Hi, I'm Srinivas Kotha, a UX Designer.
Overview
The inspiration behind Simply.Eats came after talking to a friend who struggled to find quality food options due to transportation limitations. As a busy college student managing classes, work, and social life, cooking and maintaining a healthy diet can be challenging. While takeout is convenient, it's often unhealthy and expensive. Prioritizing nutritious meals is crucial for students' well-being, and budget management supports long-term financial goals.
Problem
How can we teach college students easy, delicious recipes and make sure the student is eating a healthy diet on a budget?
User Research
The Team
Srinivas Kotha and another UT Dallas student.
As designers, we both were responsible for the end-to-end product development from preliminary research to hi-fidelity designs.
Tools
Developed High-Fidelity Wireframes and interactive prototypes using Figma
Timeline
Oct 2022 - Nov 2022
Personas
Our goal will let college students studying at The University Of Texas at Dallas find healthy, delicious recipes within a budget.
After interviewing some college students, the problems included:
- College Dining Hall Food Not That Great
- Minimal Travel and Limited Transportation
- Wants groceries delivered to their door after
- No Time To Cook, Plan Meals, and find recipes that meet their Dietary Restrictions and have less preparation time
- Prefer a recipe app that shows Calorie Counts, Nutritional Information, Preparation Time, and a search tool that lets users to restrict their search to find the most relevant recipes based on their needs.
Features
How might we simplify cooking for college students, offering quick and easy-to-follow recipes?
Video learning has been shown to improve increased motivation and deep learning. This would sustain users to frequently use the app.
After interviewing some people and researching online, 80% of the people said that they wanted video guides that walk them through each step.
How might we personalize app diet plans for diverse needs, including vegetarian, vegan, and other dietary preferences?
With the Meal Plan feature, users can add recipes into the Meal Plan or type in the food item into the placeholder and set reminders. One future update will include the ability for people to share their meal plan to their friends.
How might we cut grocery shopping in half?
80% of college students, especially Masters students experience challenges including limited transportation and minimal travel.
With a convenient shopping feature, now, you can shop online and choose to either have your groceries delivered to your door or pick them up from any preferred store."
Lo-Fi Paper Wireframes
Designing
The app's brand personality is, "Empowering Healthier and Easier Living."
Targeting college students, the user interface had to be super easy and accessible for users in all devices. This app was made in dark mode to reduce blue light exposure and help with eye strain.
The Inter UI is a neat-looking font made specifically designed to be easy on your eyes and clear to read on computer screens. It's inspired by Roboto which is the main font for the mobile operating system on Android phones.
Hi-Fi Wireframes
Working Prototype
Reflection
Our approach to solving this problem included the classic UX journey: creating personas, finalizing features, but I had the fantastic opportunity to work on a mobile app design for The University of Texas at Dallas's UX Design Club Design Challenge. I really enjoyed this experience as it was my first time working with Figma and designing a mobile app, but still need to learn more.
I have plans to develop this app and make it for the entire audience, not just college students.