Background : Spice Up is a smart cooking app
that helps users quickly find relevant recipes using available ingredients , dietry filters and scannable recipe cards.
Impact:
Improved Retention Rate
Increase in user engagement
Role: Product Designer
Context: ▪ Case study ▪ Personal Project
Timeline: 3 months
Many busy home cooks struggle to maintain a healthy lifestyle because current recipe apps prioritize complex ingredients and long-winded content over convenience. This personal project explores a mobile solution that eliminates the need for grocery runs by generating pantry-friendly meals tailored to available ingredients.
I conducted user interviews to get a deep understanding of user needs.
To do so, I wrote down a script and sat down with 5 potential users to find out about their struggles while they want to cook a meal.
I want to cook, but after a long day, I want ideas fast—I don’t have time to search for hours.
I want good food, not recipes that make my grocery bill explode.
I have ingredients at home, I just need ideas
I try to eat healthy… but half the time I’m not sure if I actually am.
I assessed the top 3 direct competitors, Tasty, Yummly and Cookpad , by gathering the users' reviews and comments on their social media channels, platforms, Play Store, Apple Store, etc to extract strengths and weaknesses of these app based on user’s feedback:
Poor Search & Filtering
Forced Sign-Ups/Paywalls
Lack of Personalization
Recipe Accessibility
Limited Nutritional Insights
To make decision-making easier without overwhelming users, I designed progressive filters.
Users can:
Apply essential filters upfront
Refine results with advanced filters and sorting after the initial search
This approach keeps the interface clean at first glance while still giving users deeper control when they need it.
To help users decide faster, I designed recipe cards that show the most important info at a glance, reducing the need to open multiple recipes.
Each card features:
Clear visual hierarchy to highlight key details first
Consistent layout for fast, intuitive comparisons
This approach enables quick evaluation, minimizes clicks, and speeds up discovery.
To help users make smarter, faster choices, I designed filters around intent instead of rigid system categories.
The experience includes:
Filters by time, diet, health, and budget
Key constraints first to reduce overwhelm
Familiar UI patterns for quick understanding
Adjustments on the fly without restarting the search
This structure turns filtering into a decision-support system, letting users refine results confidently and without friction.
I tested two approaches: labeled tags for clarity and icons with tooltips for compactness.
Since Spice UP is a mobile app, I prioritized clarity and chose labeled badges so users could instantly understand the meaning without extra interaction.
Since the app’s main value is searching recipes based on available ingredients, I designed a two-level filtering flow.
Users can add up to three ingredients and set basic filters on the first page, then refine results with extra filters in the next step if needed.
This keeps the process simple at first while giving more control to users who want precise results.
