NYT Cooking
My Role
Researcher
UI Designer
Team
Chris Leow
Houpu Wang
Nananqi Wang
Yinyin Zhou
Ziheng Xu
Time
4 weeks
Description
A post-cooking experience redesign for NYT Cooking, helping students reflect on and evolve their meals through private notes and community knowledge.
Context
I joined this project as part of a design team exploring underrepresented moments in everyday experiences. While most cooking apps focus on planning or following recipes, we asked what happens after the meal is done.As a designer and researcher, I led the problem framing and iterative prototyping of a post-cooking feature set—centered on self-improvement, community insight, and personal growth.
Intro
Cooking is personal. But improving it often isn’t.
College students are cooking more than ever—driven by tight budgets, dietary needs, or simply curiosity. Yet when the meal is over, most cooking platforms fall silent.
There’s no space to reflect, no room to improve, no way to share what worked or didn’t.
We set out to redesign the post-cooking experience. Not just for better meals, but for better cooks.
Problem Framing
Design
We conducted a brainstorm of sketch using Crazy-eight method in our group.
From there, we landed on two promising directions: adding light gamification and strengthening the social layer.
Prototype & Iteration
After incorporating feedback, we rolled out an updated version and ran a second usability test to evaluate the improvements. In response to the first round of testing, we optimized the Information Architecture to reduce friction and improve navigability.
The second iteration aimed to bridge the gap between intention and execution—removing friction points, reinforcing affordances, and making the overall experience more intuitive.
Onwards
Projects
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