FOOD MATCH
Background
Food Match is a self-directed exploration aimed at reducing household food waste by helping people cook with what they already have. Users enter the ingredients in their pantry or fridge, and the app surfaces recipes they can make right now. For anything missing, a built-in shopping flow connects to their preferred delivery service (Amazon Fresh, Fresh Direct, or a local grocer) so a half-stocked kitchen never becomes a reason to order takeout.
My Role
End-to-end UX and visual design: framing the problem, running the whiteboard session, building wireframes and a clickable prototype, conducting user testing, and creating the full visual system including custom illustrations and iconography.
Whiteboard Session
I started by defining the "how might we," the target user, a working set of features, and the frustrations the experience needed to address. From there I mapped a user journey in discrete steps and used those steps as the scaffolding for rough screen sketches, making sure every screen earned its place against a real user goal before any pixels got pushed.
Wireframes
I translated the sketches into structured wireframes grouped by flow, then built a first-pass prototype in InVision to put in front of real users.
User Testing, Problems and Decisions
The hardest part of the process was scoping: deciding which features belonged in an exploratory build and which to set aside, while keeping the UI aligned with patterns users already expected.
The clearest example was an allergy filter, which testers asked for. I weighed it and chose to leave it out. A credible allergy feature carries real liability if it misses an ingredient, and that level of accuracy was outside what a prototype could responsibly deliver. Promising allergy-safe results the system couldn't actually guarantee was the bigger risk, and users cooking for themselves are already the best authority on what to exclude.
Visual Design Style
The visual identity leans into a slightly retro, playful tone, carried mostly through the rounded display typography and soft background shapes. Because the recipe content is rich with photography, I kept the screens around it deliberately quiet so the food could lead. I paired Typo Round Bold for display with Quicksand for body, and built the palette around a warm green primary with coral, mustard, and caramel accents over neutral grays.
Illustration/Icon Development
All illustrations and icons were drawn from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. I sketched each one by hand first, then traced and refined with the pen tool, iterating on color and silhouette until the set felt cohesive: flat, friendly, and instantly readable at small sizes.
Final Designs
Sign In / Register & Select Your Food Preferences Screens
Profile / Digital Kitchen / Food Matches & Match Screens
Missing Ingredients / Shop Items / Payment & Delivery Screens
Weekly Menu / Favorite Recipes / Saved Menus / Saved Menu Screens
Explore / Account Settings / Grocery & Liquor Delivery Screen
Conclusion
The exploration answered the questions I set out to test and validated the core flow against user expectations. The natural next step is building it for real and testing in context. The digital kitchen flow in particular, where daily entry of pantry and fridge contents happens, would benefit from observing how people actually use it over a week rather than a session.