Thrifty Plate
Product: Meal Planning and Recipe App
Timeline: September 2022-October 2022
Role: UX/UI Designer (UX Academy Student Project)
Tools Used: Adobe XD, Figma, FigJam, Miro, Photoshop, Maze
Thrifty Plate is a meal planning app designed to reduce grocery costs and food waste by helping users plan recipes and optimize ingredients.
Problem:
Busy households waste significant food, with 30-40% of the U.S. food supply going unused. This results in significant costs for consumers. While meal planning is effective, it can be challenging to maintain due to busy schedules, often resulting in over-purchasing or inadequate planning.
Solution:
Thrifty Plate simplifies meal planning for busy, cost-conscious individuals with easy recipes, step-by-step instructions, and visuals. The app generates dynamic shopping lists based on user-selected recipes, while the search engine helps users match pantry ingredients to recipes to reduce food waste. Personalized suggestions cater to dietary needs, preferences, and portion sizes.
1. Research
This meal planning app is intended for use for a wide audience; after all, everyone has to eat! However, due to recruiting constraints, the initial project primarily focuses on millennial and Gen Z audiences.
Research consisted of a primary methods (i.e, survey, interview) and secondary methods regarding attitudes and behaviors towards grocery shopping and meal preparation.
Desk Research
Desk research was conducted to gather initial insights on food waste and strategies to mitigate it, such as meal preparation.
The average family wastes $1,600 per year in produce (source).
Reasons include overbuying, misunderstanding food expiration labels, and failing to consume leftovers or scraps. Busy schedules often lead people to prioritize convenience over meal planning, food storage research, and learning ways to repurpose unused ingredients.
Once mastered, meal planning is a strategy that can save time, money, and energy (source).
It is lauded by nutritionists, environmentalists, and bloggers alike. It can help minimize food waste when done well.
Caveat: Many people find it difficult to do (source).
Some obstacles to meal planning include uncertainty about where to begin, lack of time, difficulty choosing recipes online, picky eaters, limited cooking skills, and budget constraints.
Competitive Analysis
I researched four meal-related platforms: eMeals, HelloFresh, Tasty, and Pinterest. Each offers unique value propositions: eMeals connects customizable recipes with grocery lists (e.g., Instacart, Walmart+), Tasty and Pinterest are recipe discovery platforms, and HelloFresh delivers ingredients for user-selected meals.
Overall Competitor Strengths: All competitors offer some form of meal preparation assistance, with most prioritizing recipes for various dietary needs (e.g., plant-based, family-friendly). Competitors also include user-friendly features, such as favoriting recipes and syncing with external shopping lists, benefiting busy consumers.
Overall Competitor Weaknesses: Common barriers include overly complex, text-heavy recipes with unclear or inaccurate portion sizes, and high subscription costs. Competitors seldom offer tools to help meal planning easier or more intuitive over time.
Survey
A total of nine individuals participated in a survey, via Google Forms, on pain points and needs related to meal planning, grocery shopping, and meal preparation. Most participants were between the ages of 20-39, but one participant was in the 40-49 range. All but one user resided in the US.
During the survey, most users reported at least some level of difficulty with meal planning, with time being the biggest factor.
Other reported challenges included food waste, accommodating dietary needs, motivation, and finding recipes.
User Interviews
In addition to the survey, six participants between the ages of 25-42 were interviewed about their shopping and meal preparation habits. Four out of six users were located in the US.
Participants were asked about pain points related to grocery shopping and meal preparation, as well as strategies to improve their processes and reduce food waste (e.g., meal planning and/or delivery services). See the full list of user interview questions.
Findings
Participants found grocery shopping costly and shared that quantities sold do not always meet their needs.
Most users shop once weekly, with local or bulk stores being top choices.
Four out of six participants expressed concerns about grocery prices, with several noting that serving sizes were too large, contributing to waste. Dietary restrictions were also a concern for several users.
Notably, only one out of six participants made plans for weekly meals in advance.
