COOKA · Team Project · UX/UI · 13 Weeks

Where
Food Travels.

COOKA is a platform that redefines how people discover and engage with food.

Instead of presenting recipes as just a set of steps, COOKA organizes content into rich cultural ecosystems centered around countries, allowing users to explore cuisine through a map-based experience.

By combining multiple content formats — articles, audio, video, and visual storytelling — COOKA inspires users to move beyond routine cooking and engage with food in a more meaningful way.

01 · Problem

Three problems. One gap.

Disconnection

Existing apps fail to connect users with the cultural context and stories behind dishes, leaving cooking feeling transactional and shallow.

Repetition

Home cooks make the same 3–5 meals repeatedly out of lack of inspiration to explore beyond their comfort zone.

Fragmentation

Discovery is scattered across TikTok, YouTube and Google — creating a fragmented, overwhelming experience with no unified narrative.

Users are not struggling to find recipes — they are struggling to connect with them.

Anthony Bourdain's moveable feast.

02 · Research

What we did to understand the problem.

My contribution

I participated in user interviews and surveys, synthesised findings into themes, and led ideation around the editorial and design direction.

Team size

4 designers working across research, content strategy, interaction design, and visual design over 13 weeks.

User Interviews

In-depth conversations with home cooks and food enthusiasts to understand habits, frustrations, and cultural connections to food.

Competitive Analysis

Evaluated TikTok, YouTube, NYT Cooking and Tasty to map the existing landscape and identify gaps in cultural narrative.

Content Research

Analysed food content across social media to understand what formats resonated most with users and what feelings they triggered.

Cultural Research

Explored the role of food in cultural identity across communities to inform the narrative and design direction.

Field Study

Observed cooking behaviour and grocery shopping patterns to uncover real-world friction points and moments of delight.

Theory Cluster

Applied cultural identity and motivation theory to ground our design decisions in behavioural evidence and existing research.

Data · Problem 03 · Fragmentation

Where do you most often find recipes?

31 responses

Family / friends

41.9%

Recipe apps

3.2%

Cookbooks

9.7%

Digital / social platforms Human / traditional sources

Users pull from 7+ separate platforms — none unified, none culturally contextual.

Presenting the market analysis — a $32B+ TAM with strong cultural food discovery demand globally.

"I wish I could recreate the soup I had in South Korea, but I wouldn't know where to start."

03 · Insights

What the research actually told us.

6–10

user interviews conducted to explore culinary routines and discover patterns in repetitive meal behaviour.

↑

Strong desire to explore specific cultural contexts — connections ran deeper than just ingredients and recipes.

↓

Recipe content is overwhelming. Users want support, inspiration, and narrative — not just step-by-step instructions.

→

People want curated content and a sense of place — they want to go somewhere through food.

04 · The Pivot

The Pivot.

Initial direction vs. where research took us

Initial direction

Recipe organisation and smart bookmarking
Personalised dietary filters and preferences
Curated weekly meal planning tools
Shopping list and pantry integration

Where research took us

People want to go somewhere, not just cook something.

Decision Point

Build an app that takes users on a culinary journey — not just a recipe library. Introduce different cultures and create connection through food. The shift was from utility to identity.

05 · User Flow

Mapping the user journey.

We mapped how users would navigate the app — from landing on a country to completing a recipe. The goal was to design a journey, not a search engine.

Early-stage user flow sketched on the whiteboard — mapping discovery paths from country exploration through to recipe completion.

01 Explore
Region

→

02 Read
Story

→

03 Find
Recipe

→

04 Gather
Ingredients

→

05 Cook
& Share

06 · Brand Identity

A brand rooted in warmth and culture.

07 · Wireframes

From sketch to screen.

We started with low-fidelity sketches before moving into Figma. The wireframes focused on content hierarchy — making sure culture and story came before ingredients and steps.

Navigation

Explore, Saved, Shopping List and Profile — keeping discovery always one tap away.

Content Hierarchy

Article and cultural story first, then recipe steps. Narrative precedes instruction.

Region Hub

Each country has its own editorial hub — articles, street food spots and featured recipes.

Discovery Feed

Personalised based on prior exploration history, not just dietary preferences.

08 · Prototype

The hi-fi prototype.

After multiple rounds of usability testing and heuristic evaluation, we landed on a high-fidelity prototype that brings the cultural journey to life.

Explore

Regional hubs featuring highlighted articles, street food, and guided recipe paths.

Recipes

Newest and most popular recipes surfaced by region, with cultural context throughout.

09 · Solution

The Solution.

Region-Specific Exploration

Browse and discover authentic cuisines from specific countries and cultural regions, organised by heritage and story.

Ingredient-Based Discovery

Find meaningful recipes based on what you have or the cultural ingredients you want to explore and learn to use.

Cultural Narrative

Every recipe is paired with cultural stories, heritage context, and background so that cooking becomes an immersive journey.

Community Mode

Connect with others exploring the same cuisines and share your own cultural cooking experiences and discoveries.

10 · Reflection

What I'd do differently.

More User Testing

We would have benefitted from recruiting a more diverse set of users — particularly people who had migrated and had deep emotional connections to specific cuisines.

Earlier Prototyping

Moving into interactive prototypes sooner would have surfaced navigation issues earlier and reduced late-stage rework on the explore flow.

Content Strategy

The editorial content model needed more definition early on — how cultural articles and recipes relate to each other at scale required clearer structure.

WhereFood Travels.