top of page
Mock up.png

Kukin

UX / UI Design Case Study

Project duration

November 2022 - January 2023

My role

UX Designer

UX Researcher

Responsibilities

Paper and digital wireframing

Low and high-fidelity prototyping

Iterating designs

Responsive design

Conducting interviews

Conducting usability studies

Project Overview

The product

Kukin is an app that helps young adults learn how to cook healthier meals.

The problem

Young adults between the ages of 19 to 24 are experiencing life on their own for the first time, they struggle with their eating habits and saving money. 

The goal

Design a product that helps users learn cooking skills and healthy recipes.

The design process

Empathize

Define

Ideate

Design

Test

Kukin-App-General Mockup 4.png

User research

Empathize

Summary

I interviewed young adults between the ages of 19 to 25, mainly university students who live away from home, the goal was to learn how do they experience life on their own for the first time and what are their eating habits. Most participants expressed that their eating habits had changed significantly since living on their own and most of them felt that they lacked cooking skills.

Competitive audit

I compared four products from different competitors, the competitive audit goal was to identify how users would search and follow a recipe using each of the competitors products.

Indirect competitors

Lifesum is a dietary app focused on losing, gaining and maintaining weight. It has diets and recipes but it’s mainly a calorie calculator for the users who don’t pay a subscription. 

Noom is an app focused on losing weight, it creates personalized plans for users based on their dietary preferences and on their goals.

Direct competitors

Kitchen Stories is a recipe app and website, the focus of the app is to share recipes so that users can learn how to cook. “Anyone can cook if they have the right tools and instructions”.

Tasty is a division of BuzzFeed, they share recipes and tips about cooking. Their focus is to share fun and interesting recipes.

The opportunities I found to implement on the Kukin app and website were:
 

  • Include on each recipe useful information like nutrition, cook time, servings, difficulty level, etc.

  • Step by step mode on all recipes 

  • Video instructions

  • Rating system

User personas

Define

Persona 1: Manuel

Problem statement
Manuel is a busy university student and intern at an Ad Agency who needs a way to learn how to cook healthy meals on a budget because he wants to start taking care of his health and save money by cooking at home.

Persona 1.png

Persona 2: Andrea

Problem statement
Andrea is a graphic designer working from home who needs new recipes and ideas for healthy meals because she is tired of eating the same foods and wants to try new recipes.

Persona 2.png

Ideation

Ideate

With the crazy eights ideation exercise I came up with different ideas for the app, addressing the gaps and opportunities identified in the competitive audit.
 

Home screen with recipe suggestions based on users goals and dietary preferences.

Recipes will have video instructions and step-by-step written instructions

Users profiles will have "Pin boards" or "cook books" from their saved recipes.

Recipe ingredients lists can be turned into shopping lists.

Users can rate recipes they have tried as well as share photos of their experience trying the recipes.

Shopping lists will be separate to each recipe.

Filters to search recipes (Meal time, ingredients, cook time, etc).

Initial quiz to know the objectives or users goals and dietary preferences.

Digital wireframes

Design

After sketching some ideas for the app, I created the initial designs for the Kukin app. 
These designs are focused on finding recipes.

The home screen displays popular recipes.

Android Large - 2.png

"For you" sections shows recipes the user might like based on a quiz when the user signs up.

Android Large - 2.png
Search Screen.png
Shopping Lists screen.png
Profile screen-1.png

Low-Fidelity prototype

The low-fidelity prototype for the Kukin app follows the user flow of searching up a recipe, following it, liking it and saving it to the users profile.

Captura de pantalla 2023-01-16 a la(s) 15.38.05.png

Usability study

Test

Parameters

I conducted a Usability Study for the lo-fi prototype. The main goal was to find out if the user flow is helpful for following recipes.

Group 458.png
Group 459.png
Group 460.png
Group 461.png

Findings

Group 462.png
Group 455.png
Group 456.png
Kukin-App-General Mockup.png

Refining the design

Design

Sticker sheet - Design system.png

Mockups

Shopping lists

Adding a visual shopping list, pictures of each ingredient. This is helpful for users who might not know how a specific ingredient looks.

Before usability study

After usability study

Shopping Lists screen.png
Shopping list - Mockup.png

Share button

Adding a share button. Users can share their favorite recipes.

Before usability study

After usability study

Recipe screen.png
Recipe - Mockup.png
Smoked salmon crepes step 9.png
Smoked salmon crepes step 10.png
Smoked salmon crepes step 11.png
Smoked salmon crepes step 12.png

Step-by-step mode

One of the features that users liked from the lo-fi prototype usability study was the step-by-step mode for following recipes.

Kukin-App-Mockup-5 ke screens.png

High-Fidelity prototype

The hi-fi prototype of the Kukin app follows the same user flow than the lo-fi prototype.

Captura de pantalla 2023-01-17 a la(s) 15.55.53.png

Accessibility considerations

Group 454.png
Group 455.png
Group 456.png
Kukin-App- General Mockup 2.png

Kukin website

Ideate

Sitemap

With the Kukin app design completed, I moved on to the responsive website. To make the sitemap I used the Hierarchical structure to start.

Kukin sitemap.png

Kukin website: responsive designs

Design

Screen size variations

Mobile

Android Large - 1.png

Tablet

iPad Pro 12.9_ - 1.png

Desktop

Desktop - 1.png
Kukin-Webstie-Responsive-Mockup.png

Going forward

Impact

Users shared that the Kukin App would make it easier for them to eat healthier on the regular basis.

What I learned

The most important part of the design process is to empathize with users, really understanding their needs and wants is key to deliver a useful product.

Next steps

Frame 4.png
Frame 5.png
Frame 6.png
Next project

Let's get in touch!

I would love to hear from you. Here is my email address and my links.

 

fercansino1@gmail.com​

​

© 2025 by Fernanda Cansino

bottom of page