Dishcovery
An image-recognition app that helps you recognise, learn about, and cook with ingredients from cultures around the world.
Overview
Dishcovery is a consumer app that uses image recognition to help you recognise, learn about, and cook with foods from around the world. Scan an unfamiliar ingredient to see its cultural and culinary context, explore recipes by cuisine or ingredient, and save what you want to try.
1Research
What We Heard
We interviewed non-student adults across the Bay Area, from a Peruvian head chef to the owner of an Asian grocery store. They wanted to reconnect with food from their cultures, learned best hands-on, and cared about authentic ingredients. What got in the way was finding the right ingredients and knowing how to use them.
Prototyping
Two experience prototypes shaped the product. Cultural context on a map made people appreciate an ingredient more, and background information in a grocery store made them more willing to buy one, though convenience usually won. Out of 60 ideas we chose a grocery companion: scan an ingredient and see where it comes from, what to cook, and how to use it.
2Final Design
V3 Redesign
We usability-tested the working React Native build and redesigned from what we saw. Recipe steps became swipeable, cultural context moved to the recipe page, and the home screen picked up cultural events like Ramadan specials.
“Recipe steps as story”: we switched from scroll to swipe after watching someone try to cook with soiled hands.