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Eatcue
Happy decisions for your wallet and food
ROLE
UX UI Designer
Team
Sole Designer
TIMELINE
3 Months
Year
2024
Project Overview
Class project - a platform for college students to make healthy yet budget-friendly food decisions
I worked on this project over three months as part of my UX/UI design bootcamp. The goal was to identify a real user problem and build a thoughtful solution using a structured design process
Throughout the project, I explored the problem space, conducted research to better understand user needs, and translated those insights into wireframes and prototypes. The objective wasn’t just to create screens, but to test ideas, iterate based on feedback, and develop a solution that genuinely addressed the core pain points.
Problem
How might I help college students in Melbourne make healthier food choices while also managing their spending in a way that aligns with their personal goals?
Outcome
I designed and prototyped a solution that helps Melbourne college students make healthier food and spending decisions aligned with their personal goals.
THE HIGH-LEVEL GOALS THAT DEFINED MY DESIGN
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Make good decisions easy and time-efficient
-
Make healthy habits actionable
The Statement
College students in Melbourne report wanting to spend less money on eating out during the school year and express a desire to prioritize health in their diets.
It can be difficult to set goals for achieving both at the same time without knowing how to make well-informed decisions.
This conflict creates unnecessary stress that can negatively affect the student’s mental health and social life.
The Solution
Learning to make better
decisions with Eatcue
Eatcue is an app that makes taking the first step to better wellness and health easy. Through digestible lessons and activities tailored to personal goals, users learn to make food decisions they can be proud of once and for all.
Personalized experience
Personalized learning generates a lesson plan that can best help users achieve their personal definition of healthier eating, which was shown to differ across individuals during research.
Low-commitment learning
68.8% of students surveyed reported time as an influential constraint for their food choices. By engaging with short lessons wherever and whenever, they can learn to make better decisions with as little sacrifice as possible.
Rewarded behavior
A quantitative measure of progress and rewarded behavior
helps keep the user aligned with their goals by introducing
a positive reinforcement cycle.
Bridging the gap between intention and action
Decision fatigue builds up and it becomes increasingly harder to make good choices as the day goes on.
Research
Understanding the problem
I conducted interviews and sent out a survey, sampling the viewpoints college students had towards healthy eating, how they made decisions about their food, and what goals they had for their eating and spending habits.
Organizing the notes, quotes, and data from my research through affinity mapping.
My research led me to a few emerging patterns that guided my direction
Although students enjoy eating out, they occasionally feel social pressure to do so. As such, survey results showed their overwhelming desire to reduce the amount they spend on eating out.
Students defined healthy eating differently based on their goals and values: Some cared more about how it contributed to their mental well-being, and some towards how it fueled their exercise. As such, everyone reported a different strategy they employed towards healthy eating.
From this, I concluded
Inefficiency is standing in the way of making better food decisions, and
good habits are taking too much effort to execute on.
This begged the question of
HMW improve the ease and time-efficiency of making good decisions?
HMW make healthy actions actionable?
......leading me to high-level objectives that guided my design of Eatcue.
Organizing the notes, quotes, and data from my research through affinity mapping
Design
Designing a simple & manageable experience
I designed the main flow with first-time users in mind, introducing them to the key features while having it feel simple and manageable. Adhering closely to a set of product constraints helped me set a focused approach
The app is
For learning about different healthy eating strategies
For providing guidance in making more mindful decisions
Meant to be low time commitment
The app is not
A tool for meal prepping / budgeting or any specific strategy
For telling you what the right decision is
A task you need to plan your time around
The user journey map reflects the first-time user's flow, onboarding them through a personalisation process, having them take their first lesson, and completeing their first quest.
Creating the brand:
A playful approach to health
Taking inspiration from the natural colors of vegetables such as cauliflower, spinach, and sweet potatoes, I created an experience that signaled wellness and health with a playful approach. The copy language is considerate and conversational.
Accessibility Check
Mascots
Utilizing the playful aspect of round shapes, I created the mascots in Figma. They help guide users through the experience, becoming their friend for the long journey that lies ahead.
Notable explorations in design
Utilizing the playful aspect of round shapes, I created the mascots in Figma. They help guide users through the experience, becoming their friend for the long journey that lies ahead.
Which features should go on the nav bar?
Which features should go on the nav bar?
How can I create emphasis by visually differentiating the home screen?
The home screen dictates a large chunk of how the user will experience the app. I needed to find a way to differentiate it from the other pages while still adhering to the established themes and layouts.
Behold, the final 4 contestants out of 19 iterations!
The final prototype
Ready to make your best decisions with Eatcue?
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