This was due mostly to the time needed to plan or a perceived lack of necessity to do so in households with consistent meal routines.
Four out of six participants reported significant food waste, particularly with fresh produce and specialty items.
However, strategies discussed by user to combat food waste included:
Washing produce immediately when arriving home.
Freezing items.
Eating fresh produce shortly after buying.
Avoiding excess or unnecessary purchases.
Not ordering takeout when fresh food is available at home.
Purchasing the same or similar items regularly and regularly consuming the same foods, to avoid the cognitive load of cooking.
Participants were also asked about their experiences finding and sharing recipes.
New recipes most frequently found online, via social media or blogs.
Participants favored simple, distraction-free recipes and often used social media or go-to blogs for inspiration.
Participants highly favored recipes with fewer ingredients, presented on mediums with minimal distraction (such as wordy text or interfering ads).
Sharing recipes was also seen as a social experience for some participants. Some participants mentioned family tradition as a source for recipes and considered making traditional cultural or family dishes important.
See the Affinity Map on user interviews for all findings.
2. Define
To address the challenges identified during research, the solution aims to simplify meal preparation for cost-conscious individuals.
Desk research suggests meal planning is a solution to both waste and spending but acknowledges that people may avoid it due to perceived time and mental energy barriers, which was observed among participants who lacked consistent meal routines and often reported wasting food. Additionally, there is a lack of existing solutions that streamline this process.
Key User Goals:
Simplify meal planning with tailored recipe suggestions to ease the mental burden that deters it.
Reduce food waste by optimizing the use of pantry items, including those sold in less-than-ideal quantities.
Streamline the recipe-to-shopping process with optimized shopping lists to reduce grocery costs.
Allow users to save, import, and share recipes, creating a convenient, personalized database of options.
Design Priorities:
Easy navigation and intuitive interface.
Recipe interface pages with fewer ingredients, step-by-step instructions, and visuals for ease of use.
Features like favorites, meal categories, and a dynamic shopping list.
Personas
Three personas emerged from the research to represent prospective user groups and their unique needs, goals, and challenges:
The Young Bachelor: Represents young individuals new to cooking who face limited time, food waste, and uncertainty about where to find cooking expertise. These users need a tool that simplifies meal preparation and reduces costs.
The Busy Parent: These users are working parents balancing time constraints, budgeting, and finding kid-friendly meals. Their goals include saving time and reducing stress.
The Cultural Cook: These users are seeking creative and diverse culinary options that incorporate cultural preferences, all while managing busy schedules and maintaining a reasonable food budget.
A limitation of these personas is the lack of variation in age, given the demographics of the research participants. Since this app has potential use cases across a broad range of age groups, conducting interviews with older users would be valuable for further development.
Sitemap
Main features of the sitemap include:
Search: Enables users to search for recipes and displays relevant results.
Account: Provides user account management features, including sign-in, favorites, and settings, which includes preferences.
Recipes: Users can view recipes by category, dietary requirements, or ingredients, or receive recommendations based on their history and preferences.
Favorites: Shows saved go-to recipes and personalized recommendations based on favorites.
Shopping List: Enables users to view and manage their grocery list, with a success screen for finalized lists.
Task Flows
I created a user flow where the user navigates through several tasks in the Thrifty Plate app. These are centered around her dietary needs, and current food items at home to avoid waste.
Flow 1: The user searches for a new vegan recipe. She finds one, skims the recipe, and reads the reviews.
Flow 2: The user has carrots and chicken in the fridge that she'd like to use, so she searches for a recipe containing these ingredients to avoid wasting them.
Flow 3: The user browses her recommended recipes, selects one of the recipes displayed, and adds the ingredients to make it to the shopping list.
Flow 4: The user is shopping for items on shopping list at a local grocery store of her choosing. While in the store, the user opens to app and checks off items as she shop.
3. Design
The design process focused on creating a simple, user-friendly interface to guide users seamlessly from meal planning and exploration to execution. Design decisions were made to reduce cognitive load, simplify navigation, and provide a positive user experience.
