Priyanshi Parekh Designs
Introduction: Meeting the Need for Healthy Eating
Nourishnom is more than just a diet app—it's a comprehensive solution designed to empower users to achieve their health and wellness goals through personalized nutrition plans, community support, and intuitive tools. This app stands out by offering a seamless experience that integrates meal planning, grocery shopping, and nutrition tracking in a way that adapts to the user’s lifestyle, making healthy eating accessible and enjoyable even for those with the busiest schedules.
The Beginning: Understanding the Problem
In developing Nourishnom, I identified a critical challenge faced by a key segment of the user base: busy college students. Despite their commitment to health and fitness, these students often find it difficult to maintain a healthy diet due to time constraints and motivational barriers. This led me to articulate the following refined problem statement:
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The Challenge
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Nourishnom was born out of the need to address several key issues:
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Time Constraints: Users often lacked time for meal planning and preparation.
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Conflicting Dietary Information: The abundance of conflicting advice on what constitutes a healthy diet left many confused and frustrated.
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Motivation: Users struggled to stay motivated and consistently track their meals and nutritional intake.
"Busy college students who value health and fitness but struggle to maintain a healthy diet due to a lack of time and motivation need a convenient and personalized solution that supports their health goals and helps them sustain a healthy lifestyle, even with a packed schedule."
Diving into Research: Gaining Insights
To tackle these challenges, I initiated comprehensive user research. This included surveys and interviews with potential users to uncover their needs, frustrations, and daily habits.​
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Through this research, several insights emerged:
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Busy Schedules: Users found it challenging to find time for meal planning and often resorted to unhealthy, quick options.
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Information Overload: The plethora of dietary advice made it difficult for users to make informed decisions.
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Logging Challenges: Users frequently forgot or found it tedious to log their meals, leading to inconsistent tracking.
Key Findings
Crafting the Solution: Nourishnom’s Vision
Armed with these insights, I set out to design Nourishnom—a solution that would not only address these pain points but also enhance the overall user experience.
Core Features
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Personalized Nutrition Plans: Customized based on user preferences, dietary needs, and goals.
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Grocery List Generator: Automatically creates shopping lists from meal plans, making it easy to buy exactly what’s needed.
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Recipe Library: A rich collection of healthy recipes, complete with nutritional information.
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Nutrition Tracker: A user-friendly tool to log meals and track nutritional intake effortlessly.
Designing for Impact: The Process
1. Ideation and Brainstorming
The design process began with brainstorming sessions to envision a solution that was both user-centric and innovative. I created detailed user personas and empathy maps to guide the design and ensure we were meeting real user needs.
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2. Structuring the Experience
Next, I focused on the information architecture to ensure a seamless and intuitive user experience. This included:
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Navigation Design: Simplifying the user journey with a clear and logical navigation structure.
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Wireframes: Developing low-fidelity wireframes to outline the app’s layout and flow.
Low - Fidelity Wireframes
3. Prototyping and Testing
With the structure in place, I moved on to creating high-fidelity prototypes. These prototypes were crucial for:
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Visual Design: Crafting a clean, modern interface that was visually appealing and easy to navigate.
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Interactive Elements: Designing intuitive interactions that enhanced user engagement.
User Testing:
Conducted several rounds of testing to gather feedback and make iterative improvements.
Challenges Encountered During the design process, I faced two significant challenges:
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Challenge 1: Integrating personalized meal plans in a way that was easy to follow and adaptable to user preferences.
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Solution: Developed a dynamic meal planner that adjusts based on user feedback and dietary goals.
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Challenge 2: Ensuring the nutrition tracker was both comprehensive and user-friendly.
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Solution: I created a streamlined logging interface that provides real-time feedback and progress tracking.
Bringing It All Together: The Final Design
Reflection and Learnings
Working on Nourishnom was an enriching experience that reinforced the importance of empathy in design. By focusing on the real challenges users face, I was able to create a solution that not only meets their needs but also supports their journey towards healthier living.
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Excited to have me on board? Got any questions?
Please do not hesitate to contact me at your convenience.