Smart Ingredients List
Integrate the Smart Pantry feature with Yummly recipe ingredients list to save money, time, and reduce food waste.
Research | Ideation | Interaction
Company
Yummly
Team Breakdown
Product Manager, Engineer Lead, Lifecycle Manager, Content Designer
Duration
1.5 months
Key Roles
Planning, research, strategy, prototyping, testing
Company Overview
Yummly is a content aggregator that delivers all things recipe-related such as ingredients, articles, and short-form videos. Apart from content, Yummly also offers features such as shopping carts, and meal planners to help users, find, plan, and cook their next meal.
Business Problem
The process of manually adding and removing items in the shopping cart is redundant, causing users to lose interest in using the feature and ultimately leading to its abandonment. Low engagement with the shopping cart undermines the ability to effectively showcase Buy Online and other subscription benefits, such as the meal planner.
User Problem
Users have expressed frustration with the current ingredient feature, noting its lack of ingenuity. They believe the feature should be smarter—recognizing what they already have in their kitchen so they don’t need to add those items to the Shopping List unnecessarily.
Business Metrics
Together with the product manager, we identified key business metrics that the design should improve.
Customer Insights
I conducted informal interviews with core Yummly users to understand the issues with ingredient listings. They suggested a feature to save purchased ingredients and use them in the decision-making process when selecting a recipe.
Design Solution
The updated Yummly ingredient list will feature smart pantry integration, enabling users to view their kitchen inventory and assisting them in deciding what to cook.
Competitive Analysis
User Flow
Ideation - Layout Exploration
The new layout should include a list of items for the pantry. It is important to establish the proper architecture to ensure that the content hierarchy is clear, allowing users to complete essential tasks effectively.
Ideation - Pantry Reflection
The virtual pantry integration provides insights into the ingredients list, helping users decide what to cook in order to save money and time while also reducing waste by notifying them of items that are about to expire.
Ideation - Quick Quantity Adjustment
Item quantities can be miscalculated due to system and user errors. This ongoing issue requires thorough algorithm design to minimize mistakes. In the meantime, I provided several ideas to help users make quick adjustments.
Final Prototype
Data Performance
Conclusion
The Smart Ingredients List with pantry integration proved to be a remarkable success, garnering praise from users for its intelligence and proactive recipe recommendations. Beyond delighting users, it also delivered valuable data and insights, offering a clearer understanding of how to refine pantry calculations for an even better experience.