with high-contrast and warm aesthetics so that both our older and yonder users would not get bogged down in manual container resizing. Other than the template, we asked our family, friends, and AI to give us some constructive criticism about what is currently working for our website and what we could improve. AI in particular helped us realize we should implement a conversational tone that resonates with an older generation's storytelling style, so we changed the tone of some of the text/instructions on our website. This helped make sure that our final product was actually intuitive for users of all digital skill levels.

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