Research revealed that existing dietary apps fail to personalize recipes or substitutions to individual needs. I designed Parsely, an expert-backed MVP that analyzes any recipe and delivers safe ingredient alternatives. It helps users cook with clarity and confidence.
My Role
Accessibility Advocate, Brand Designer, Information Architect, Product Designer, UI Designer, User Researcher, UX Designer, Visual Designer
Type
iOS App Design
Industry
Health & Wellness
Tools
Adobe Illustrator, Ballpark, FigJam, Figma, Google Meet, Optimal Workshop, Whimsical
Timeline
4 weeks
Secondary research
Secondary research highlighted the widespread and complex nature of food allergies. Nearly 11% of U.S. adults (more than 27 million people) have at least one food allergy. 40% report managing two or more allergies. This significantly increases the pressure users feel when preparing meals.
The most common allergens – often referred to as the “Top 9”– include milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame. Because these ingredients appear frequently across everyday recipes, users must constantly evaluate risk before cooking.
To prevent allergic reactions, individuals rely on a continuous cycle of ingredient avoidance, planning, and medication management. Users aren’t just seeking recipes, they’re seeking reassurance, clarity, and confidence.
User interviews x 5
Competitive landscape
While existing apps support dietary preferences or allergen tracking, none offer real-time recipe analysis with personalized ingredient substitutions. This gap informed Parsely’s core value proposition: transforming any recipe into a safe, usable option tailored to the user.
Doesn’t intuitively swap safe recipe ingredients
No shopping list builder
Allergen-safe food product database
Recipe database
User community
Doesn’t intuitively swap safe recipe ingredients
No recipe database
No allergen-safe food product database
No shopping list builder
No user community
Doesn’t intuitively swap safe recipe ingredients
No recipe database
Allergen-safe food product database
Shopping list builder
User community
Doesn’t intuitively swap safe recipe ingredients
No recipe database
No allergen-safe food product database
No shopping list builder
User community
Research synthesis
Synthesizing revealed recurring challenges around cognitive load, limited meal variety and lack of trustworthy substitutions. These pain points guided prioritization toward solutions that reduce effort, expand safe options, and build user confidence.
Decision Fatigue
Cooking with dietary restrictions is mentally exhausting.
Limited Meal Variety
Safe eating often comes at the cost of enjoyment and variety.
Access Friction
Accessing allergen-safe options requires extra effort and uncertainty.
Key insights driving design
Recipe Analysis
Users feel constrained when cooking at home and want access to a wider variety of meals tailored to their needs.
To address this, introduce expert-backed recipe analysis that evaluates any recipe for unsafe ingredients and provides personalized, allergen-safe substitutions.
Product Availability
Finding allergen-safe products often requires visiting multiple stores, creating frustration and unnecessary effort.
To address this, integrate location-aware product availability to surface allergen-friendly options at nearby stores.
USer Reviews
Users want reassurance without spending extra time researching recipes or determining trustful options.
To address this, recipes saved and rated by users will be accessible to the app community. Granular filtering will be integrated for easy searching.
Research revealed that managing food allergies isn’t just about avoiding ingredients, it’s about navigating limited meal options and a lack of trust in existing tools. To translate these insights into actionable design decisions, I grounded the solution around a representative user and mapped the challenges they face throughout the cooking journey.
Daniel Desai
Age:
31
Occupation:
Software Engineer
Location:
Santa Clara, CA
Hobbies:
Music, tennis, drawing
Overview
Daniel is a software engineer who thrives on efficiency, but managing his soy, dairy, wheat and corn allergies has been wearing on him. Due to a recent promotion, his time is limited and needs a convenient solution to manage mealtimes. He’s all for using apps, but most of them don’t accommodate those with multiple dietary needs.
Frustrations
Goals
Daniel’s journey map
How might we give users easy access to allergen-safe recipes and expert-backed ingredient substitutions, ensuring confidence in their mealtime choices?
Information Architecture
The information architecture was designed to support frequent, confidence-driven actions such as recipe capture, ingredient review and saved content. This navigation is also simple and predictable.
My Dashboard
My Favorites
My Profile
Community
Onboarding *
Explore
Filter by
Recipe database
Food categories
Task Flow
Before discovering his dietary needs, Daniel collected several favorite recipes because he enjoyed cooking. To test Parsely’s recipe capture feature, he visits his Pinterest board and picks one.
Wireframes
Low-fidelity wireframes allowed me to validate core flows and content hierarchy early, ensuring safety-critical information was clear before moving into visual design.
App Name
When deciding on a unique and memorable name for my app, I jotted down several words associated with the brand voice (confident, insightful, safe, positive). I landed on a clever word that combines the verb, to parse with the word parsley = “Parsely”.
Branding
Branding decisions were guided by the need to communicate safety, confidence and approachability without feeling clinical or restrictive. A reusable component library was created to maintain visual consistency, improve accessibility and support future feature expansion.
Key comparisons
Moderated usability testing was conducted with participants to evaluate core flows and validate key design decisions. Users were asked to complete three critical tasks to uncover gaps and inform refinements before final delivery.
Onboarding
Before
Users were unsure where they were in the onboarding flow. Back/next arrows were not immediately visible.
After
A progress indicator with navigation controls was introduced, helping users understand their position in the onboarding flow.
Dashboard Navigation
Before
Users were unclear about the placement and purpose of several navigation options.
After
Navigation options were reorganized and renamed to surface the most important actions. Testing also confirmed the circular navigation as intuitive and aligned with the app.
Ingredient Substitutes
Before
Users felt the content was crowded and were unsure how to interpret ingredient replacement indicators.
After
A more simplified layout and visual indicators clarified that allergen-safe alternatives were easier to identify. Users mentioned the experience exceeded expectations.
This project highlighted how critical clarity and trust are when designing for health and wellness experiences. Usability testing reinforced that small changes (clearer onboarding progress, simplified flows and improved visual hierarchy) can significantly increase confidence.
Key learnings included:
•
Iteration builds trust. Testing early uncovered usability gaps that, once resolved, meaningfully improved user confidence.
•
Balance automation with control. Testing early uncovered usability gaps that, once resolved, meaningfully improved user confidence.
•
Designing for constraints matters. Limited screen space required thoughtful prioritization to keep critical information clear and accessible.
View CV