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Vansheeka Jain

Eatcue

Happy decisions for your wallet and food

ROLE

UX UI Designer

Team

Sole Designer

TIMELINE

3 Months

Year

2024
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Project Overview

Eatcue is a mobile app designed for Melbourne university students navigating the tension between eating well and managing their money. I designed it end-to-end over three months as part of my UX/UI design bootcamp — working through the full process from initial problem framing and user research to wireframes, brand identity, and interactive prototype.

After the bootcamp concluded, I revisited the project to incorporate feedback from a professional design critique — reworking my research synthesis, iterating on features I hadn't had time to fully explore, and sharpening the product direction. The version presented here reflects that revised work.

The problem

Melbourne university students want to eat healthier and spend less on food — but those two goals are harder to act on than they are to state. The problem isn't intention; it's that good decisions require time and mental energy that students often don't have. Decision fatigue builds across the day, making it increasingly hard to act on the choices they've already committed to in principle.

 

How might I reduce the friction between knowing what a better food choice looks like and actually making it?

THE HIGH-LEVEL GOALS THAT DEFINED MY DESIGN
  • Make good decisions easy and time-efficient
  • Make healthy habits actionable
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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 helps users learn to make better food decisions through short, personalised lessons and achievable daily actions. It's not a meal planner or a calorie tracker — it's a habit-building tool that meets users where they are and builds decision-making confidence over time.

 

The three design principles that shaped the product: make good decisions easy and time-efficient; make healthy habits actionable; and keep the experience low-commitment enough that using it never becomes another thing to feel guilty about skipping.

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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.
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Research

Understanding the problem

I conducted user interviews and a structured survey to understand how Melbourne university students thought about healthy eating, what influenced their food decisions day-to-day, and where their goals and their behaviour didn't align.I conducted user interviews and a structured survey to understand how Melbourne university students thought about healthy eating, what influenced their food decisions day-to-day, and where their goals and their behaviour didn't align.

Survey results showed that 68.8% of students cited time as the biggest constraint on their food choices. Interviews revealed that 'healthy eating' meant something different to almost everyone — for some it was about nutrition, for others it was about managing spending, for others it was tied to how food affected their energy and mental state. A single prescriptive solution wouldn't work; the product needed to be personalised.
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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

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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.
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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.
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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
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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 colour inspiration from natural food — the cream of cauliflower, the deep green of spinach, the warm orange of sweet potato — I built a brand that signals wellness without feeling clinical. The copy is conversational and encouraging, designed to feel like a supportive friend rather than a health app issuing instructions.

 

Accessibility was checked across all colour pairings to WCAG AA standard.

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Accessibility Check
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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.
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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?
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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!
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The final prototype

Ready to make your best decisions with Eatcue?

Reflection

Eatcue grew with me as a designer. When I first completed it, I was focused on getting through the process. When I came back to it later with fresh eyes and external feedback — from a professional design critique and peer review sessions — I saw how much the research synthesis could be sharpened and how much the product direction could be focused.

 

The decision to revisit and revise rather than just archive it was one I'd make again. Iterating on your own finished work is a different skill from iterating mid-project, and it taught me to separate what I'd made from how I felt about making it.

 

There are still things I'd like to explore: how social dynamics could be built into the app to reflect the real role friends play in food decisions; how retention might be designed once the novelty of a new habit tool wears off; and what the experience looks like for students outside the city, where access to variety and budget options looks very different.

What’s next?

Eatcue has developed alongside my growth as a designer, but there is still more to be desired.
For example, I’d love to explore...
  • How might social influence become a larger part of this experience?
  • How well would this approach work for students living outside of the city or young adults who have graduated from school?
  • What’s the user retention like, and how can I encourage users to complete their lessons?

One of the most fruitful parts of this project has been learning about the ways product informs design and vice versa. Moving forward, I'm most curious to see how new problems within the space I want to explore will continue to evolve my design.
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