# Using Provocations to Shake the Status Quo

DevFeed: [Using Provocations to Shake the Status Quo](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/using-provocations-to-shake-the-status-quo-39157.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://open.nytimes.com/using-provocations-to-shake-the-status-quo-7e884b866310?source=rss----51e1d1745b32---4>)

Author: The NYT Open Team

Published: 2025-07-22T16:23:11Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [New York Times](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/new-york-times.md>)

Topics: [Users](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/users.md>), [format](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/format.md>), [context](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/context.md>)

Tags: [approach](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/approach.md>), [design](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/design.md>), [engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering.md>), [figma](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/figma.md>), [photography](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/photography.md>), [process](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/process.md>), [recipe](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/recipe.md>), [ux-design](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ux-design.md>), [visual-hierarchy](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/visual-hierarchy.md>), [visualization](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/visualization.md>)

## AI overview

A case study of how NYT Cooking used high-fidelity design provocations to rethink recipe cards. The approach prioritized photography, flexible recipe information, a modernized format, and a more streamlined evaluation process while keeping the project scope controlled.

## Source excerpt

The bold approach NYT Cooking used to define a strategy for recipe cards.Illustration by Ben Denzer By Jayne Lee In The New York Times Cooking, "cards," or the containers that represent our content, are the first impression of our brand. They're the window into our recipes and users rely on them to evaluate and choose what to cook. NYT Cooking users are particularly attracted to our appetizing food photos. In every research session, participants get distracted by a delicious-looking dish while answering the moderator's questions. People tend to browse with their stomachs first and then see if the recipe specifications meet their personal criteria (For example, do I have enough time to cook this?). A problem we encountered: our beautiful photography was muddied by the page's gray background. The white card containers sitting on top of the gray page forced your eyes to focus on the container instead of the photo. The visual hierarchy was at odds with the preferred reading and browsing order of our audience: photo first, then recipe information. Recipe information varies, so the card needs to afford that variability. Using containers forced us to keep our cards the same height, resulting in unnecessary whitespace. Since the cards were so tall, this limited the amount of recipes a user could see at once, increasing the time users scanned for recipes. We needed to highlight our photography, modernize the format and streamline the recipe evaluation process. While designing solutions, I realized that I had more questions than answers. Answering each question would have significantly bloated the project scope. Some examples were: What order of recipe information is most helpful when deciding between recipes? Are recipe bylines important? Which presentation of ratings is more effective? Because the priority was to update the format rather than improve comprehension, and to avoid bloating the scope of the project, I started with design provocations over design specs. Because