END-TO-END MOBILE APP

Meal Buddy

⏳ Project Duration:

10 weeks

🧰 Tools:

AdobeXD, Figma, Maze

🙋‍♀️ My Role:

end-to-end product designer

BACKGROUND

impulsive food-shopping results in buying more food than needed that becomes waste

Based on research by RTS (Recycle Track Systems®), Americans are often impulsive in purchasing food and in assessing how much food is required, resulting in them buying more than needed, or buying food that wouldn’t be eaten. Hence, food spoilage is one big reason why people end up throwing out food.

Additionally, over 80% of Americans discard perfectly good food due to misunderstanding of expiration labels.

CHALLENGE

dealing with excess food items

How might we prevent food waste by efficiently utilizing food items?

To do this, I did research to understand why people tend to over-purchase food items and, when this happens, what causes them to discard excess food. I drew 3 main insights that were validated by an online survey answered by 13 participants:

 

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS:

competitors lack customization & visuals

After comparing key features of various social platforms for cooking (BlueApron, Epicurious, Hello Fresh, AllRecipes and Tasty), I discovered that more than half of these platforms lack customization features and have limited photos / videos on the recipe instructions.

Thus, those apps without photos / videos are not as effective for millennial audiences, since close to 60% of millennials prefer cooking videos instead of written instructions.

Further, in my online survey, I found that 100% of 13 participants preferred to follow videos and images with corresponding step-by-step instructions.

 

PROBLEM ANALYSIS

create a cooking experience to better utilize leftover foods and easily determine freshness

A jobs to be done framework helped structure my thinking and identify solutions based on the user behaviors gathered from the survey. This is the most effective method to organize the 2 key problems in emotional and functional aspects.

The 2 key problems for this framework included:

  1. Utilizing leftover foods

  2. Determining food freshness.

After narrowing down to the key jobs that this app will target, I translated user behavior insights into actions and decisions to create the user flows, focusing on solving the issue of how to make use of unused or unfinished foods.

the unsure cook

The unsure cook wants to use up the food in his fridge but doesn’t know what to cook. He utilizes Meal Buddy’s scanning feature to figure out his next meal.

 
 
 

the environmental cook

 
 
 

WIREFRAMES

visualizing concepts into features

Once I was ready to start visualizing each screen and its features, I analyzed research findings and design patterns. This helped me to have an idea of what the app would look like, and I noted these ideas down by quickly hand-drawing some sketches.

I then created wireframes and drew these 2 insights on design features:

 

Visual instructions

Voice search

USABILITY TESTING & SOLUTIONS

simplifying the scan process to more efficiently determine food freshness & recipes

As I moved on to usability testing to see how users reacted to this app, I chose to test on Maze, where I could get both qualitative and quantitative results.

 

task

  1. Scan food.

  2. Find and enable food freshness indicator.

  3. Find Japanese Omelette recipe.

  4. Access account profile.

  5. Understand what the Repurpose tab is for.

#of users

11

success metrics

Test completion rate

Satisfaction rate

Qualitative feedback

 

INSIGHT 1

simplify scan process by removing photo capture step

 

INSIGHT 2

clearer indication of freshness indicator

TABLET DESIGNS

BRANDING & DESIGN SYSTEM

colors with tones of red & yellow evoke tastebuds and stimulate the appetite

Vibrant colors of food images easily grab the user’s attention. Isn’t this what I want for this app that revolves around food? Therefore, I picked magenta and orange, as well as a more earth-toned beige to balance them out.

REFLECTION

key takeaways & next steps

Due to time constraints, the app does not have a full library of recipes. So for next steps, I would continue to build on the app and test to see if the current design patterns and features work well. I would also enhance the search and filter functions to make it quick and easy for the user to find a certain type of recipe they need.

Lastly, I’ve noticed that many apps now connect to smart watches to track health and diet. I would like to integrate this feature into the app as well.

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