Refining the process of creating a meal
This project aims to streamline meal planning for users by offering quick, healthy, and customisable recipes, efficient ingredient tracking, and more. It helps users save time, reduce food waste, and achieve health goals while accommodating diverse dietary needs and preferences.
The story of Meal Plan
Primary Goal
Secondary Goal
Enhance engagement with personalised meal suggestions, social recipe sharing, and streamlined tools for organisation and nutritional support.
Project Objectives
Reduce meal planning time, ensure 80% feature access in under 2 minutes, and achieve a 90% task completion rate.
Laying the foundation
Market Research
Market Trends
Demand for personalized nutrition is surging, with the market expected to reach USD 23.3 billion by 2027. Similarly, plant-based diets, valued at USD 74.29 billion by 2030, are growing due to health and environmental concerns. Increased home cooking post-pandemic has also reshaped habits, with 85% of Americans reporting changes in how they eat. These trends highlight a shift toward healthier, more sustainable lifestyles, creating opportunities for innovative meal planning solutions.
User Behaviour
49% of users prioritise convenience and time-saving features in meal planning apps. However, managing dietary needs and finding recipe variety remain significant challenges, as highlighted in user reviews. These behaviours underline the need for solutions that save time while accommodating diverse preferences and nutritional goals.
Relevant Technologies
Advancements such as AI-powered meal suggestions, integration with wearable devices like Fitbit and Apple Health, and the use of augmented reality and smart home technology are revolutionizing meal planning. These innovations enable greater personalization, real-time tracking, and immersive user experiences that redefine how people engage with their dietary habits.
Best Practices in UX/UI Design
Creating a user-friendly meal planning app requires intuitive navigation, personalization, and seamless integration with health platforms like Google Fit and Apple Health. Providing detailed nutritional information also helps users make informed choices, supporting their dietary goals while maintaining an engaging experience.
The Existing competition
Mealime
Offers a user-friendly interface and personalised meal plans, making it easy for users to get started. However, it lacks customisation options and community features like recipe creation and reviews. Meal Plan can capitalise on these gaps by offering more free features and interactive recipe capabilities, enhancing user engagement and satisfaction.
Yummly
Stands out with excellent recipe customisation and smart kitchen integration. Despite these strengths, it shares common weaknesses like limited free features and no user-generated content. Meal Plan can differentiate itself by providing comprehensive free features and ensuring accurate ingredient information, fostering trust and usability.
SideChef
Provides an extensive range of features, including meal planning, shopping lists, and device integration. However, it does not allow users to create their own recipes. Meal Plan can stand out by incorporating a creator mode and fostering stronger community engagement, making the platform more interactive and inclusive
Meeting the users
Many individuals face challenges in meal planning—ranging from time constraints and dietary restrictions to budget concerns and family needs. These obstacles underscore the need for a solution that is both quick and efficient, yet highly customisable to accommodate diverse lifestyles and preferences.
Deep Dive
Identifying the problem
Through research made in the discovery phase, I uncovered patterns in time management, recipe discovery, ingredient issues, and dietary preferences. These insights shaped the core challenges the solution must address, guiding design decisions.
After identifying recurring pain points and themes, two user archetypes were developed to contextualise these issues and keep the focus on real-world needs. Defining these archetypes guided the design process by clarifying user motivations and constraints.
“Cooking for my family makes me happy, but sometimes the planing takes away the joy.”
“I love eating healthy, but it’s hard to find quick, nutritious meals that fit my allergies and budget.”
Even though every user’s approach varies, five core stages that consistently shape meal planning. Users might not follow these steps in the exact same order, but they represent the key touch points where challenges and opportunities for improvement often arise.
Make meal Plan
Buying Groceries
Cook Meal
Serve meal
Refrigerate & Store
Updated problem statement
People want to eat healthily and save time, but the complexity of meal planning due to diverse dietary needs and schedules makes it overwhelming. They often resort to unhealthy takeout or repetitive meals because leading to poor eating habits and food waste.
In creating user goals section, I developed distinct personas to illustrate diverse use cases, highlighting how this project could addresses each different unique needs and goals.
Explore
Approaching the problem
Brainstorming
A mind map was created to quickly visualize the project’s scope and ensure that essential user needs—such as quick, healthy meals—remained front and center. By mapping out key features like recipe suggestions, meal planning, and grocery lists, it became easier to spot connections between user needs, potential integrations (such as smart devices), and ethical considerations like privacy and inclusivity. This approach clarified the app’s primary objectives, identified potential pitfalls, and offered a structured path for subsequent design decisions.
