Overview

TASTI started from a simple observation: deciding what to eat is one of the most repeated daily decisions we make. For most people this is draining. Existing apps are built for searching or ordering, not discovering. When you don't know what you want, they give you more of the same friction.

The goal was to design something fundamentally different! A food discovery platform built on four core values:

The final product covers the entire cooking journey - from the initial spark of inspiration, through filtering and saving recipes, building a grocery list tied to your local store, sharing what you've cooked with friends, and earning recognition through competitive food challenges.

"Don't create frames, create experiences."

The Problem

Existing food apps assume users already know what they want. The entire interface is designed for intent, search, filter, order. When someone opens an app without a clear vision, the interface gives them nothing to hold onto.

Key pain points identified

• Decision fatigue — too many undifferentiated options with no guiding hierarchy
• Lack of delight — food app UX is transactional, not experiential
• No community layer — eating is social, but food apps are solitary
• Passive discovery — you only find what you already know to search for
• Disconnected planning — no link between recipe discovery and the actual grocery shop

Research

The research phase involved user interviews, competitive analysis, and structured workshop sessions. Participants spanned a range of cooking habits — from people who order takeaway daily to committed home cooks who plan their week in advance.

The core insight

People don't want to choose, they want to be inspired, then choose from a small, curated set. The mental cost isn't the decision itself, it's having no starting point. Give someone one compelling option and they immediately know whether they want it or not.

This single insight shaped the entire interaction model: present one dish at a time, make the accept/reject gesture effortless, and let taste preferences emerge passively from those micro-decisions.

Design Process

Brand identity

The TASTI brand was designed to stand apart from generic food app aesthetics. The primary color is warm orange (#F47320), energetic without feeling fast-food adjacent. A deep charcoal (#444444) grounds the dark header bar and anchors the typography. A warm cream (#FFF5EE) provides the background layer, keeping the palette grounded and easy on the eye.

Typography is set in Poppins — geometric, warm, and bold at display sizes while maintaining clarity in dense list and filter UIs.

Navigation model

The app is structured around four bottom-tab zones, each mapping to a distinct user need:

Wireframes & iteration

Early lo-fi wireframes explored three navigation models. The swipe-based discovery flow, presenting one dish at a time, consistently won in testing over grid and list alternatives, on both task completion speed and reported enjoyment. Once that was settled, the remaining screens were designed to serve it. Everything in the app flows toward a recipe in your hand and ingredients on a shopping list.

Save img/tasti-wireframes.png — wireframe progression export from Figma

Feature — Discover

Passive discovery

One dish at a time

The Discover tab presents a single recipe as a full-bleed card, large food photography, recipe name, and three key stats overlaid on the image: cook time, ingredient count, and how many users have saved it. Swipe or tap X to pass; tap the bookmark to save. No grid, no list, no scroll fatigue.

Full-bleed card Cook time Ingredient count Popularity signal Pass / Save gesture

Save img/tasti-discover.png

Smart search

Find exactly what you're craving

When a specific thought comes to your mind, TASTI's smart search cuts straight to it, right from within the Discover flow. Filter by meal type, cuisine, cook time, price per meal, difficulty and much more. Applied filters appear as removable chips so users always know what constraints are active. It's not a separate mode, it's intent layered on top of discovery, so the two work as one.

Voice search Meal type Cook time Price per meal Cuisine Difficulty Active filter chips

Save img/tasti-search.png

Feature — Recipe Bank

Search what you love

Your recipe bank — search through what you know you like

Most apps make you search everything. TASTI lets you search only what you already love. Every recipe you've saved or liked lives in one place — fully searchable and filterable. The USP is simple: you're not hunting through thousands of unknown dishes, you're navigating a personal collection built entirely from your own taste. If you liked it once, you can find it again in seconds and go straight to cooking.

Saved recipes Liked recipes Searchable collection Filterable by taste One tap to cook

Save img/tasti-results.png

End-to-end planning

From recipe to shopping list in one tap

The recipe bank closes the loop from inspiration to action. Add any saved recipe to a named grocery list — linked directly to your local store — and the ingredients are automatically aggregated and scaled by serving count. At the store, a checklist view makes it easy to tick off items as you go.

Named lists Store association Auto ingredient aggregation Serving size scaling Checkbox shopping mode

Save img/tasti-grocery.png

Feature — Social

Community layer

See what your friends are cooking

The social feed shows photos of dishes friends have cooked, with likes and comments. A Nearby tab surfaces posts from people in your area, making food discovery feel local and ambient. The Friends tab manages connection requests, shows suggested people to add, and lists your current network. A notification centre keeps everything in one place — likes, comments, friend requests, and challenges.

Friends feed Nearby tab Likes & comments Friend requests Notifications Food battles

Save img/tasti-social.png — social feed, friends, and notifications screens

Feature — Gamification

Progression & competition

Trophies, battles, and leaderboards

TASTI rewards cooking with a trophy system organised by food category. Trophies have tiers, Ace, Master, earned by completing challenges in that category (e.g. "Lunch Prepper", "Raaameeen"). Food battles are timed community competitions: everyone cooks to the same theme, posts a photo, and votes. A leaderboard shows standings in real time. The gamification layer is designed to be opt-in — it surfaces in the social tab without interrupting the core discovery flow.

Category trophies Tiered progression (Ace → Master) Food battles Countdown timer Leaderboard Community voting

Save img/tasti-gamification.png — trophies, battle, and leaderboard screens

Learnings

TASTI grew from a small scope that consisted of a single discovery mechanic, to a full cooking platform, discover, plan, shop, share, compete. Looking back, each feature earned its place: the grocery list closes the loop from inspiration to action; the social layer gives the discovery mechanic something to feed into; the gamification makes the social layer worth returning to.

The challenge was keeping each part feel lightweight and cohesive despite the breadth. That pushed me to think in systems rather than screens, a decision made in the filter model would ripple into the search results, the recipe detail, and the grocery list. You can't design those independently.

The brand identity work, running parallel to UX and not after, changed how I approach visual design. When the brand is decided early, every screen decision has a reference point. The fork-in-A logo, the orange-on-charcoal header, the warm cream background — none of those were afterthoughts. They were constraints that made the rest of the design easier, not harder.