What we heard
Client Frustrations
Chef Frustrations
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Stuck in a rotation of the same delivery apps with diminishing satisfaction
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Dietary restrictions rarely accommodated well by standard food services
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Desire for fresh, personal food without the time to cook it themselves
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Perceived cost and complexity of hiring a chef felt prohibitive
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Coordinating informal chef arrangements required too much manual effort
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Client acquisition relied entirely on word of mouth — inconsistent and unpredictable
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Payment collection was unstructured with no standard process or protection
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Scheduling across multiple clients required constant manual coordination
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Restaurant work offered financial instability and creative constraint
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No platform existed that treated private chefs as professional service providers
Timeline
6 weeks
Adobe XD and Miro
Tools
Overview
Making personal chefs as accessible as opening a delivery app.
Roux is an MVP app concept for a two-sided marketplace connecting clients who want fresh, chef-prepared meals at home with independent chefs seeking flexible, creative work outside traditional restaurants.
As sole designer, I led research, defined the problem space, and designed a solution that bridges the trust, logistics, and discovery gaps keeping the personal chef market inaccessibl
Problem
Two groups who need each other can't find each other.
For clients:
7 in 10 Americans prefer home-cooked meals over takeout—but rising work demands and packed schedules make cooking impossible. Delivery apps feel stale. Hiring a personal chef feels prohibitively complex and expensive.
For chefs:
Trained chefs are leaving restaurant kitchens in search of creative freedom and work-life balance. But building an independent practice means relying entirely on word-of-mouth, manually coordinating schedules, and chasing payments with no protection.
Research
Making personal chefs as accessible as opening a delivery app.
× 2 Classmates
Prospective client users interviewed on food habits, cooking challenges, dietary needs, and attitudes toward delivery and meal services.
× 2 International Professors
Members of an existing supper club who had already built an informal recurring arrangement with a personal chef. Engaged for concept validation.
× 1 Supper Club Chef
The chef hired to cook for the professors' supper club. Provided direct perspective on private dining dynamics and the client relationship experience.
× 1 Supper Club Chef
The chef hired to cook for the professors' supper club. Provided direct perspective on private dining dynamics and the client relationship experience.
Define
Two people. One platform.
Roux is a two-sided marketplace, which means every design decision has to hold up for two fundamentally different users with different goals, different frustrations, and different definitions of success. Personas were developed to keep both perspectives present throughout every design decision.
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The central tension in designing Roux: optimizing for the client experience at the expense of the chef experience would destroy the supply side of the marketplace. A platform that doesn't genuinely serve Sarah will never attract the chefs that make Zola's experience possible.
Self Actualization
Many chefs and cooks are moving away from traditional restaurant work due to burnout, financial uncertainties, and a desire for more control over their work-life balance.
Implications for design:
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Consider functionalities that empower chefs to have greater control over their culinary careers.
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Address burnout concerns by designing features that prioritize a healthy work-life balance.
Creative Freedom and Low Overhead
Selling meals through Instagram provides chefs with creative freedom and lower overhead costs compared to traditional restaurants.
Implications for design:
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Emphasize features that support creative expression.
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Ensure the app minimizes operational complexities, allowing chefs to focus on their craft.
Direct Creator-Consumer Connection
Interpersonal connections are formed between chefs and their customers.
Implications for Design:
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Prioritize features that facilitate direct interaction between chefs and consumers.
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Consider implementing communication channels that enhance the sense of community within the app.
Cultural and Personal Connection
The chefs expressed a strong desire to share their cultural and personal identities through their culinary creations.
Implications for Design:
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Explore features that enable chefs to showcase their culinary heritage.
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Foster a deeper connection between chefs and customers who appreciate diverse and authentic cuisines.
Low-Fidelity Mock-ups
Hi-Fidelity Mock-ups
Home Page
The goal of the homepage is to connect clients with chefs as quickly as possible. The optimum path for users is to select the "find chef" function where they will be directed to enter service needs that will then filter out chefs who cannot meet their needs.
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Chef Profile & Menu
It was important to have customers review and ratings clearly presented to build trust clients have in chefs. Chefs are also required to list ingredients for meals incase clients have special dietary needs.
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Chats
Chat function was designed as a means to build rapport between client and chef. It also provides an opportunity to discuss dietary and preparation needs that cannot be accounted for in the design process.
Item Page
The item page will be available for users to read a short description of the meal and review the ingredients used in the meal in order to check for any to that conflict with dietary restriction.
Order History
The order history page is where users will be able to review their past and future services. Users will be able to reorder a previous service without having to go through the hassle of having to remember the name of the chef an meal.
Chats
What's next?
Next phases for this project will should be focused toward designing a chef side interface. This will provide an opportunity to dive deeper into the user needs of service providers. Though chefs were consulted on what would kinds of services would be viable for the app and customer needs, my research was not focused on what would be the most efficient process on the chefs end.
