platemate
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Making Healthy Eating Convenient and Accessible with Personalized Meal Plans
Background
Initial Concept: Platemate started as an idea for a meal recipe app to help busy people plan meals easily.
Pivot in Focus: After talking to users, it became clear that meal delivery was a bigger challenge. Issues like limited healthy options, inflexible plans, and not meeting dietary needs inspired the shift to a meal delivery app.
The Problem: Most meal delivery services aren’t flexible enough and don’t offer enough options for different diets or budgets. Platemate is designed to make healthy eating more accessible, adaptable, and cost-friendly without reducing quality.
Platemate is a meal delivery app that simplifies healthy eating through personalized plans and seamless delivery.
Goal: To provide a flexible, easy-to-use meal delivery app that offers healthy, customizable options for busy individuals and families.
The Design Process
Discover
Define
I want to explore ways to deliver healthy, nutritious meals that are ready to eat when I need them, so that busy individuals like myself can maintain a clean diet without the hassle of meal prep or cooking.
Ideate
Sophia, 35-year-old working mom.
Goals: simplify meal prep with quick, easy options, ensure her toddler enjoys healthy meals without resistance, and save time on meal planning and delivery while maintaining variety and balanced nutrition.
Pain Points: time-consuming task of washing and cutting vegetables, balancing a nutritious diet with her toddler’s preferences, and finding cooking repetitive and exhausting during busy weeks.
A feature set categorizing a list of features into 'must have,' 'should have,' 'could have,' and 'won't have.
Prototype
Test
Research Objective
To understand users’ needs and expectations for a meal delivery app that saves time, fits within their budget, and provides healthy options, to create a solution aligned with their priorities.
Methodologies
Competitive Analysis: Examine meal apps like MyFitnessPal, Yummly, and Mealtime, focusing on key features, target audience, strengths, weaknesses, and user feedback.
User Interviews: Explore users’ meal prep routines, preferences, and desired features to identify how an app could best support their needs.
Competitive Analysis
Insights: Users prioritize simplicity, customization, and affordability, preferring meal delivery apps that offer an intuitive interface, flexible options for dietary needs, and a balance between free and premium features.
User Interviews
Conducted 1:1 interviews with 5 participants.
Insights:
Customization: Users can select from pre-set meal plans (e.g., high-protein, low-carb, family-sized). Optional customization for dietary restrictions, portion sizes, or flavor preferences.
Healthy Options: Meals prepared with fresh, high-quality ingredients.
Budget Flexibility: Tiered pricing models to cater to various budgets. Discounts for first order.
Ease of Use: Intuitive interface for selecting and scheduling meals. Integration with payment platforms.
Affinity Mapping
Learning and Guesses: Participants prioritize time-saving solutions for meal prep, prefer personalized or chef-prepared meals, and would like an app that simplifies ingredient shopping and meal planning while balancing health, convenience, and cost.
POV’s and HMW’s
Point Of View’s
I want to explore ways to offer an affordable meal delivery service with organic and natural ingredients, so that users like me can eat healthy without overspending or sacrificing quality.
I want to explore ways to provide meal delivery options that satisfy both adult and toddler preferences, so that parents can easily balance a nutritious diet with the food preferences of their children.
User Personas
Research Findings
Discoveries from User Interviews: Many people preferred a meal delivery service over a meal planning app. They mentioned that time and effort were major barriers to meal prepping, and having ready-made meals that fit their needs would make things much easier.
Challenges: Offering meals that cater to different dietary preferences and schedules, making customization easy without overwhelming users, and providing affordable meal options that don’t compromise on quality.
Project Goals
The meal delivery app will focus on convenience, health, and customization by offering fresh, organic ingredients and an intuitive platform. The goal is to create a reliable service that meets user needs and encourages healthy habits, while also supporting business growth and long-term user retention.
Feature Set
Sitemapping
User Flow
Created user flows based off the emphasized needs from user persona: sign up/preferences, and, meal customization/changes flow.
Branding
The dark green color gives a natural, warm feel, while the calligraphy font adds a homemade touch. The logo is designed to work in various sizes and formats, reflecting the brand’s focus on healthy, convenient meal delivery with a homey vibe.
