Overview

This project was completed for my Design Methods course at the University of Washington. My team (Medini Jayaram, Saltanat Begalieva, Raghav Sharma, and I) designed an app that helps UW students find affordable and nutritious meal options on and around campus.

Our main goal was to explore how students navigate the tension between cost and nutrition when they decide where and what to eat, and design a tool that supports more informed food choices.

Problem Space

College students face challenges balancing affordability, nutrition, and convenience when choosing meals. Rising food costs, limited time, and a lack of healthy options on campus make it difficult to eat well on a budget. We wanted to design a solution that helps UW students discover dining options that align with their budget, dietary needs, and health goals.

Below is background research document outlining the initial problem definition, stakeholder analysis, and supporting literature that informed our project focus on balancing affordability and nutrition for UW students.

Group Project 1 - Problem Idea

Research Methods

Literature Review: Examined studies on food insecurity among college students, the role of meal planning, and systemic barriers to accessing nutritious food.

Below is a and analysis of three academic papers examining food insecurity, meal planning habits, and nutrition challenges among college students, which informed our understanding of affordability, access, and health behavior in the UW student context.

Group Project 2 - Research

Interviews: Conducted with 2 UW students (1 on-campus, 1 off-campus)

1. Topics included meal planning habits, food spending, and decision making

2. Found that students prioritize convenience and affordability, but feel guilty about unhealthy eating habits

Below are detailed notes and insights from stakeholder interviews with two UW students, highlighting their eating habits, budgeting strategies, and challenges balancing cost, health, and convenience when choosing meals.

Group Project 2 - Interviews

Personas and Scenarios:

1. Lila – a health-conscious first-year living in dorms who wants to maintain a balanced diet.

2. Ron – a busy second-year living off-campus who prioritizes affordability and convenience.

Below are personas and real-world scenarios developed from interview findings, representing key student archetypes navigating affordability and nutrition on and around campus.

Group Project 2 - Personas and Scenarios

Key Insights

• Students struggle to find nutritious options that are both affordable and accessible.

• Dining hall plans often limit flexibility and increase spending on unhealthy food.

• Lack of transparency around ingredients and limited information on meal value lead to poor decisions.

• Students want quick and clear comparisons between food options that match their needs.

Ideation

We brainstormed over 15 ideas, including meal planners, dietary specific food trucks, recipe sharing platforms, and dining plan analyzers

Our final concept was an interactive map-based app that integrates:

• Personalized dietary filters (e.g. vegetarian, gluten-free)

• Budget sliders

• Ratings and reviews from other UW students

• Estimated distance and time to each dining option

The document with all of our ideas, including sketches of potential solutions.

Group Project 3 - Ideation

Prototype

A low fidelity prototype in Figma was created that focused on an example of functional user flow. Due to time constraints, the interactive portion demonstrates the experience for users selecting “Vegan” with a $10-15 budget range. This showed the main design logic of the app – filtering by diet and price, viewing dining options on a map, and checking peer reviews.

The prototype included:

• Filter screens for diet, budget, and nutrition goals

• Interactive map showing dining locations

• Star ratings for each location

• A progress bar indicating completion through filters

Even with partial functionality, the prototype effectively communicated our concept and supported usability testing.

Link to Prototype:

UW Dining App on Figma

Analytical Evaluation

Based on instructor feedback and our own reflections, we identified areas where the prototype could better support usability, clarity, and decision-making. These insights guided key improvements:

• Enhanced personalization: Added sliders, toggles, and progress indicators to make dietary, budget, and nutrition selections more visible and flexible.

• Improved navigation and control: “Back” and “Next” buttons allow users to revisit and adjust choices without confusion.

• Clearer feedback and error prevention: Visual highlights and selection confirmations help users track progress and avoid mistakes.

• Trust and context: Star ratings, refined peer reviews, and distance/ETA information provide users with actionable insights for their dining decisions.

These improvements informed a set of new research questions to guide our next round of usability testing:

1. Do the new highlights, toggles, and sliders provide clear visual confirmation of a user’s selections, and do users notice them in real time?

2. Are the “Back” and “Next” buttons intuitive and sufficient for users to navigate freely without feeling “stuck,” or do they still need additional ways to undo or revise their choices?

3. Do users easily interpret the distance/time-to-destination feature, and does it influence their decision-making when choosing a dining option?

4. Do users trust the star-rating system and find the user reviews sufficiently detailed to inform their dining choices, or do they seek more information?

5. How effectively do the new design elements (e.g., visual feedback, toggles) help prevent accidental selections, and do users notice if they make an error?

6. Does the updated UW-themed color scheme, combined with a minimalist approach, enhance the user experience, or do users find any aspect of the interface distracting or unclear?

This document summarizes our heuristic evaluation and design modifications for the UW Dining App prototype. It outlines the original problem, previous research questions, key findings from our low-fidelity prototype, and the changes made to improve usability, navigation, feedback, and overall user experience.

Group Project 4 - Analytical Evaluation

Usability Testing

We conducted three usability tests with UW students. Each participant completed two main tasks:

1. Find a gluten-free dining option for lunch.

2. Use the app to navigate to a food location and check ETA.

Findings:

• Users disliked having to manually click “Next” after each filter.

• Some filters appeared incorrectly in summaries.

• Participants wanted a live map marker showing their current location.

• Users liked the star ratings and minimalist interface but found it a bit too plain.

• One participant mentioned that purple (UW’s color) is unique but not appetizing for a food app.

Key Improvements

Based on usability testing, we made the following updates to the prototype:

• Removed the need to click “Next” after each filter.

• Added progress bars and visual highlights for selections.

• Improved map with ETA and potential user location marker.

• Refined color palette: deep purple (UW branding), gold/yellow accents for warmth, and soft lavender highlights.

• Enhanced review system to encourage ongoing engagement.

This document presents our usability testing process and findings for the UW Dining App prototype. It includes test tasks, participant interactions, summarized insights, and the resulting improvements to navigation, map functionality, visual design, and user flow based on real student feedback.

Group Project 5 - Empirical Analysis

Final Takeaways

This project helped me develop skills in user research, prototyping, usability testing, and iterative design. I learned how to translate real user feedback into design changes that directly improve usability and trust.

If I were to continue this project, I’d focus on:

• Testing the app with a larger group of students

• Expanding the recommendation algorithm

• Making sure the prototype works for all options selected instead of the main example

Tools Used

• Figma

• Google Forms

• Google Docs