Contributions:

• One of five UX Designer/Researcher in a shared senior capstone project

Our Audience

Our target audiences are college students who think a lot about food and not always in a positive way. They may feel pressured by peers, parents, social media, or even by themselves, to lose weight in unhealthy ways. College students struggle with their relationship with food because of an oppressive diet culture and lack of guidance.
We found that most nutritionists have personal websites. Currently, there doesn’t exist a sizable database of nutritionists, which means users are forced to spend hours searching through individual websites trying to find the right fit. And, no matter how hard they tried, people weren’t able to have a food-positive mindset, overwhelmed by diet culture and negative thoughts.

Surveys and Interviews

Our team sent out a mass survey to student email lists. We had the opportunity to learn from 43 students from all grade levels about their current relationship with food and their hopes and concerns about getting expert support. Our team learned that 46% of students are feeling overwhelmed by their relationship with food, but 70% of these students have not seen a nutritionist or dietitian to discuss their feelings about food. Additionally, affordability and accessibility would be at the forefront of their minds if they were to begin the search for an expert in their area. And lastly, we learned that almost all of these students believe seeing a nutritionist to discuss their feelings about food would benefit them. With this information in mind, our team can design a platform that hones in on these students’ specific needs.

Design Principles

1. familiar - the same design concepts toward inventive ideas

2. sense of community - the users should never feel alone on this journey

3. simple - ease of use to keep the journey cool, calm, and collected.

User Goals:

1. know what the product offers

2. find and book a nutritionist that’s the right fit

3. can write an affirmation for themselves

4. view and read resources

What words do we want to emphasize?

1. reframing

2. together

What words do we want to avoid?

1. diet

2. weight loss

Sample Screens

For wireframing, I worked on the Affirmations and Resource Hub functions in particular. The Affirmation page allows users to send affirmations through text to their friends or themselves using notifications. While taking in all possible outcomes, we decided that messages would be pre-made due to the sensitive nature of our product. The Resource Hub creates a safe space for users to read up on possible questions on food or advice to form a better relationship with their bodies.