TOQUE

Helping New Cooks Build Kitchen Confidence

Project

Starting Point

Toque is a recipe-gathering and sharing app with a loyal but limited following—mostly novice cooks looking for simple meals. While its no-frills approach was a draw, user retention was low and engagement was dropping. Toque needed to become more than a static recipe box. It needed to teach, inspire, and grow with the cook.

This project was all about learning how to learn from others—and then build something for them. Through interviews, testing, and prototyping, I set out to redesign the app to help users feel more confident, organized, and engaged in the kitchen.

The Challenge

How might we make cooking feel more approachable and customizable for beginners so they keep using TOQUE?

Discovery & Research

Listening in the Kitchen

I interviewed five users with varying cooking experience—from total beginners to seasoned home chefs. The conversations revealed something important: it wasn't just about recipes. It was about learning in motion, remembering what worked, and avoiding the same mistakes twice.

Key Insights

  • Organization is a mess: Recipes are saved as random bookmarks or screenshots with no context.
  • Tweaks get lost: People forget the modifications they made or why a dish turned out better the second time.
  • Confidence dips when details are vague: Instructions like “cook until done” or “simmer lightly” are unclear for beginners.
  • Sharing is important: Many want to share tweaks or favorites with friends but feel clunky doing so.
Persona

The Novice Home Cook

Project Persona.

While they have some experience in the kitchen, they are still very new to cooking and has some knowledge gaps in the cooking process that hinders their confidence.

Behaviours

  • Looks for easy & fast recipes with clear steps and common ingredients
  • Looks for highly-rated recipes to ensure the meal has been vetted
  • Underestimates the importance of prep-work

Needs

  • Fill in gaps in cooking knowledge & processes
  • A solution to organise recipes, make notes and easily share with friends and family
  • Would like more information on cook times and temperatures to ensure food safety

Frustrations

  • Unclear cook times to know when a meal is “done”
  • Recipes are hard to find in a list of uncategorised bookmarks or pile of paper

Problem Statement

Home cooks are looking for an engaging and easy way to share, organize, and learn new recipes while growing their knowledge in the kitchen—so they can become more confident cooks.

Design

Framing the Solution

Based on the insights, I focused on three experience pillars:

Top Feature Conceptss

  • Learn in real time - Help users absorb new tips naturally as they cook.
  • Track what works - Let users record tweaks, changes, and customizations within the recipe itself.
  • Organize & Share - Make it easy to store, categorize, and send recipes to friends.

Designing a Smarter Recipe Companion

I centered the experience around a familiar but improved journey: searching for a recipe, saving it with modifications, and referring to it later.

Key Screens & Features

  • Dashboard
    A visual tracker of saved and cooked recipes to encourage repeat use. Personalized recipe recs based on skill level.
  • Recipe Details
    Shows prep/cook time clearly. "Tips" banner highlights helpful info (like “how to know if chicken is cooked”), plus toggle for voice commands—so users can scroll hands-free while cooking.
  • Edit & Save Modifications
    Users can save a recipe with their changes (e.g., “less salt,” “air-fried instead of baked”). Changes stay attached to the original.
  • Tip of the Day Overlay
    Quick, snackable advice on cooking basics. Designed to boost retention and spark curiosity.
  • Saved Recipes Page
    Recipes auto-organize by category or filter—no more endless scrolling through bookmarks or folders.

Ideation

Variation 1 - Initial rough sketch of ideas focusing on the top feature concepts.

  • beginings of the dashboard concept
  • a skill indicator on recipes
  • recipe tips

Variation 2 - A more fleshed out idea of the app.

  • Re-layout of homepage / dashboard; added more tracking features to engage with the user
  • Overall refinement and additional exploration of page layout

"I wish this app existed when I was first learning how to cook!"

– User Feedback

What We Built

Built as a mid-fidelity grayscale prototype to keep the focus on structure, flow, and usability.

Note: For full experience, please view the Figma prototype on a desktop.

Final Deliverables

  • Clickable prototype in Figma
  • Slide deck walkthrough of the research and solution

Reflections

  • Information synthesis to filter experiences into actionable tasks was a great way to breakdown the problem
  • User interviews: different perspectives offered a greater understanding of user needs

Next Steps

  • Ideate on community features for shared tips and favorites
  • Explore or examine how voice commands can enhance the experience

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