User Centred Design Canvas
The User-Centered Design Canvas is a strategic tool used to keep the project’s focus on real user needs, motivations, and challenges throughout development. In this case, it helped align the “Meal Plan” app’s design with the diverse requirements of personas like Elif Aksoy (a health-conscious parent) and Ali Mustapha (a fitness enthusiast). By capturing user problems, motives, fears, and business objectives in one place, the canvas ensured a balanced approach that prioritized both user and business goals. It also integrated ethical considerations, accessibility, and user feedback mechanisms, providing a comprehensive roadmap for building a solution that not only meets user expectations but also stands on solid market and ethical foundations.
Potential solutions
a personalised, user-friendly app that simplifies meal planning by offering quick, healthy recipes, efficient ingredient management, and integration with smart devices, catering to diverse dietary needs and busy lifestyles. This solution was chosen to address the common challenges of time constraints, dietary diversity, and the complexity of meal planning, ensuring users can maintain healthy eating habits with minimal effort starting from their phone anywhere.
Nutritional Information Display
Detailed nutritional information for each recipe.
Each recipe in the app comes with comprehensive nutritional data, including calorie count, macronutrients (proteins, fats, carbohydrates), and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). This helps users make informed decisions about their meals and ensures they meet their dietary and health goals.
Weekly Meal Planning
Customisable meal plans that fit users' schedules and dietary goals.
Users can select from a range of pre-made weekly meal planning templates that cater to different dietary preferences and lifestyles, such as vegetarian, high-protein, or family-friendly plans. These templates can be customised to fit the user’s schedule, ensuring a balanced and convenient meal plan for the week.
Ingredient Tracking and Expiration Reminders
Track pantry items and receive alerts for expiring ingredients.
Users can scan or manually input their pantry items into the app, which then tracks the quantity and expiration dates of each ingredient. The app sends reminders when items are nearing their expiration date, helping users reduce food waste by suggesting recipes that use those ingredients.
Extra information from community
Read articles related to health, foods, and other product reviews
Meal Plan will offer users access to community driven content, allowing them to read articles related to health, food, and product reviews. This feature will provide valuable insights and tips from experts and fellow users, helping individuals make informed decisions about their meals, ingredients, and nutrition.
Step-by-Step Cooking Tutorials
Interactive guides and video tutorials for cooking recipes.
This feature provides users with detailed, step-by-step instructions for preparing each recipe. Tutorials include text descriptions, images, and videos to guide users through the cooking process. The app also supports voice commands, allowing users to navigate instructions hands-free.
Personalised Recipe Suggestions
Based on user preferences, dietary restrictions, and available ingredients.
This feature uses user profiles and preferences to suggest recipes that align with their dietary needs and preferences. Users input their dietary restrictions, favourite cuisines, and ingredients they have on hand, and the app generates personalised recipe suggestions. This ensures that users always have a variety of meal options tailored to their specific needs.
Auto-Generated Grocery Lists
Ability to create shopping lists based on selected recipes and meal plans.
Once users have selected their meals for the week, the app generates a comprehensive grocery list that includes all the ingredients needed for the recipes. This list can be organised by category (e.g., produce, dairy, pantry items) and even sorted by store layout to make shopping more efficient. The feature also allows users to check off items as they shop.
Connect to iot
Link the app to your compatible home devices and control from the app
Meal Plan will allow users to link the app to their compatible smart home devices, enabling seamless control over kitchen gadgets such as ovens, refrigerators, and smart assistants. This integration streamlines the cooking process, allowing users to manage meal preparation, track ingredients, and even set cooking timers all within the app.
Creating storyboards highlights real-life use cases, These visual narratives help understand how Meal Plan can integrates seamlessly into daily routines and special occasions, making it a practical and versatile tool.
This flow explores a solution where a user uses the app to quickly cook a meal
This flow shows Elif planing an event and using the app to make a meal
Solution
Bringing the vision to life
Onboarding
Splash screen
Onboarding process
Onboarding process
Onboarding process
Sign In / Log in
Sign in / Log in
Onboarding
Users are guided through a three-step onboarding process. This onboarding process educates users about the app’s value proposition, sets expectations, and ensures a smooth user experience.
