Designing a personalised experience

Project Overview

Kitchen Stories is a beloved recipe app, offering a wide range of culinary inspiration. However, the static, one-size-fits-all approach to showcasing recipes in a feed wasn’t meeting the diverse needs of its users. People struggled to find recipes that matched their tastes, cooking habits, and dietary preferences, which often led to frustration and disengagement.

After all, food is a personal choice influenced by numerous factors.

To address this, I designed a personalized feed feature that transforms the way users discover recipes. By tailoring the feed to individual preferences, cooking styles, and dietary needs, I aimed to create a more engaging and meaningful experience.

Problem

The app’s static recipe presentation on the main feed posed several challenges. Users often had to scroll through countless recipes that didn’t align with their tastes or dietary needs, making it harder for them to find what they were looking for.

This lack of personalization led to lower engagement, with users spending less time in the app and feeling disconnected from the content. It also meant that many hidden gems—recipes users would have loved—were going undiscovered.

Without a system to surface relevant content, the app was missing an opportunity to build deeper connections with its audience and foster loyalty through a more tailored experience.

Solution

The personalized feed feature was designed to address these challenges by adapting the app to the individual. The process began with in-depth user research, where I explored how people use the app, what they value most, and the pain points they encounter when searching for recipes.

This research revealed a clear desire for a feed that reflected personal preferences, whether that meant more plant-based recipes, quicker meal options, or regional cuisines.

Using these insights, I developed a dynamic feed that prioritized relevance. Recipes were tailored based on user interactions — such as saved recipes — as well as explicit preferences like dietary restrictions, favorite cuisines or allergies.

The data for the explicit preferences came from a personalisation survey - which users could fill as part of their their onboarding.

I designed the feed to be visually appealing and easy to navigate, with recipe cards featuring key details like cooking time and difficulty at a glance.

Users could further refine their feed through simple interactions, such as liking recipes or updating their preferences in a dedicated settings area.

Outcome

The For You feed brought significant improvements to the user experience.

Engagement increased as users spent more time exploring recipes that felt relevant to themselves. Recipe saves and trial rates grew, as users found it easier to discover dishes they wanted to cook.

Feedback from users showed that they appreciated the feature, noting that it made the app feel more personalized and practical for daily use.

By introducing this feed, the app has evolved into a more efficient tool and a reliable resource in the kitchen, helping users cook confidently and explore new recipes.