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Killing the Doom-Scroll

Major Developments

  • Completely redesigned Discover screen
  • Moved search to its own dedicated tab (now 4 tabs: Discover, Search, Log, Profile)
  • Added icons to all bottom navigation tabs

After some thought in the initial version, I didn't really want this to just be another clone of a social media where you have a doom-scroll feed. I still wanted the community feel and be able to see what others were cooking, but decided to swap to a more "restricted" set of discover to some degree. I'm not trying to build an application for people to become a popular culinary focus, I'm building something for people to personally improve and come to enjoy cooking more.

Now, the users can get a limited feed that updates every once in a while based on technique, chef, etc... This way you can still have a variety of things to read through and search, and you still have a global feed of information, but it's not something that will end up just scrolling forever.

Decisions

  • ScrollView over FlatList: Finite content means no need for virtualized list - once you scroll through, you're done
  • No follower/like counts on discovery cards: Avoiding clout mechanics entirely
  • Search as separate tab: Keeps Discover clean and intentional, search is a different mental mode
  • Sections not algorithm: Each section has explicit purpose (Featured Technique, Rising Cooks, Moods, Techniques, Inspiration)

As mentioned above, I wanted to do something slightly different. We've pushed away from the likes/reposts and features that (in my eyes) detract from the social experience, but tried to keep things still social. This will inevitably change as I move forward with things but for now this is a good split.

Next

  • Wire up mock data to real Supabase queries (Featured Technique, Rising Cooks)
  • Build technique-filtered views when tapping "Explore Braised Dishes"
  • Build mood-filtered views when tapping mood chips
  • Consider a constrained "Friends' Recent" section (finite, not infinite)
  • Visual polish on the section cards and spacing