Dished
A mobile app that helps users discover new recipes and explore global cuisines by connecting dishes and ingredients with their cultural and climatic origins.
TIMELINE
Jan – Mar 2025
TEAM
Solo
tools & skills
User Research, UX/UI Design
BACKGROUND
“We do not know a nation until we sit at its dining table.”
(Qin, 2013, p. 35)
A nation's gastronomy reflects its sociocultural history. Every cuisine is developed from a combination of a region's history, geography, climate, survival struggles, and lifestyles.
Gastronomy is often used to promote a nation’s culture to foreigners overseas. Notably, the “Global Thai” program launched in 2002 boosted the number of Thai restaurants worldwide to promote tourism and build a favourable image of Thai culture. Obviously, this worked quite well: Thai food is now one of the most popular cuisines worldwide despite the country’s relatively small diaspora.
Open lots of Thai restaurants overseas.
Diners enjoy the food and keep returning.
More people are aware of Thai culture.
The country is now associated with delicious food and friendly people.
Tourism to Thailand increases.
Thus, the cross-cultural sharing of food contributes significantly to the sustainment and perpetuation of different cultures.
But where does this leave countries without the means to promote their culture overseas? For example, Burmese, Cambodian, and Laotian cuisines are often overshadowed by Thai, the more popular Southeast Asian cuisine.
the problem for restaurants
People are eating out less.
In the highly competitive restaurant business, lesser-known nations may struggle to establish recognition for their unique national cuisines. This is exacerbated by the rising cost of living, which compels potential diners to stay home and cook their own meals.
75%
of Canadians are eating out less often due to the rising cost of living (Wilson, 2025).
62%
of U.S. adults cook at home, and for about an hour a day (Ewoldt et al., 2025).
This disproportionately affects restaurants with lesser-known cuisines, which are often confined to immigrant enclaves in low-income neighbourhoods (Park, 2017).
the problem for home cooks
Lack of knowledge and information on global cooking.
Home cooks are tired of eating the same food.
Need meal variety and new foods to increase consumption and satisfaction.
But to try new foods, they need taste information and/or sufficient familiarity.
With more people opting to cook meals at home for economic reasons, the perspective of home cooks is also important. Many home cooks rely on convenience and lack the knowledge to cook new dishes, ending up with repetitive meals that decrease satisfaction and food consumption over time (Hendricks et al., 2021). However, 71% of adult home cooks do want to learn more about cooking, especially ethnic dishes (Worsley et al., 2014). They just need enough information to do so.
pain points
Restaurants with lesser-known cuisines struggle to attract diners.
Increased cost of living makes dining out inaccessible to many.
Cuisines associated with "refined" taste and restaurants in high-income neighbourhoods are promoted more.
People are reluctant to try new foods due to unfamiliarity and lack of information.
Home cooks are tired of eating the same food due to limited cooking knowledge.
Cooking new dishes can be daunting, especially when having to buy new ingredients.
problem statement
Home cooks and diners struggle to explore lesser-known cuisines due to limited knowledge and reluctance to try new dishes.
challenge
How can we get people to try new things?
People have the willingness to taste and cook new foods, but there must be enough familiarity or taste information to do so (Stallberg-White & Pliner, 1999).
By introducing people to foods in the context of what they already enjoy, they'll be more willing to try new things. For example, knowing a dish contains a known and liked ingredient will increase someone's chance of trying it. This creates an opportunity to teach people about global cuisines within their comfort level.
competitive analysis
I analyzed existing food/recipe discovery platforms targeted to home cooks in order to understand current solutions and identify gaps in the market.
Taste Atlas
Comprehensive content on dishes and their origins, but messy navigation and unclear social features. The rating system for dishes is problematic due to the subjectivity of taste. However, it is clear that their audience is for people that engage with food on a deeper, cultural level.
SuperCook
A handy tool for making the most of the user's existing ingredients. It generates recipes from Google based on the user-inputted pantry items, providing an intuitive, practical experience.
SideChef
Personalized recipe recommendations with convenient grocery list and meal planning features. It has more emphasis on practical use (e.g. cost-effectiveness of meals, detailed cooking instructions) but lacks cultural context on dishes.
NYT Cooking
A well-known recipe source. There are good organizational features such as being able to save recipes and search based on meal type, diet, and cook time. But, these preferences aren't tied to your profile so the user experience feels impersonal.
While many recipe apps have practical elements (i.e. grocery list functions), they lack cultural education and are not tailored to the user's taste palate. Without knowing why a dish is recommended to them, users will ignore the suggestion. My product needed to be personalized; to create a sense of trust for users.
goals
My overall goal was to create a product that would allow users to discover global cuisines within their comfort level. Eventually, users would be more likely to try lesser-known cuisines due to increased familiarity. This would help support the businesses of historically overlooked and marginalized communities, whether users choose to dine out or purchase ingredients from specialized stores.
Help users discover unique foods from around the world.
Connect dishes and cuisines to their cultural origins.
Increase business for restaurants and shops with lesser-known cuisines.
Adapt to the user's taste palate and diet for personalized food recommendations.
Get users comfortable trying new foods by comparing them to familiar ones.
Make global cooking more accessible by making use of existing pantry items.
user journey map
information architecture
wireframes
design iterations
My initial design used pixel art and bright colours for a retro-inspired look. After testing with peers, I received feedback that it felt too childish.
In my next design iteration, I opted for a monochromatic design with a one accent colour and removed the dark borders. However, it now lacked visual interest due to the overwhelming amount of white. Large blocks of text also entailed a lot of scrolling.
I opted for a new visual direction entirely; one that was sophisticated and editorial with pops of colour and large sans-serif headings. By emanating the vibe of a cookbook or food magazine, the design lends a sense of authority to the user experience.
For better flow, I added elements such as tabs and floating buttons to limit the amount of scrolling.
solution
Where taste meets discovery.
The final product, Dished, is a mobile app that helps users explore food on a cultural level. With seamless navigation between cuisines, dishes, ingredients, regions, and climates, Dished maximizes the discovery of lesser-known cuisines and dishes by promoting those that match your flavour palate and diet.
I designed user flows based on my persona, Lila. Because Lila is vegetarian, the app will primarily show dishes suitable for her diet. Non-tailored options are shown only where relevant (e.g. trending on the explore page or featured on a cuisine's page).
Users go through an onboarding process to set dietary restrictions and preferred cuisines for a tailored experience.
Daily features and curated recommendations based on your diet and taste palate.
Each dish page provides extensive information, encouraging exploration and culinary discovery.
Find recipes using your pantry items or add what’s missing to your grocery list.
design
Each of Dished's five accent colours represents a different taste, region, food group, and meal type. What it means depends on the context of the tag. As users acclimate to the app, they'll begin to associate colours with meanings.
lessons learned
Consider all perspectives, not just the user.
By considering the perspective of restaurant owners in addition to home cooks, I was able to better understand the real-world consequences of not interacting with lesser-known cuisines.
Constant iteration leads to better design.
Frequent testing and feedback shaped Dished’s evolution. Each round of iteration helped refine its flow, visual hierarchy, and usability, turning rudimentary concepts into a product that felt both functional and intuitive.