PROJECTS | personal-resume

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Role

UX/UI Designer

Project Type

Product Design

Timeframe

8 Weeks

Tools

Figma

OVERVIEW

Chef’s Playground is a cooking app designed for different learning styles. Whether users prefer written steps, pictures, short clips, or full-length videos, the app offers flexible ways to follow recipes. The goal is to make cooking less intimidating and more accessible for all experience levels.

THE PROBLEM

Cooking can be overwhelming, especially for beginners. Juggling ingredients, steps, and unfamiliar techniques often leaves people unsure of where or how to start. For many, the learning process quickly becomes frustrating or discouraging.

How might we incorporate different learning styles to enhance users’ learning experience?

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

To understand what’s already out there, I analyzed Allrecipes, Paprika, and Kitchen Stories. Each app supports learning to cook in different ways, but they vary in how well they serve different learning styles and user needs. This helped me identify what works, what doesn’t, and how my app could fill the gaps.

KEY INSIGHTS

Allrecipes has a lot of content and community features but feels cluttered and hard to navigate.
Paprika is great for organizing meals and grocery lists but doesn’t include videos and is app-only.
Kitchen Stories has a clean layout and supports different learning styles with text, images, and videos.

OPPORTUNITIES

Support all learning styles with multiple formats (text, photos, videos).
Keep the app clean and easy to use.
Let users save, share, and upload their own recipes.

CONDUCTING USER INTERVIEWS

To understand the challenges and motivations of people learning to cook, I interviewed users between the ages of 24-52 with varying levels of experience. The goal was to learn what helps or hinders their cooking journey and how they prefer to learn new recipes.

Using insights gathered from the user interviews, I was able to build two personas Gary and Tiffany.

WHAT DID WE LEARN

From the user interviews, we discovered several common needs and challenges among people learning to cook:

1. Learning styles vary

People learn in different ways - some prefer videos, others like step-by-step photos or written instructions.

2. Portion control is a challenge

Some users struggle with recipes that don’t let them adjust serving sizes easily

3. Users want to share their creations

Some users want a space to share their own recipes or connect with others.

CRAFTING THE SOLUTION

To support different learning styles and make cooking less overwhelming, I designed Chef’s Playground to offer multiple ways to follow a recipe. Each recipe includes:

Written instructions
Step by step photos
Short video clips of each recipe
Full length videos of each recipe

Users can choose the format that works best for them, save favorites, submit their own recipes, and explore others. The app is simple, flexible, and beginner-friendly.

USER FLOWS

I kept the user flows simple and intuitive to make the app easy to use for beginners. Key flows include:

Uploading a Recipe

Users can upload their own recipes by filling out a simple form with ingredients, steps, and optional media like photos or videos.

Favoriting a Recipe

Users can tap the heart icon while browsing to save a recipe.

DEVELOPING LOW-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES

I started with low-fidelity wireframes to map out the core layout and user flows of the app. This helped me focus on structure and functionality before adding visuals. I sketched out key screens like the home page, recipe view, submission form, and favorites page to make sure the app was easy to navigate and supported different learning styles from the start.

DEVELOPING MID-FIDELITY WIREFRAMES

I created mid-fidelity wireframes to refine layout, content, and user flow. This stage helped clarify key features like recipe submission, favoriting, and filtering by difficulty or dietary needs. It was a crucial step before moving on to high-fidelity design.

BRANDING

I created a UI component library to keep Chef’s Playground consistent, warm, and easy to use. I chose soft shades of yellow, green, and orange to give the app a creative and welcoming feel. The components—like rounded buttons, input fields, and icons - were designed to feel approachable for all users. The playful, cute logo features a chef’s hat to reflect the fun and friendly tone of the app.

HIGH FIDELITY WIREFRAMES

Finally I applied the final colors, fonts, and icons from my UI component library to create a clean, friendly look for the app! These wireframes show the full experience - from browsing and saving recipes to submitting your own - all designed to feel warm, welcoming, and easy to use.

USER TESTING

I conducted usability testing to see if users could easily navigate Chef’s Playground and complete key tasks like favoriting a recipe, viewing saved recipes, and submitting their own. Everything went well - users completed the tasks without any confusion and found the app easy to use. The positive feedback confirmed that the layout and features were clear and user-friendly.

REFLECTION

Working on Chef’s Playground was a fun and valuable experience. I learned how important it is to design for different learning styles and keep things easy to use. It felt great to see users understand the app and enjoy using it. This project helped me grow as a designer and gave me more confidence in my work.