Resume

Kitchenmate

Academic Project

A voice-activated recipe app for the Amazon Echo Show 15 that promotes mindful and sustainable cooking.

As part of a team project during my Master’s, I led user research and prototyping for a voice-first cooking experience.

Project Overview

Role

UX Researcher & Designer

Team

5 members (Master's group project)

Plateform

Amazon Echo Show 15

Methods

Interviews, Diary Studies, Usability Testing

Duration

Academic semester project

As part of my Master’s in Human-Computer Interaction Design, I collaborated with four peers to design KitchenMate, a recipe app built specifically for the Amazon Echo Show 15.

Unlike traditional recipe apps, KitchenMate embraces voice-first interaction and sustainability-driven features to help people cook in ways that are intuitive, mindful, and environmentally conscious.

As part of my Master’s in Human-Computer Interaction Design, I collaborated with four peers to design KitchenMate, a recipe app built specifically for the Amazon Echo Show 15.

Unlike traditional recipe apps, KitchenMate embraces voice-first interaction and sustainability-driven features to help people cook in ways that are intuitive, mindful, and environmentally conscious.

As part of my Master’s in Human-Computer Interaction Design, I collaborated with four peers to design KitchenMate, a recipe app built specifically for the Amazon Echo Show 15.

Unlike traditional recipe apps, KitchenMate embraces voice-first interaction and sustainability-driven features to help people cook in ways that are intuitive, mindful, and environmentally conscious.

🥘 The Challenge

Designing for a smart display like the Echo Show 15 comes with unique constraints:

- 📱 Small screen → limited space for visuals and text.

- 🎙️ Voice-first interaction → hands-free but requires clarity and consistency

- 🧠 High-pressure context → users multitask in kitchens, so cognitive load must stay low.

- 📱 Small screen → limited space for visuals and text.

- 🎙️ Voice-first interaction → hands-free but requires clarity and consistency

- 🧠 High-pressure context → users multitask in kitchens, so cognitive load must stay low.

- 📱 Small screen → limited space for visuals and text.

- 🎙️ Voice-first interaction → hands-free but requires clarity and consistency

- 🧠 High-pressure context → users multitask in kitchens, so cognitive load must stay low.

The question: "How do you design a hands-free, voice-first cooking experience that reduces food waste without adding to the cognitive load of someone already juggling a hot pan?"

🔍 Understanding User Needs

“We combined qualitative interviews with diary studies to capture how people cook and think about food waste.”

🎙️Semi-structured interviews (n=10)

Explored cooking routines, recipe discovery methods, and awareness of food waste.

✏️ 5-day diary studies

Captured daily behaviors: meals cooked, shopping habits, and attempts at minimizing waste.

Key Insights

🍞 Food waste is common, especially for families balancing busy schedules.

🌍 Sustainability awareness varies, with some unsure of its daily impact.

💊 Health needs drive choices, especially for those with dietary restrictions.

📺 Video recipes are popular, particularly with younger audiences.

💰 Budgets matter - cost directly influences meal and shopping decisions.

Explored cooking routines, recipe discovery methods, and awareness of food waste.

Affinity mapping from our interview data.

👤Personas

We crafted three personas to represent distinct cooking motivations and pain points.

Helen – The Busy Mom

Family-focused home cook

⚠️ Struggles with meal planning, often overbuys, wants ways to reduce waste.

Sustainable Thinker

John – The Eco-Conscious Researcher

⚠️ Values sustainability but lacks time and culinary confidence.

Nora – The Health-Focused Professional

Health is wealth

⚠️ Manages PCOS through diet, needs visual, clear, and affordable recipe guidance.

💡 From Insights to Concepts

We moved from research into ideation through:

POV statements

🧠 POV statements

Defined core user needs (e.g. “Helen needs an easy way to find recipes that use up her leftovers.”)

Brainstorming sessions

Used Fig Jam and Zoom to ideate on everything from food waste tools to price comparison widgets.

Storyboards & journeys

Outlined step-by-step flows for how users would interact with the app. Created visual stories of how KitchenMate could support different users in real-life cooking scenarios.

Sitemap

Built a rough architecture for the app’s key sections and interactions.

Bringing KitchenMate to Life

✏️ Collaborative Sketching

We sketched layout ideas for major features like:

Recipe browsing
Food waste tracker
Shopping assistant
Recycling guide

We sketched layout ideas for major features like:

Recipe browsing
Food waste tracker
Shopping assistant
Recycling guide

We sketched layout ideas for major features like:

Recipe browsing
Food waste tracker
Shopping assistant
Recycling guide

🖥️ Wireframing in Figma

Designed low-fidelity wireframes tailored to the Echo Show 15’s resolution and constraints.

🎨 Building a UI Kit

We created a custom UI kit with reusable components (buttons, fonts, icons) to ensure visual consistency.

Testing KitchenMate

We conducted 10 usability tests using the think-aloud method, where participants interacted with our prototype while verbalising their thoughts.

"I love that it tells me when my food is about to expire. I'd actually use this." - Usability test participant

✅ What Users Liked

Expiry Countdown helped reduce waste

Recipe Videos supported visual learners

Recycling Locator was seen as an innovative addition

"I wasn't sure what to say to the voice assistant at first, a short tutorial would help." - Usability test participant

💡 What We Learned

Users wanted calorie information on each recipe

Price comparison across multiple stores was requested

Users wanted a tutorial to ease into the app

Feature Highlights

Healthy Recipe Focus

Business

Based on UK’s Eatwell Guide

Smart Search & Voice Control

Business

Search by voice, image, or ingredient

Personalised Suggestions

Business

Custom recipes based on user profiles

Recycling Wizard

Business

Upload an image or ask via voice to check recyclability

Purchase Companion

Business

Compare ingredient prices, check food miles, support local farms

Family-Friendly Profiles

Business

Manage multiple user preferences in one home

Accessible UI

Business

Adjustable fonts, color modes, voice prompts

`My Role in KitchenMate`

🔍 Research & Recruitment

Designed interview guides, conducted 2 interviews, and supported diary study logistics.

💡 Synthesis & Ideation

Synthesised insights through affinity mapping and POV statements, then built user journeys to visualise opportunities.

🖥️ Wireframing & Prototyping

Created low- and mid-fidelity wireframes, built the final UI kit, and crafted interaction flows tailored to the Echo Show 15.

✅ Testing

Facilitated 2 usability tests, synthesised results, and presented actionable findings to the team.

Reflections

✔️ What worked

The voice-first constraint actually made us better designers. Every decision had to earn its place because screen space was so limited. The feature set we landed on felt genuinely considered rather than feature-stuffed.

What I'd do differently

I'd design and test an onboarding flow from the start rather than treating it as an afterthought. First-time users with a voice interface need more guidance than we anticipated, several testers hesitated before speaking their first command, which told us a lot.

What I took away

Designing for voice taught me that clarity isn't just visual, it lives in the words you choose, the prompts you write, and the silences you leave room for. That's a lesson I'll carry into every project.