The sitemap for the healthy meal delivery app prioritizes sign-up, where users input preferences, meal plans, portions, and delivery details, followed by the home screen, with navigation options for upcoming deliveries, settings, and the menu.
How Might We’s
Wireframing
How might we design a meal delivery service that offers quick and nutritious, ready-to-eat meals, helping users save time while maintaining a balanced diet without the effort of meal prep?
How might we create an affordable, subscription-based meal service that delivers healthy meals made with organic and natural ingredients, enabling users to maintain a clean diet without exceeding their budget?
How might we provide customizable meal options that cater to both adult and child-friendly tastes, so that parents can easily satisfy their nutritional goals while catering to their children’s preferences?
Ethan, 28-year-old fitness enthusiast.
Goals: achieve efficient, clean eating that aligns with his high-protein focus, minimize cooking time while maintaining food quality, and balance health, cost, and convenience.
Pain Points: limited time for meal preparation after work, difficulty maintaining a clean diet without overspending, and a preference for cooking but a dislike of spending too much time on it.
Low Fidelity
High Fidelity
Usability Testing Results
Prototype Link:
Overall Usability: both flows received positive feedback, with users finding them mostly intuitive, though minor improvements in clarity and visuals were suggested
User Flow Performance
Sign-Up Flow: 4.3/5
Participants found the sign-up process easy and mostly smooth, with some suggestions for minor usability improvements.
Change Meals Flow: 4/5
The process was intuitive, but recurring issues with the meal selection visuals affected the overall experience.
Interface Feedback
Positive:
Sign-up flow was easy to use and fast for most participants.
Meal selection through images was intuitive and straightforward in the change meals flow.
Negative:
Shaded images in the change meals flow caused confusion, and selected meals were not easily distinguishable.
User Satisfaction: High satisfaction with the flow simplicity (4.3/5 for sign-up, 4/5 for change meals), but participants noted improvements for clarity and visual appeal.
Recommendations 💡
Increase text size for improved readability and make buttons easier to press.
Redesign meal selection visuals with vibrant colors or high-contrast borders to make selections more obvious.
Add a confirmation screen post-meal change to reassure users that their updates were successfully saved.
Results 📊
Definitions of Success and Performance Metrics
Task Completion Rate: 5/5
Average Time to Task Completion: 2-3 minutes for each task
Average User Satisfaction Rating: 4/5
Average Error Rates: 2 errors per task
What Worked 👍
Intuitive Flows: Both the sign-up and change meals flows were easy to follow and navigate for most users.
Simplicity: Participants appreciated the clean and simple design, which helped streamline the processes.
Efficiency: Most users completed both flows quickly, suggesting the processes are efficient.
What Needs To Be Changed 🔧
Meal Selection Visuals: The meal selection visuals need clearer contrast, as shaded images caused confusion and made it hard to distinguish selected meals.
Text Size and Button Accessibility: Increase text size for better readability and ensure buttons are easier to press.
Confirmation Screen: Add a post-completion confirmation screen in the change meals flow to reassure users their changes were saved successfully. Remove confirmation from button to avoid user confusion.
Revisions ✏️
Meal selections now have a bright orange color, an outline, and a checkmark in a box to improve clarity and make selections easier to understand, addressing issues with dimmed visuals and hard-to-see checkmarks.
2. Increase text size for improved readability and make buttons larger to enhance ease of use.
3. Add a post-completion confirmation screen to both the sign-up and change meals flows to reassure users their actions were successful, and remove confirmation text from buttons to reduce confusion.
Final Revisions ✅
Meal selections now feature a bright orange color, an outline, and a checkmark in a box for better clarity and easier understanding, addressing previous issues with dimmed visuals and hard-to-see checkmarks. Text size has been increased for improved readability, and buttons are larger for enhanced ease of use. A post-completion confirmation screen has been added to both the sign-up and meal change flows to reassure users their actions were successful, while confirmation text has been removed from buttons to reduce confusion.
UI Kit
