When we consume content online, we usually decide what to eat, listen to, or watch based on our mood.
I wanted to build a project that understands this behavior and brings everything together in one experience.
That idea led to Mood Banadu — a mood-based AI recommendation web app.
What is Mood Banadu?
Mood Banadu suggests:
- Recipes
- Music
- Movies
…based on the user’s current mood (happy, sad, calm, energetic, romantic).
Instead of random recommendations, the app focuses on context-aware suggestions with a clean and responsive UI.
Tech Stack
- React – component-based frontend
- Tailwind CSS – mobile-first, utility-based styling
- JavaScript (ES6+)
- External APIs – for recipes & movies
- AI integration – for generating mood-based suggestions
- Vercel – deployment
Key Features
- Mood selection with instant visual feedback
- AI-generated recommendations based on mood
- Recipe modal with ingredients and steps
- Responsive design across devices
- Loading states and disabled actions for better UX
Challenges I Faced (Real-world learning)
One interesting challenge was music integration.
Spotify has restricted public API access in recent times.
Instead of forcing a broken or incomplete integration, I made a product decision:
Redirect users to Spotify search based on AI-generated music suggestions.
This kept the experience:
- Clean
- Reliable
- Realistic for production use
It taught me an important lesson: Good UX is often about handling limitations gracefully.
What I Learned
- How to structure a React app using reusable components
- Managing async data and loading states properly
- Thinking beyond features and focusing on user experience
- Making practical decisions when APIs or tools have limitations
Live Demo & Code
Live Demo: https://mood-banadu.vercel.app
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/manojrahar/mood-banadu
Final Thoughts
Mood Banadu was not just about building another React project —
it was about understanding how real users interact with products and designing accordingly.
If you’re learning frontend development, I highly recommend building projects that go beyond CRUD and focus on experience and decision-making.
Thanks for reading