Isaac Olawumi
Ember
AI-powered culinary companion
Ember is a mobile-first culinary platform designed to simplify everyday cooking through personalized recipe discovery, guided meal preparation, and AI-powered assistance. The platform helps users decide what to cook, discover meals tailored to their preferences, and follow step-by-step instructions with ease.
Many people struggle with deciding what to cook, finding recipes that match their preferences, or knowing how to make the most of the ingredients already available to them. While recipes are widely available online, the experience is often fragmented across websites, videos, and social platforms.
Ember was designed to centralize the cooking experience by combining recipe discovery, personalized recommendations, guided cooking, and AI assistance into one intuitive mobile application.
Problem
Users often spend significant time searching for meal ideas, comparing recipes across multiple platforms, and determining how to prepare unfamiliar dishes. Additionally, many individuals lack confidence in the kitchen and need more structured guidance throughout the cooking process.
Objectives
• Simplify meal discovery and decision-making.
• Provide personalized recipe recommendations.
• Help users cook with confidence through guided instructions.
• Reduce the time spent searching for recipes online.
• Leverage AI to create a more intelligent and supportive cooking experience.
Design Approach
The design process focused on creating a clean and engaging experience that makes cooking feel approachable for users of all skill levels. Research into recipe platforms and cooking behaviors helped identify opportunities to reduce friction in meal discovery and preparation.
Key Solutions
• Personalized recipe recommendations based on user preferences.
• Structured onboarding to understand dietary interests and cooking goals.
• Detailed recipe pages featuring ingredients and step-by-step instructions.
• AI-powered assistant capable of providing cooking guidance through text and voice interactions.
• Ingredient-based recipe suggestions that help users create meals from available ingredients.
• Video integration for users who prefer visual learning and demonstrations.
• Curated recipe exploration across different cuisines and food categories.
Challenges
One of the primary challenges was balancing rich content with simplicity. Recipe platforms naturally contain large amounts of information, including ingredients, preparation steps, nutritional details, and media content. The design needed to present this information in a way that felt organized, engaging, and easy to follow.
Outcome
The final product delivered a seamless culinary experience that combines recipe discovery, meal planning, and cooking assistance within a single platform. Through a user-centered design approach, Ember transformed the traditionally fragmented cooking journey into a guided and personalized experience that supports users from meal selection to preparation.