A more helpful way to

A more helpful way to

A more helpful way to

find and use recipes

find and use recipes

Role

UX Consultant

Discipline

Conversation strategy & design

Working with Publicis.Sapient, I redesigned the voice interactions for Recipedia, Unilever's Alexa recipe skill, to improve recipe discovery, enhance search relevance and give customers a way forward when their initial search failed.

Flow diagram on a whiteboard showing what should happen if a search fails
Part of the voice interaction model showing the conversation on dietary requirements
Alexa echo on a kitchen counter with a pot of basil and a bowl of tomatoes in the foreground

Project overview

Project overview

The challenge

As Amazon's default recipe skill, Recipedia attracted high volumes of traffic. Unilever wanted to maintain its position while addressing customer complaints about failed searches, irrelevant results and conversational dead ends.

My role

I led improvements to the conversational UX, collaborating closely with another designer, an analyst and a third-party development team to improve the Recipedia experience.

Possibilities to propositions

Possibilities to propositions

50

Ideas generated

Reserach, stakeholder interviews and collaborative ideation opened up new opportunity areas

50

Ideas generated

Reserach, stakeholder interviews and collaborative ideation opened up new opportunity areas

12

Concepts shortlisted

A prioritisation framework helped focus the team on the strongest opporutinites.

12

Concepts shortlisted

A prioritisation framework helped focus the team on the strongest opporutinites.

3

Propositions approved

A 300-person online community informed the final selection, which was approved by the Executive Committee.

3

Propositions approved

A 300-person online community informed the final selection, which was approved by the Executive Committee.

The thinking behind
the ideas

The thinking behind
the ideas

The evidence, experiments and design work behind three propositions for mortgages, budgeting and debt management.

Concept prioritisation framework

1 of 6

The outcome

Recipedia outcome to go here

Three validated propositions secured funding for development

Recipedia outcome to go here

Research showed strong levels of interest and perceived value, giving Experian confidence to invest in full product development. The concepts addressed key customer needs across mortgages, budgeting and debt management, and provided a clear route to leveraging open banking data.

While the targeted ad campaigns did not generate a significant sample size within the time available, the early responses were positive and supported the findings from the online community and prototype testing.

Research showed strong levels of interest and perceived value, giving Experian confidence to invest in full product development. The concepts addressed key customer needs across mortgages, budgeting and debt management, and provided a clear route to leveraging open banking data.

While the targeted ad campaigns did not generate a significant sample size within the time available, the early responses were positive and supported the findings from the online community and prototype testing.

Get in touch

Interested in working together? Let's talk.

Interested in working together? Let's talk.

Interested in working together? Let's talk.

Drop me an email

Helen West

Strategic product design leader