Introduction
Simmer is a cooking app designed to make everyday cooking easier, more intentional, and a little more fun. Instead of starting with "What do I want to eat?", Simmer starts with "What do I already have?"
Overview
Inspiration
When we first started our Product Space capstone, we were inspired by apps like SuperCook that generate recipes based on the ingredients you already have.
But as we started thinking more about the experience, we realized we didn't want to simply recreate what was already out there.
The REAL Question
What if a cooking app could help you use what you have now, while also helping you figure out what you actually want to cook next?
The Foundation
That became the foundation for Simmer. We wanted to create something that could help college students and everyday cooks waste less, spend less, save time, and feel more comfortable trying new things in the kitchen.
The Problem
Cooking can feel like a lot of work before you even start. You have ingredients sitting in your pantry that you forgot about, recipes you saved but never made, and a grocery list that somehow gets longer every week.
We saw an opportunity to connect those pieces. Instead of making users search endlessly for recipes and then figure out what they need to buy, Simmer brings the process together.
Designing around real habits
People don’t cook from a recipe every time... One of the biggest things we kept coming back to was that people don't always cook according to a recipe. Sometimes you open the fridge and realize you have three ingredients that need to be used.
Sometimes you have no idea what you want, but you're willing to try something new. And sometimes you see a recipe online and think, "I want to make that eventually."
We wanted Simmer to support all three situations, designing the experience around how people naturally decide what to eat, rather than forcing them into one way of cooking.
We started with the Pantry
Users can add the ingredients they have on hand by dictating their ingredients, scanning a photo of their receipt, or updating it manually making it easier to keep track of what is actually available. From there, Simmer can recommend recipes based on those ingredients.
Having the ingredients doesn't necessarily mean you'll want the recipe.
The goal wasn't just to show users any recipe they could technically make, we wanted recommendations to feel relevant and realistic. That distinction became really important to me as the product designer, and it's what pushed us to think harder about personalization.
Designing the Cooking Experience
From our early concepts, I worked through the information architecture, user flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity designs to create an experience that felt approachable rather than overwhelming. We organized the app around three main behaviors.
Three behaviors one connected flow
- 01
Use what I have
See recipes based on ingredients currently in your pantry, no extra shopping trip required.
- 02
Save for later
Save recipes that sound good and keep them somewhere easy to come back to when you're ready.
- 03
Plan ahead
Turn recipes into future shopping inspiration, so you can plan what to make before you head to the store.
Recipe match based on ingredients
Fav Collections
Add ingredients for a recipe to the shopping list
This helped Simmer become more than just a recipe generator, it became a way to connect cooking, planning, and grocery shopping in one place.
More than just recipes
We also wanted Simmer to feel like a place where users could discover food. We explored a social-media-inspired feed where users could browse recipes through photos, videos, and different types of cooking inspiration, especially useful for encouraging users to step outside their usual meals.
Visual Identity
Warm, cozy, a little nostalgic
Once we had the core experience figured out, we wanted the visual direction to feel just as inviting as the product itself. We landed on a warm, cozy visual identity inspired by the feeling of cooking at home, something approachable, playful, and a little nostalgic.
We wanted Simmer to feel less like a utility and more like a place you actually want to spend time in. From the illustrations and colors to the recipe cards and interactions, I worked to create a visual language that made cooking feel less intimidating and more enjoyable.
My role
Since this was a capstone project, I got to experience what it felt like to build a product from the ground up. I wasn't just designing individual screens, I was constantly thinking about why the product should exist, who we were designing for, and how all of the pieces connected.
I worked closely with our product manager and marketer to shape the idea, define the experience, and turn our early concepts into a cohesive product, from research and ideation through information architecture, wire-framing, visual design, prototyping, and iteration.
What I learned
We started with inspiration from an existing product, but the more we questioned what we actually wanted to create, the more Simmer became its own thing. It taught me that good product design isn't always about adding more features, sometimes it's about figuring out what problem is actually worth solving and making sure every part of the experience supports it.
Simmer reminded me why I love product design, as Simmer had become more than just a capstone project, it was something I genuinely wished I could use myself.