ReciFree
Allergy-Aware Cooking
Role
Product Designer
Timeline
3 Months (2025)
Platform
Responsive Web
Focus
Accessibility & Safety
A comprehensive responsive web project where I owned the concept, naming, and UX strategy. ReciFree utilizes inclusive design principles and a 4-size responsive system to provide an empowering, stress-free recipe discovery experience for the allergen-conscious community.
The Challenge
Managing food allergies & restrictions
Managing food allergies (affecting around 32 million Americans) presents a significant challenge in meal preparation, as existing recipe apps fail to consistently provide clear, easy-to-see allergen indicators. Users are often forced to manually check ingredients, leading to frustration and wasted time.
The Barrier
Users with dietary restrictions struggle to find reliable recipes due to cluttered interfaces, blog filler, and inconsistent, non-prominent allergen indicators.
The Goal
To create a responsive web app that prioritizes safety, efficiency, and clarity, enabling users to easily identify recipes free from specific allergens.
Adaptability
Responsive Design Examples
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User Research
Methodology & Key Insights
Who & Why
Users with established dietary restrictions or food allergies actively seeking recipes that cater to their specific needs. They browse for inspiration at home and utilize the app while grocery shopping on weekends.
Clutter vs. Clarity
All users cited a preference for clean, clear interfaces and felt that most current recipe sites are too cluttered and visually busy.
Efficiency First
Every user expressed a desire to go straight to the ingredients and explicitly do not want to read the blogger's story.
Design Strategy
The 'Not Included' Indicator
With prominent allergen indicators and personalized recommendations, users can efficiently plan and prepare healthy meals and reduce preparation anxiety.
Core Innovation
Instead of requiring the user to search for what is present, the recipe clearly displays icons with a strike-through for the user's specific allergens, providing instant, verified assurance of safety.
The Final Solution
Mobile MVP Experience
A task-forward UI that pushes recipe details to the foreground, bypassing the common "blog feel" to prioritize safety and speed.
Secure Login
User Onboarding
Allergen Setup
Safe Discovery
Recipe Details
Advanced Filtering
Architecture
Streamlining Safety Logic.
Iterative Prototyping
Rapid sketching and wireframing allowed for the validation of the information architecture. The goal was to ensure the ingredient shopping list and allergen indicators were never more than two taps away.
Verified onboarding flow for allergen capture.
Task-forward recipe interface development.
Visual Identity
Branding & System
Typography & Colors
Lexend Deca
Iconography System
Dietary Icons
Responsive Ecosystem
While mobile serves the immediate grocery store need, the tablet experience focuses on the kitchen—providing a large, high-readability layout for active cooking environments.
Conclusion
Safely Discovering Flavor.
ReciFree emerged from my own frustrations navigating the world of food allergies and the noticeable gap in recipe resources that truly prioritize allergen awareness. To ensure the app effectively addressed the needs of this community, I conducted user research to understand common pain points and identify crucial missing features in existing platforms. This insight directly informed the development of ReciFree's core functionalities, including prominent allergen indicators and personalized recommendations.
The app's fun and inviting logo and overall design were crafted by me to create a welcoming and trustworthy experience for users seeking safe and delicious recipes. Moving forward, I'm eager to explore features like enhanced personalization based on specific allergy profiles and community-driven recipe sharing to further enhance the app's value and create a supportive cooking experience for everyone.
