Share My Recipes aims to simplify and celebrate everyday cooking by allowing users to easily upload, browse, and save recipes. The platform will serve as both a personal digital recipe box and a social space, encouraging users to learn, connect, and inspire each other through food. Whether it’s a cherished family dish or a quick student-friendly meal, the app makes recipe sharing easy, accessible, and fun.

User research for Share My Recipes revealed that users want a simple, intuitive way to share and discover recipes. Many felt overwhelmed by existing platforms and preferred a clean, guided upload process with the ability to add personal tips and images. Visuals played a key role in engagement, with users more likely to try recipes that included clear photos. The desire for community was strong, with features like comments, likes, and following seen as essential. While most preferred browsing on mobile, desktop access was still valued for more detailed tasks. Users also wanted better ways to save and organize recipes into custom collections, highlighting a need for both functionality and personal connection in the platform.

Based on the user research findings and identified pain points, I created paper wireframes to explore key layout ideas and user journeys within the Share My Recipes app. The wireframes focus on simplifying navigation and enhancing the user experience, particularly around recipe discovery, uploading, and community interaction. I prioritized clarity in labels and icon usage to reduce confusion, and structured the recipe upload flow as a guided, step-by-step process to make it more approachable for all users. The home screen highlights featured and trending recipes, while the community feed promotes engagement with user-generated content. Each screen was designed with mobile-first behavior in mind, ensuring intuitive access to core features like search, saved recipes, and profile management. These low-fidelity sketches served as a foundation for refining layout, hierarchy, and usability before moving into digital prototyping.

I translated my paper wireframes into low-fidelity wireframes using Figma to begin shaping the structure and layout of the app digitally. This step allowed me to refine spacing, navigation flow, and user interactions more precisely, while keeping the design simple and focused on functionality. It also helped identify areas for improvement before adding visual design elements or interactivity. I also added designs for multiple screen sizes.

I conducted a usability study on the low-fidelity prototype to observe how users interacted with the app’s core features, including recipe discovery, uploading, and navigation. The testing revealed that users appreciated the clean layout and intuitive flow but suggested clearer icons and more guidance during the upload process. Some found it unclear how to organize saved recipes or navigate back to the home screen. Overall, the study provided valuable insights that helped refine the structure and improve clarity, ensuring the app would be more user-friendly and aligned with real user expectations.