Reezy: Recipes made easy!
Im currently involved in a project: Reezy: A digital recipe platform that enables users to effortlessly store, manage, and share their favorite recipes, enhanced with AI integration. Key features like smart tagging, ingredient shopping, and alternative suggestions will make organizing and customizing recipes more intuitive.
With recipes coming from a variety of sources—cookbooks, social media, and beyond—our platform simplifies the process of recalling and organizing them, functioning as a smart, digital recipe box tailored to user needs.
COMPANY
PROJECT
ROLE
PRODUCT DESIGNER
TEAM
PRODUCT DESIGNER
FRONT END ENGINEER
AI PROMPT ENGINEER
TOOLS
WHIMSICAL,PROCREATE, FIGMA,
ILLUSTRATOR
TIME
ONGOING
App Overview
Brief overview of the App
The Problem
Navigating a typical 9-to-5 corporate life often makes finding simple, quick recipes a challenge. Even when recipes are discovered, they tend to be scattered—saved on phones, scribbled on scraps of paper, or buried in laptop folders. While this may seem like an organization issue, the real problem is often a lack of interest in manually saving and sorting recipes. With cooking already demanding enough effort, accessing and revisiting recipes shouldn’t add to the hassle.
This frustration becomes especially clear during moments of urgency—like a failed attempt to find a favorite pasta recipe, leading to takeout instead. It’s a common struggle among many, as shared experiences reveal the widespread difficulty of keeping recipes accessible and organized.
Market Research
The first step to solving this problem was by understanding how others manage their recipes and identifying common pain points through community feedback. I created a Google Form and shared it with friends, family, and our local community to gather insights on how others felt about this issue.
Gathering Insights
"Its hard for me to search for new recipes that my family will like"
26, Homemaker, mostly cooks Mexican and American food 4-5 times a week
"Hard to find new recipes and the ones I liked again"
56, Professional, mostly cooks Italian and American food almost everyday
"For finding recipes, it can be hard trying to pick a specific recipe if there's many for the same dish, or not having all of the ingredients in a recipe."
56, Professional, mostly cooks Italian and American food almost everyday
"Can't keep track of my recipe modifications. Nutrition label is important to me,
30, Professional, mostly cooks Italian and American food once a week
"I print some out or store them in a computer, difficult to manage"
60, Retired , mostly cooks American, Mexican food several times a week
"Finding easy recipes with shorter cooking time. Ideally within 30minutes. And also with fewer ingredients required."
22, Student , mostly cooks American, Italian,Chinese, food several times a week
We asked ourselves a simple question: "If cooking is already challenging, how can we make everything before and after it easier?"
User Persona
With an understanding of the user’s goals, needs, motivations and frustrations I set out to create a user persona based on the insights gained previously.
User Story
Cassie is a dynamic professional working as a Business Analyst in the bustling city of Chicago. With a busy schedule, she still finds joy in cooking meals at home several times a week. Cassie loves experimenting with new recipes and ingredients, often searching for inspiration online or social media.
"As a full time worker I want to be able to quickly cook my meals so that I can better manage my time and avoid eating too much take out."
User Journey
Goal: To simplify meal planning, manage recipes effortlessly, and cook nutritious meals efficiently while maintaining a busy lifestyle.
Define
Some of the problems users faces while finding a recipe is that it is too time consuming to search a vast array of online and offline and social media. Users often can’t find the old recipe they had previously used and any modifications they might have made. Some times when users find a recipe that they like, they end up without having the ONE ingredient and no subs listed for it.
01
Problem Statement
Cassie Crawley is a business analyst with a busy schedule who needs an easy way to manage, store and customize her recipes because she enjoys meal prepping and planning in advance. She enjoys cooking and cooks several times a week. Nutrition labels and ingredient lists are important to her when she’s selecting a recipe. She also wishes there was some way to have alternate ingredient suggestions for times when she doesn't have all the ingredients available.
02
Hypothesis Statement
If Cassie can view her new and previously used recipes organized into smart categories like “Protein-Rich” or “Under 20 Minutes,” she can easily plan her meals. Additionally, if she can select an ingredient she’s missing and receive automatic suggestions for alternatives, she wouldn’t have to dismiss the recipe entirely.
Value Proposition:
What does the product do?
