Meal Prep Application - Fridgemate
#Prototyping # Usability Testing #Logo Design #App Design
Fridgemate is an iOS app that helps with meal planning by suggesting recipes based on what users already have, aiming to cut down on food waste, fit different diets, and make cooking easier.
Overview
Role
Product Designer (UI/UX)
Timeline
6 weeks
Tools Used
Figma, FigJam, Maze
Type
Mobile (iOS)
As a cook and content creator, I often found myself stuck in a cycle of brainstorming the same recipes, leading to repetitive meals and wasted ingredients. This inefficiency not only limited my creativity but also resulted in wasted food and money. I knew there had to be a better solution.
Background
How might we create an easy-to-use meal planning app that maximizes what’s in the fridge, caters to dietary needs, reduces waste, and makes planning simple?
Opportunity
01. Empathize
To understand how other apps manage their content, I started by doing a competitive analysis of five similar meal-planning apps. I found that none of them have pantry management tools, which is a key missing feature.
Competitive Analysis
After analyzing competitors, I wanted to learn about users' meal preferences, cooking tools, portion sizes, and how they manage leftovers to gather information for creating the app. So I decided to conduct user interviews with five people, each with varying cooking habits and dietary needs, to better understand how users interact with food at home.
Research Goal
User Interviews
I learned that many users, like me, often struggle with meal variety and food waste, and they’re looking for quick and efficient ways to plan meals, portion leftovers, and accommodate diverse diets like vegetarian, lactose-free, and high-protein options.
They preferred health-conscious choices included seeking high protein and fiber content while accommodating lactose intolerance.
They valued efficient cooking methods; often portioning meals for multiple servings and repurposing leftovers to minimize waste. All while expressing a desire for more vegetarian-friendly recipe options.
Summary
Affinity Map
I collected information from the interviews on sticky notes and grouped together similar opinions, thoughts, and statements.
02. Define
After the empathize phase, I developed user persona to guide the focus on target users throughout the remaining design processes.
Based on the results of user interviews and affinity maps, I developed a persona named Sarah—a busy professional looking to save time, reduce waste, and ensure that meal planning doesn’t compromise her health goals.
Persona
“How might we design a user-friendly meal planning app for busy professionals like Sarah, promoting healthy eating and efficient meal planning while minimizing food waste and accommodating diverse dietary needs?”
How Might We Statement
03. Ideate
During the ideation phase, I began to conceptualize a unique idea for a lunch planning app. I designed a clear sitemap and user flows.
Information Architecture / Sitemap
Based on the project goals, I created a sitemap to visualize the app's structure.
I developed two user flows aimed at gathering user information to personalize their experiences and minimize food waste. The first user flow focuses on setting up diet preferences, while the second user flow involves creating a meal plan for the following week based on the ingredients the user has.
User Flows
I created a Mood board to inspire my typographic ideas and app design. I chose red as the primary color for the interface—this color has been shown to increase appetite, making it a fitting choice for a meal-planning tool.
Mood Board
Next, I sketched and designed the Logo, blending the ideas of a "Fridge" for storing food with a "Smartphone Application" for providing recipes.
Logo Design
04. Prototyping
I then translated these ideas into a low-fidelity wireframe to outline the app’s layout and functionality of the app. This process helped me visualize the information I had analyzed so far in a way that was easy to understand.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
Before conducting user tests, I refined the low-fidelity wireframes into high-fidelity ones and brought the app to life by adding clickable interactions.
High-Fidelity Wireframes
05. Usability Testing
To gain deeper insights into users and gather diverse perspectives, I conducted a user test with 10 participants using Maze, an online usability testing platform. My goal was to ensure that users could easily navigate the app, add ingredients from their fridge, and create meal plans with minimal confusion
Ensure users can navigate the app smoothly.
Confirm if explanations for each section are straightforward to users.
Check if users can search for ingredients based on what they have in the fridge.
Verify if users can successfully add recipes three times consecutively.
Goal
Input personalized information.
Set the dates for lunch.
Add ingredients.
Select recipes.
Tasks
👍🏼 Pros
Nice UI design.
Useful nutritional information.
Good quality pictures.
👎🏼 Cons
The long setup process might turn off some users.
User experience (UX) for selecting fruits/vegetables needs improvement.
Lack of clarity on required versus optional steps.
Difficulty in adding ingredients.
06. Iterations
After gathering feedback from the user test, I made several iterations to improve usability.
Users mentioned confusion when interacting with the search bar, so I updated it to display search results more clearly.
1.Search Bar
I also enhanced the time bar and scroll button for better visibility
2.Time Bar
I improved the interface for selecting preferred fruits allowing users to click on the whole image instead of touching the heart button.
3.Preferred Fruits
07. Outcome
Fridgemate was a success. 70% of users expressed that they found the app valuable and would consider using it in their personal lives. They loved how the app helped minimize food waste and simplified meal planning.
As my flagship project, I’m proud to put my name on Fridgemate. From initial concept to logo design, prototyping, and gathering user feedback, this project was a true learning experience. It challenged me to push my limits creatively and technically, but the results were worth it—a user-friendly app that has the potential to change how people approach meal planning.
08. Conclusion
I run a TikTok channel where I cook lunchboxes for my husband, and since it is a public channel, creativity was crucial. While we could have eaten the same meal for a week, I decided to prepare different meals every day to bring joy to my husband. After trying this for a month, I found that selecting meals was more challenging than expected, and the grocery costs increased due to leftover ingredients. During this time, I had the opportunity to design a mobile app and decided to incorporate my experience into the application. From creating the logo to branding, research, and prototype design, I had to build everything from scratch. Initially, it was difficult, but through this process, I learned how to accept feedback from myself and others, which led to a high-quality application thanks to the collective input. It wasn't an easy journey, but ultimately, it was a project that significantly contributed to my growth.
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