Shoot for the (5) Stars

/tl;dr

Taking our native app from a content repository to an (Apple-Featured!) integral tool in the home cook’s journey

the team: Kate Tetreault, Director of Product Design; Abi Solberg, Design Director; Tabitha Rodrigue: Design Director; Daniella Barerra, Product Designer, Taylor Gonzales, Product Designer; Ashley Tenn, UX Researcher; John Torres, Creative Director

/the
opportunity

As our traffic increasingly shifted to smaller viewports, we knew we needed to evolve into the pocket-sized copilot that home cooks deserved

/goals

Move from index model to tool model

Serve the inspiration mindset not just recall

Modernize to match customer expectations and brand vibes

/the
odyssey

When I joined ATK, it had a native app, but it left a lot to be desired. It was a companion to the magazine, as opposed to a product in its own right. Over my time at ATK, we’ve flipped that script entirely.

ATK’s old native app. Yep.

ATK’s new native app!

Our first step was content parity with our web product. While the old app only had recipes from one sibling brand, we took the first step in a longer consolidation journey and featured all recipes under one roof. This was a big move in creating a product built around user needs, not internal inside baseball.

We also included Equipment Reviews– a content pillar that is consistently high on home cooks’ ranked list of membership values. The inclusion of reviews also helped support our affiliate revenue goals.

Reviews content was missing from the original ATK App

Where the old app served mostly as an index for magazine subscribers, we wanted to meet inspiration needs for digital subscribers. A personalized home screen with dynamic and hand-picked curation helped do just that.

We researched and built a dedicated ‘Cook Mode’ that provides step-by-step video guidance to home cooks as they tackle more challenging techniques. Cook Mode loops steps and is swipeable, mirroring the interactions home cooks have come to expect from video-forward platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

‘Cook Mode’ is video-forward, fun, and informative

The shopping list saw a dramatic revisit, layering ATK picks in where available to make informed grocery shopping easier.

A highly-requested personal notes feature also made its way into the new app. Now, home cooks can track changes, context, recommendations for next time right in the recipe.

We introduced a new “I cooked this” feature that automatically adds recipes marked as ‘cooked’ to a collection for easy retrieval during cooking ruts or routine meal-planning.

The work is paying off! We see an increased renewal rate (+20%) in subscribers using app in addition to the web. The app also converts at a higher rate than web, and has a higher percentage of daily active users.