A novel new way to follow recipes while heightening efficiency and learning in the kitchen. Designed intuitive flows that make cooking accessible for all skill levels by redesigning the kitchen experience from first principles.
Role: Product Designer. Team: Solo Project. Timeline: 1 Week Design Sprint. Stack: Adobe XD, Notability, InVision.
Traditional recipe formats have not evolved meaningfully since cookbooks went digital. Most recipe apps simply display a list of ingredients and numbered steps, ignoring the reality of how people actually cook: with messy hands, divided attention, and varying skill levels. The disconnect between how recipes are presented and how cooking actually happens creates frustration, mistakes, and missed learning opportunities.
Observed home cooks of varying skill levels as they prepared meals using existing recipe apps and physical cookbooks. Identified common pain points including losing their place in multi-step recipes, not understanding cooking techniques referenced in instructions, difficulty managing timing across multiple dishes, and the inability to scale recipes intuitively. Analyzed how professional kitchens organize workflow and information to inform the design approach.
Redesigned the recipe experience from an empirical standpoint, treating cooking as a process to be optimized rather than a document to be read. The app presents recipes as interactive timelines rather than static lists, showing the relationship between steps and helping cooks understand the flow of preparation. Each step includes contextual information about techniques, timing cues, and visual guides.
Interactive step-by-step timeline showing progress and upcoming tasks. Built-in timers that sync with recipe steps and alert cooks at the right moments. Technique tutorials accessible within the recipe flow so cooks can learn without leaving the context. Tools needed display showing required equipment before starting. Ingredient scaling with automatic unit conversion. Steps remaining counter to give cooks a sense of progress and pacing.
The one-week design sprint produced a complete mobile app concept that reimagines how people interact with recipes. User testing showed improved confidence among novice cooks and reduced errors across all skill levels. The project demonstrated that even familiar everyday experiences like cooking can benefit significantly from thoughtful UX design and empirical analysis of user behavior.
Building a recipe app? A designer makes cooking intuitive for every skill level.