FreshScan
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Scan for Nutrition, Discover Recipes, Expand Your Choices!
Context
As part of the bootcamp by Designlab, I completed a solo end-to-end app capstone project
Role
UI/UX Designer
Product Owner
Time
100 hours, Nov 2024
Overview
FreshScan was designed to address a common problem: people often get stuck eating the same meals, which leads to a lack of variety and enjoyment in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This project targets health-conscious individuals who cook regularly but struggle to find new healthy recipes.
Problem
The key issue was meal monotony, making it harder for users to sustain a balanced, healthy diet.
Solution
FreshScan offers an intuitive solution by combining recipe suggestions, a meal scanning feature, and voice-guided cooking, helping users find new ideas and stay motivated in their healthy eating journey.
Research 1: Competitor Analysis
I did research on top 5 health and fitness apps and the analysis showed a huge market for a health-nutrition app with popular features like food logs and calorie calculators.
Things to learn
Things to avoid
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Get motivation from the My Fitness Pal community
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Easy-to-use interface
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Large food database with barcode scanner
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Personalized meal plans and recipes
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​Tracks calories, macros, and other nutrients
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Difficult to enter meals quickly
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Many features behind a paywall
Research 2: Interview
Interviews using a guide focused on nutrition apps. Conducted a mix of in-person and remote interviews (6 participants), asking participants to share which nutrition/food tracking app they use and why they like specific features.
Participants who are:
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Health-conscious individuals
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Fitness enthusiasts
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Weight loss seekers
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Tech-savvy users
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Middle to upper-middle-income individuals
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Lives in urban and suburban areas with access to gyms
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both men and women between 18-45 years old
Questions:
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Can you describe your overall experience with managing your nutrition? What methods have you used?
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What challenges have you faced in tracking or managing your nutrition?
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What would that look like if you could
have any support in managing
your nutrition?
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Where do you typically seek nutrition
information? Are there particular
resources you trust?
Key Takeaways:
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2 out of 6 participants had personal health goals and a clear plan to achieve them.
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All participants preferred free solutions.
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Those who use health-checking app ends up giving up using the app because of laziness
Affinity Map
From the interview findings, the affinity map revealed:
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Most aim to stay fit and healthy.
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Users prefer food tracking over exercise.
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They want simple meal logging (e.g., just taking a photo).
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Nutrition advice mainly comes from social media and experts.
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Only half know how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
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Self-discipline is a common challenge.
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Motivation from friends or external sources helps maintain progress.
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Meal prep is difficult without family support.
Site Map
Original Version
When I initially designed the site map, I envisioned an all-in-one platform where users could log their meals and track their progress through a comprehensive dashboard. Beyond scanning food and displaying nutrition values, I aimed to build a community aspect to foster user engagement and retention through social interaction. However, considering the project’s time constraints and scope, I chose to take a more focused approach, prioritizing a single, well-executed feature rather than spreading efforts too thin across multiple surface-level functions.
Modified Version
For MVP I choose to focus on the scan and deliver feature
User Flows
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
I created low-fidelity wireframes with multiple versions of the main screens. These were presented in a group critique session where participants shared feedback and voted on the preferred design.​
Branding
Based on nature’s colours theory, I drew inspiration from an avocado dish for the colour scheme and brand theme, as it symbolizes healthy eating.
As for typography, I used google material fonts as it is commonly acceptable by the user and I want the user to feel as comfortable as possible while using this app.
Usability Test
Key Tasks:​
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Use the scan feature to learn nutrition info for avocados and save it as an ingredient
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Use the search feature, search for eggs and generate recipes containing both egg and avocado (saved from above) and start cooking
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Use the deliver feature and order a keto meal kit
Success metrics:​
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Time to complete the flow
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Ease of use (user rate)
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Feedback of satisfaction
Five participants completed a usability test, including two who tried the app in person. I guided them through the prototype, asking them to complete three key tasks and followed up with questions after each task to gather detailed feedback.
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Key Insights:​
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The user testing helped me refine both the flow and UI. I prioritized the most urgent and feasible changes for the final deliverables. For instance, the voice mode feature on the recipe page was initially unclear to users until I provided instructions. To make it more intuitive, I changed the button text from "Start Cooking" to "Start Cooking with Voice Assistant," giving clear guidance on its function.
Other feedback, like the dashboard logic issue, will be addressed in future updates. Users were confused about how the app collects data since there was no user input screen. I realized this is crucial feedback that requires additional screens, but due to the project’s current scope, it will be part of future improvements.
Conclusion
Project Insights
Challenges Faced
Identifying the right issue to tackle was challenging, as I initially wanted to build a comprehensive app addressing multiple health and nutrition issues. However, narrowing the focus allowed for deeper exploration of features and improved usability.
Balancing end-to-end design with business goals, such as profitability and user retention, remains a challenge, especially for data-driven apps.
Lessons Learned
Next Steps
Getting feedback and iterating continually are essential for user-friendliness. Diverse user backgrounds bring unique insights, enhancing the product. Creating reusable components also makes iteration more efficient.
I plan to improve the dashboard, allowing users to input their meals, save historical results/recipes, and add features for comments and community engagement.