UX Case Study: Designing a Sustainable Curated Recipe Box App

Cooking at home has become increasingly important for both health and sustainability. However, many busy professionals and university students struggle with cooking due to time, limited budgets, or lack of meal-planning skills.

This case study explores the design of a mobile-first recipe box app that delivers weekly or biweekly curated ingredient kits, with recipes tailored to user preferences, budgets, and sustainability goals.

My role: UX designer — research, concept development, user personas, journey mapping, and designing the app experience (wireframes and prototypes in Figma).

The mission: Reduce food waste while making home cooking accessible, affordable, and sustainable.

• Busy professionals: Long workdays → no time or energy to shop and cook → rely on takeout.

• University students: Tight budgets + lack of cooking confidence → instant noodles and ready meals.

• Shared pain point: Grocery shopping often leads to food waste due to unused or bulk ingredients.

Problem statement:

How might we create a meal kit service that provides affordable, sustainable, and flexible cooking solutions for students and professionals, while reducing packaging and food waste?

Competitive analysis:

• HelloFresh / Gousto: Convenient but expensive; weekly delivery adds packaging waste.

• SimplyCook: Flavour kits only — not full meals.

• Local grocery delivery: Flexible but requires planning; not waste-conscious.

Gap identified: No existing service combines budget flexibility, ingredient reusability, sustainability tracking, and student-friendly options.

User research (assumptions based on secondary data):

• Professionals value time-saving and variety.

• Students value affordability, batch cooking, and zero waste.

• Both groups are increasingly motivated by sustainability and ethical sourcing.

Subscription-first (core revenue)

• Weekly or biweekly delivery.

• Tiered plans:
  - Basic (student) → affordable staples, batch-cooking recipes.
  - Standard → balance of affordability and variety.
  - Premium → higher-end ingredients, local/organic produce, chef-curated recipes.

• Pause or skip anytime → reduce churn.

One-time purchase (flexibility)

• Event-based kits: exam survival, date-night, holiday feasts.

• “Busy week” kit → test the service without commitment.

• Slightly higher cost per meal than subscriptions.

Mission-driven differentiators

• Consolidated biweekly shipments → reduce packaging waste.

• Ingredient overlap across multiple recipes → less waste.

• Local sourcing → lower carbon footprint.

• Sustainability dashboard → shows waste saved per user.

• Onboarding quiz: budget, dietary preferences, cooking skill, sustainability priorities.

• AI-powered meal planner: maximises ingredient overlap while offering recipe variety.

• Ingredient tiering: users swap between budget or premium versions.

• Meal-prep mode: Sunday delivery with recipes designed for batch cooking.

• Sustainability dashboard: track personal impact (waste saved, local produce used).

• One-time kits: quick add-on for busy weeks or special events.

• Offering budget sliders and ingredient swaps increases accessibility and reduces churn.

• Weekly/biweekly delivery with ingredient overlap reduces waste while maintaining variety.

• Eco impact tracking increases user loyalty among sustainability-minded demographics.

• Churn rate (users canceling subscriptions).

• Adoption of one-time kits (conversion funnel into subscriptions).

• Food waste reduction per box (mission-driven metric).

• User satisfaction (NPS) with affordability and sustainability.

• Ingredient shelf life → requires clear cook-by guidance.

• Balance of variety vs. overlap → AI must optimise without boring users.

• Packaging vs. perishables → sustainability trade-offs need transparency.

This case study demonstrates how a recipe box app can merge mission-driven sustainability with practical UX design to support busy professionals and students. By consolidating deliveries, maximizing ingredient overlap, and offering budget flexibility, the service reduces waste while making cooking accessible.

Next steps:

• Conduct usability testing with 5–8 users (students & professionals).

• Iterate on subscription flow, ingredient swap UI, and eco-tracking dashboard.

• Expand roadmap: cross-platform support, gamified sustainability badges, partnerships with local farms & universities.