Approach

A typical GV Design Sprint generally spans a five-day period and involves roughly 6-8 people. For this exercise, I was working alone so I conducted a moderate amount of work every day to create the minimum viable product. This five days immersive working experience helps me focus on the problem I am solving and move fast from one phase to the next.

Day 1 - Map & Target

*The research was given by the project organizer

Problem statement

Persona

Map

By considering the goal my users have: plan their meals, keep track of their calories, and fulfill their calories goals. I sketched out this high-level map that roughly outlines the possible end-to-end experience.

Day 2 - Sketch

Lightning Demo

Before start sketching solutions, I conducted a short-version lightning demo on similar products that might solve the problem. I screenshot some really thought flow and page layout as inspiration to help me move on sketching my own solutions.

Solution sketches

Day 3 - Decide

User scenarios

After having my most used screens sketched out and iterate on my solutions. I started on making my decisions based on different life scenarios of the persona Focusing on solving her frustrations, I asked myself “how might we” questions to decide on the user flows and final screens.

Scenario 1 - Sarah wants to find out what should be her calories goal is she wants to gain more muscles.

Scenario 2 - Sarah wants more recipe ideas, when she browses online she often does not have the ingredient at home. The app helps her to plan her meal and gets the ingredients ready all at once.

Scenario 3 - Sarah just ate an apple, and she wonders how many calories does an apple have, she uses the app the keep track.

Day 4 - Prototype

Using the storyboards and my decided sketches, I went directly to visual design and hi-fi prototype. This app is providing solutions to a healthy and energetic lifestyle, therefore, I also chose bright yellow and black as the theme color to match with the fitness theme. I chose to use organic circle shapes as a background to present the vibrant energy. As the persona is a young professional living in the city, the style is minimalist, clean, and modern.

Moodboard

Hi-fi prototype

Day 5 - Test

Usability test

I conducted remote usability tests on zoom with five targeted users who always want to keep track of what they eat and plan their meals ahead of time. I briefly introduced what my app is about, and gave them three tasks to complete without providing any instructions.

Tasks

1. Can you input information about yourself and calculate your daily calorie goal?

2. Can you choose a meal and add it to your meal plan?

3. Can you add the ingredients you need to your grocery list for next week's meal？

Results

1. On the meal plan page, users need a more obvious reminder of their calories goal, so they can plan their meal accordingly.

Iteration on the meal plan page

The first version of this screen does not remind users of their daily calorie intake goal, they are not aware of how many calories they have left for a day. The second version is iterated for users to pay attention to their calories goal as well as how much they still have for a day. Version 2 also provides them a more straightforward way to see what they have had in a day, and navigate to another day easily.

2. Users feel inflexible to schedule the meal on the recipe page, they want to save the meal first and schedule it whenever.

Iteration on flow 3 Schedule a meal and track calories

In version 1, users have to schedule the meal right away after they check out a recipe, it restrains users’ flexibility of scheduling whenever they want. I altered the flow in version 2 to solve this constraint, and now the app allows users to collect a favorite meal first and schedule it later.