Research
Recipe Diary Study
A longitudinal qualitative inquiry into how home cooks capture, adapt, and revisit recipes across digital and physical tools.
Overview
Over four weeks, twelve participants logged every recipe interaction — from initial discovery through grocery shopping, cooking, and post-meal annotation. The goal was to map the real-world lifecycle of a recipe outside the constraints of a single app.
Method
Participants used a lightweight mobile diary tool to capture screenshots, voice notes, and short-form text entries. Weekly semi-structured interviews probed edge cases: substitutions, scaling, multi-device handoff, and collaborative cooking.
Key Findings
- Fragmented capture: Recipes live in screenshots, bookmarks, Instagram saves, and handwritten notes — rarely in a single system.
- In-the-moment edits: Cooks modify recipes mid-session and rarely return to formalize changes afterward.
- Trust signals matter: Source credibility and visual cues (lighting, plating) heavily influence which recipes get saved.
Implications
The findings shaped Meridian's import-first design, inline annotation system, and the decision to treat every recipe as a living document rather than a static reference card.