Creating a Meal Plan
Home
Plan
Search
Add meal
Add plan
Auto generate
Random
Select template
Searching with filters
Community Articles
Write article
Community
Explore Articles
Select articles
Read
Submit for review
Published
Shopping List
Shopping
Add to shopping List
Search
Select ingredient
Add
Select item
Add to pantry
Select Storage location
Delete
Confirm delete
Checking up with your kitchen
Finding a recipe
Following a recipe
The app provides step-by-step instructions for recipes, accompanied by a voice assistant for hands-free navigation while cooking. Users can set timers as needed and receive suggestions for serving the completed meal. After cooking, they can share their experience by adding reviews and photos."
Measuring the impact
After all iterations for the project an informal test was conducted on ten users with a Figma prototype in an uncontrolled environment with different circumstances as well as a check with the project requirements
Adherence to Apple human interface guidelines for iOS 15
In testing for accessibility the final prototype was tested with the ally contrast checker plugin on Figma
WCAG compatibility of AA
In testing for accessibility the final prototype was tested with the ally contrast checker plugin on Figma
Excellent Completion Rate
one of the result was the people that used the app were able to understand the flow of the app and were able to navigate the app well
8 users said they would use this app regularly
10 users were given the prototype to use without instructions but explanation on the use of the app to use it how it will fit into their daily lives and 8 of them said they would use it regularly if it worked as explained
User engagement rate of 80%
8 out of the 10 users proposed the main reason they would be using the app is because of the features and flow of using the app while the design of the app was considered to be clean and easy to understand
Relative Reduction in meal planning time
Compared to the normal way most users use in preparing a meal if this app is used properly it show a potential to act as a personal kitchen assistant and reduce the time it takes in creating a meal either if its a single mal or a weeks plan
Future
Creating Meal Plan 1.0
Improve Onboarding Process
Develop a more comprehensive onboarding process to help new users understand the app’s features quickly.
Include interactive tutorials, guided tours, and contextual help tips to ensure users can navigate the app with ease and make full use of its capabilities from the start.
Focus on Accessibility
Enhance the app's accessibility to ensure it is usable by a wider audience, including those with disabilities.
Implement features such as voice control, text-to-speech, adjustable font sizes, and high-contrast modes. Conduct accessibility testing to identify and address any barriers.
Incorporate Gamification Elements
Add gamification elements to make meal planning more engaging and fun.
Introduce features such as achievement badges, challenges, and rewards for users who regularly use the app, try new recipes, or reduce food waste. This can increase user engagement and retention.
Expand Integration with Other Services
Increase integration with other health and lifestyle services to provide a more holistic user experience.
Integrate with popular fitness trackers, grocery delivery services, and health apps. This will allow users to sync their meal plans with their fitness routines and streamline grocery shopping.
Utilise User Feedback for Continuous Improvement
Establish a robust system for collecting and analysing user feedback to guide continuous improvements.
Regularly update the app based on user suggestions and feedback. This can be done through in-app surveys, feedback forms, and beta testing programs.
Enhance Community Features
Strengthen community features to foster a supportive and interactive user environment.
Develop forums, recipe sharing, and user-generated content sections. Encourage users to share their meal planning tips, success stories, and favourite recipes with the community.
Implement Advanced Nutritional Analysis
Provide more detailed nutritional analysis and health insights.
Include features that allow users to track their macronutrient and micronutrient intake, monitor their progress towards health goals, and receive personalised dietary advice.
Focus on Data Privacy and Security
Ensure that user data is handled with the utmost care, focusing on privacy and security.
Implement robust data encryption, clear privacy policies, and user consent mechanisms. Regularly update security protocols to protect user information.
Optimise for Different Devices
Ensure the app performs optimally across various devices and platforms.
Test and refine the app for different screen sizes and operating systems. Consider developing a web version of the app for users who prefer accessing it from their computers.
Enhance Personalisation Features
Increase personalisation in the app to cater to individual user preferences and dietary needs.
Implement more sophisticated algorithms to suggest recipes based on users' past behaviour, health goals, and seasonal availability of ingredients. This could involve machine learning techniques to better understand and predict user preferences.
Future App Testing
Test with diverse users, platforms, and real-life situations.
This expanded testing will help identify any usability challenges, performance issues, and opportunities for enhancement, ensuring the app meets the diverse needs of users in multiple contexts, including different dietary restrictions, accessibility requirements, and device compatibility.
Updating with content for the app
Regularly updating recipes, articles, and health-related content.
Consistently adding fresh recipes, seasonal meal ideas, and nutrition tips will keep users engaged, making the app a valuable, up-to-date resource that evolves with user preferences and trends. Incorporating user-generated content, such as reviews and shared recipes, can further enhance engagement.
Final Note
