Fridge2Table is a web app designed to help young people manage ingredients at home, track expiry dates, discover suitable recipes and organise grocery shopping in one connected experience.
The concept creates a continuous journey between storing, cooking and shopping, helping users make more intentional decisions about the food they already have.
4 Weeks
Figma, FigJam, VS Code, Generative AI
User Research, UX/UI Design & Front-end Development
Driven by user research and competitor analysis, Fridge2Table explores the food management challenges faced by young people. The process identifies key issues around ingredients visibility, food waste and meal decisions, and translates these insights into a connected web app.
Young people often forget what ingredients they already have, making it difficult to use food before it expires. At the same time, deciding what to cook can require extra time and effort, especially when fridge contents are unclear, leading to repeated purchases, unused ingredients and unnecessary food waste.
“How might we make ingredients at home more visible and easier to manage, so users can reduce food waste?”
Create a lightweight food-management experience that helps users quickly see what they have, use ingredients before they expire and decide what to cook with minimal effort.
User research was conducted to understand how young people manage ingredients, decide what to cook and deal with food waste in everyday life. Insights were gathered through online ethnography and an online survey.
Users value cooking at home but prioritise convenience and low effort.
Deciding what to cook can add unnecessary mental effort to everyday meals.
Food stored in the fridge can easily be forgotten without a visible inventory.
Expiry management is often reactive rather than proactive.
Users already create simple tracking systems, so a digital solution must minimise manual input.
01. Ingredient Status: Shows expired, expiring soon and fresh ingredients.
02. Recipe Recommendation: Recommends recipes that use the most expiring ingredients.
03. Ingredients Ready: Highlights recipes that can be made with available ingredients.
04. Expiring Ingredients: Shows how many expiring ingredients the recipe uses.
05. Recipe Search: Search recipes by keyword or ingredient.
06. Recommended / Saved: Switch between recommended and saved recipes.
07. Ingredients Ready: Highlights recipes that can be made with available ingredients.
08. Taste Filters: Filter recipes by taste preference.
09. Add to Shopping List: Add missing recipe ingredients directly to the shopping list.
10. Fridge Search: Quickly search ingredients in the fridge.
11. Ingredient Categories: Filter ingredients by category.
12. Ingredient Status Summary: Shows expired, expiring soon and fresh items.
13. Quick Add: Quickly add frequently used ingredients.
14. List / Grid View: Switch between list and grid layouts.
15. Expiry Colour Coding: Red = expired, orange = expiring soon, green = fresh.
16. Edit / Delete: Edit or remove fridge items.
17. Add Ingredient: Access more ways to add ingredients.
18. Shopping Shortcuts: Quickly add common items to the shopping list.
19. Recipe Source: Shows which recipe an ingredient was added for.
The prototype was tested with five target users to evaluate the cooking flow, ingredient management and interaction feedback.
Unsure what to do after cooking
Wanted an easier way to add missing ingredients
3/5 users were unsure what to do after completing a recipe.
Users found that ingredients without a quantity could not be accurately deducted after cooking.
Users needed clearer feedback to confirm when an action was completed successfully.
A clear action was added at the end of the recipe to help users understand how to complete the cooking flow.
After cooking, users are asked whether the ingredient is still available in the fridge.
To help users recognise and recover from mistakes.