Key features include a database of easy-to-make meals, AI-powered recipe recommendations, a system for favoriting and uploading personal recipes, social sharing features, and an interactive shopping list that integrates with selected recipes.
Sketches
I began conceptualizing the design with sketches for rapid ideation. I experimented with a few different layout options for the dashboard, shopping list, recipe display, and bottom navigation bar.
Wireframes
Next, I took my ideas from the sketches and created wireframes for the main pages within the design. I used Adobe XD for creating wireframes but later transitioned to Figma.
Login Screen
Account Settings
Dashboard
Recipe Search
Recipe View
Shopping List
Style Tile
I opted for a monochromatic green color scheme to promote themes of health, wellness, and vitality, given that this is a food app.
I wanted a simple, clean design which would not detract from the visuals of appealing food and easy to prepare recipes.
4. Usability Testing and Iterations
Nine participants participated in usability testing. This include one moderated in-person test and eight unmoderated remote tests conducted via Maze. The overall ease of the flows was rated highly, with an average score of 4.6/5 (1 = very difficult, 5 = very easy).
Strengths:
Participants frequently praised the UI and overall ease of navigation, commenting that it was simpler and clearer than other recipe platforms.
The ability to search and interact with recipes, along with the clear, minimalist design of recipe pages, was well-received.
Participants appreciated the ability to add and manage personal recipes and described the process as straightforward.
Pain Points:
Navigation issues, specifically with the favorites and shopping list icons:
Participants had difficulty locating the favorites icon in its original position. They suggested making it more visible and leaving it unfilled until selected.
Participants struggled to find the shopping list feature in the bottom navigation, indicating a need for clearer icon labeling.
Five participants found the original “partially found” option in the shopping list confusing. They recommended revising it to include a +/- system for specifying quantities.
Directing users to settings immediately after sign-up caused confusion for some participants, who indicated that they would prefer to be taken to the dashboard upon login instead.
See the summary of usability test results or link to full Maze report.
The majority of these concerns are addressed below. Sign-up was not covered due to higher-priority iterations but would need to be addressed for future updates, as a seamless onboarding experience is crucial for user retention.
Iteration 1
Due to issues with locating the favorites icon, it was repositioned to be more immediately visible to users. It now appears unfilled before a selection is made and turns red afterward.
Iteration 2
Users had difficulty locating the shopping list navigation item.
This was fixed by adding labels to navigation items.
Iteration 3
I revised the “partially found” option in the shopping list by adding a +/- system, allowing users to indicate the number of items found versus the number still needed.
Lessons Learned and Next Steps
Lessons Learned
Developing Thrifty Plate improved my understanding of research-driven design and iterative improvement while tackling the challenges of designing to solve a real world problem. Key lessons included:
I identified real pain points related to meal preparation and ideated ways to address these by creating this design.
Designing for a diverse audience requires understanding cultural influences. I initially overlooked this in the meal solution but later recognized the importance of family recipes and culturally relevant meals as key user needs.
I learned to balance features and simplicity by identifying a few essential features to focus on. I prioritizing creating a simple, user-friendly design while considering future scalability.
The iterative testing process helped me identify key areas for improvement to enhance the user experience. For this project, I used Maze for unmoderated testing, which was a new experience for me since I had only conducted moderated usability testing in the past.
Next Steps
If I were to further refine and expand Thrifty Plate, next steps would include:
Additional research with a broader age range would help incorporate the needs of other demographics that could benefit from this app. I would also further explore page redirection after sign-up, as suggested by the usability testing results.
Incorporating tips for meal planning and budgeting to help users effectively reduce food waste beyond recipes alone.
Continuing to expand and refine meal categories based on user preferences. I would also explore options to include more culturally-inspired dishes.
Exploring partnerships with grocery stores to integrate the shopping list with grocery pickup/delivery options, given that some competitors offer this functionality.