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Browse
Users can search and explore new recipes based on ingredients, meal type, or dietary preferences.
📁
Save & Organize
Users can save, manage, and organize recipes into custom categories for quick access.
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Import
Users can add their own recipes manually or import them from external sources.
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Nutrition Info
Users can view detailed nutritional information, including macros and micros, for each recipe.
🥦
Ingredient substitution
Users can access AI-powered ingredient swaps based on availability, preferences, or nutritional goals — with the option to shop directly from the app.
📝
Edit
Users can modify existing recipes, adjust ingredients, and save new versions based on personal preferences.
The 5Ws and H Framework
🧛
Who is experiencing the problem?
Any one who cooks on a regular basis.
This includes busy professionals, home cooks, and meal preppers who struggle with recipe management.
🧠
What are the pain points?
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Constantly searching for recipes.
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Inability to keep track of modifications.
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Difficulty finding new recipes quickly.
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Lack of ingredient substitution suggestions.
🏡
Where is the user physically located?
User will most likely be in the kitchen.
Users are typically engaged with the app while preparing meals.
🕰️
When does this occur?
Any meal , morning noon or dinner, whenever users need to cook.
⁉️
Why is this problem important?
Cooking itself is already hard and time-consuming.
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It takes mental and physical effort to prepare meals.
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A recipe management app can reduce the workload, shorten cooking time, and allow users to focus on the actual act of cooking.
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How are the users achieving this goal?
By simplifying recipe access and management:
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Users save time by revisiting modified recipes.
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AI-powered ingredient substitution improves flexibility.
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Cloud-based access ensures recipes are available anytime, on any device.
How might we?
I used How might we to explore different ideas and brainstorm solutions
HMW create a system that helps Cassie easily manage and organize her recipes?
A visually appealing open grid that allows Cassie to quickly access her recipes through personalized categories, similar to a recipe box.
🗂️
Manage & Organize Recipes
HMW suggest reliable ingredient substitutes when Cassie is missing an ingredient?
Cassie can tap any ingredient to see its nutritional info and AI-generated substitutes based on availability, taste preferences, or nutritional needs.
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Ingredient Substitutions
HMW present nutritional information in a way that’s easy for Cassie to understand?
Show key macros upfront, with an option to see a detailed breakdown through a “show more” button in a clean, easy-to-read format.
🍗
Nutrition Info
HMW curate quick recipes that fit Cassie's busy schedule?
Provide a smart search feature that learns Cassie’s preferences and suggests quick, high-protein, or specific meal types based on past usage.
⏰
Quick Recipes
HMW let Cassie customize and save her own version of recipes?
When Cassie makes substitutions, she can choose to update the existing recipe or save it as a new version.
👩🍳
Customization
HMW help Cassie quickly find recipes without scrolling endlessly or relying on social media?
Design an intuitive search with smart filters and personalized recommendations based on Cassie’s cooking habits and past searches.
📱
Search Efficiency
Goal Statement
Reeezy will enable users to effortlessly plan their meals and manage their recipes through a user-friendly, AI-assisted, and smartly organized recipe management system. This will help users save time and cook with confidence. Effectiveness will be measured by the number of users actively using and recommending Reeezy.
Ideation
Card Sorting
I used the card sorting method to organize and structure information based on user expectations. This helped me with the information architecture by creating intuitive navigation and structure.
Information Architecture & User Flow
Once I had a clear idea of who the targeted users were and the pain points I was trying to solve, I started with the user flow and establishing the Information Architecture. I focused on the happy path as the starting point.
Wireframes
My very messy, quick low-fi wireframes.
Digital Wireframes
Visual Designs
After collecting user feedback and researching through competitive analysis I started sketching out initial designs. Once I was happy with the direction I started on the UI.
I opted for a modern minimalist look with warm aesthetics.
Next Steps
01
Usability Testing:
We are currently in the usability testing phase to refine the user experience and address any pain points.
02
Improvements:
The next step will involve gathering user feedback to improve navigation, performance, and recipe discovery.
03
Advanced AI suggestions:
We also plan to introduce advanced AI-based suggestions for ingredient substitution and meal planning.
04
Personalization:
Further enhancements to personalization and smart search will be rolled out based on user behavior and feedback.
Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to enhance the platform!