Roles
UX Development
Wire framing
Prototyping
Usability Testing
Team
Design Team (2)
User Research (3)
Data Collection and Visualization (3)
Project Manager (1)
Mentor (1)
Timeline
Four Weeks
Feb 2, 2025 - March 4, 2025
Tools
Figma
Adobe Creative Cloud
Jitter
Moonshot 2nd Cohort
The Dish Discovery app that allows home cooks to share their food experiences with intentionality and connect with other cultures of cuisine.
Potpourri
Overview 🍳
With more people turning to home cooking, we set out to design a recipe app tailored for beginner to intermediate home chefs craving not only great food, but also a sense of culture, community, and clarity. This was a fast-paced design sprint focused on delivering a strong MVP rooted in user needs.
The Problem ❎
Most online recipe platforms prioritize SEO and precision over personality and cultural context. For beginner and culturally curious home cooks, this results in recipes that feel sterile, difficult to follow, and disconnected from the dish’s origins. Users also struggle with a lack of guidance, community, and confidence in trying new cuisines.
The Solution ✅
We designed a recipe app that centers clarity, cultural storytelling, and community. Our app simplifies recipe steps without stripping them of soul, integrates user-driven comments for tips and feedback, and highlights the cultural roots behind each dish—making cooking more approachable, meaningful, and communal for everyone.
User Research 🧂
74%
90%
78%
78%
95%
(aka: prepping the ingredients)
We conducted a google survey where we wanted to explore how home cooks discover new recipes, share their food experiences, and connect with different food cultures.
of users emphasized the importance of clarity and conciseness when reading recipe steps. Overly technical or bloated instructions were a major turn-off.
also shared that their cooking habits are strongly shaped by convenience, they want quick access to ingredients and clear instructions that fit into their day-to-day lives.
of users discover recipes via online platforms, which means digital presentation and usability are critical touchpoints for engagement.
of participants either already cook dishes inspired by their cultural background (40%) or are interested in exploring culturally-rooted recipes (50%).
of participants felt a deeper sense of belonging and emotional connection when recipes included personal stories or cultural context.
Competitive Analysis 🧐
To better understand the landscape of digital recipe tools, we conducted a competitive analysis of existing platforms including Tasty, NYT Cooking, and SideChef. Our goal was to evaluate how well they supported beginner users, cultural context, and community interaction.
What We Observed?
Tasty focuses heavily on visual content but lacks personalization and cultural storytelling.
NYT Cooking offers deep editorial content but caters to experienced cooks and sits behind a paywall.
SideChef supports voice-guided instructions and meal planning but feels transactional and lacks emotional warmth or community.
Opportunity Space:
There’s a clear gap for an app that blends beginner-friendly clarity with cultural resonance and community features—making recipes not just functional, but also meaningful.
User Personas 👯♀️
(aka: prepping the ingredients)
We interviewed several home cooks to better understand their motivations and pain points. Two key personas emerged:
Sonia Hsu 🧍♀️
Pain Points
Sonia is a designer from NYC who is a big food enthusiast. Recently, she has been making more home-cooked meals instead of buying takeout to save money, and is on the hunt for new recipes. However, she wishes they were beginner-friendly for novice chefs like her. She started off learning basic meals, but now is ready to expand her cooking horizon and learn more diverse meals.
The food she makes is not to her liking
Not knowing how to cook restaurant-style meals
Lacks a community of beginner chefs
About Sonia
Age: 24, Taiwanese - American, Product Designer, Frugal
Ryan Adams 🧍♂️
Pain Points
Ryan recently switched jobs to a remote schedule and light hours, and now has a lot of time on his hands. He recently moved to San Francisco, and is exploring the vast food scene. His favorite cuisine is Mediterranean and wants to start cooking authentic Mediterranean dishes similar to his favorite restaurant in the city. He wants to start documenting his cooking journey and learn more about Mediterranean dishes from different countries.
Not knowing how to cook meals from a specific cuisine
Lack of knowledge from where his dishes come from
Wants to get reviews from his meals
About Ryan
Age: 40, Based in San Francisco for the majority of his life, Big Foodie, Light Work Schedule
Core Design Values 🌶️
(aka: seasonings that bring the flavor)
Clarity over Clutter: Remove SEO-stuffed blurbs and overly mechanical instructions
Cultural Resonance: Showcase the origin stories of dishes
Authenticity & Community: Make space for personal notes, stories, and tips
Accessibility: Lower barriers for discovering and cooking diverse dishes
Ideation & Synthesis 🥘
(aka: mix it all up! (play mixa mixa mixa from Blues Clues)
We mapped insights and tested an early prototype. Here were the biggest findings:
No Commenting Feature: Users wanted to leave personal notes or share tips
Confusing “Trending” Button: Unclear that it was interactive
Blurb vs. Recipe Clash: Visual conflict between storytelling and instructions
Decimal Ratings Confusion: Users preferred whole star ratings
Final Design 🍽️
(aka: plating the dish)
Presenting Potpourri!
What We Improved:
Interactive Comments: Users can add public or private notes to recipes
Refined Rating System: Clear, full-star visuals only
Better Navigation: Tags now function as button-like filters
Visual Polish: Harmonized color palette and layout to complement dish photography
Clean Blurb Integration: Personal stories are included without cluttering recipe flow
We wanted the visual identity of the app to reflect warmth, cultural depth, and approachability. Here's how we approached our branding elements:
Typography & Logo Design 🖊️
Typography (Kantumruy Pro)
Headline 1
H1 40px
Headline 2
H2 32px
Headline 3
H3 20px
Paragraph
P 16px
Takeaways 📝
(aka: the final bite)
This was my first time completing a full case study under such a tight timeline—and it was both intense and incredibly rewarding. I gained a deeper appreciation for:
Given more time, I would have loved to enhance our Kumu.io map to be fully interactive, allowing users to explore recipes by cultural origin in a visual, engaging way.
The importance of thoughtful content design
How clarity and culture can coexist in UX
Collaborating with a partner to iterate quickly and purposefully
about me
resume