Promoting Engagement in Buying Meal Kits
ROLE
UI / UX Designer + Researcher
Team of 4
PROJECT TYPE
Mobile App
eCommerce
TIMELINE
Nov 2024 - Dec 2024
6 weeks
FOCUS
Discovery, Engagement
User Retention
OVERVIEW
Dishcovery is a mobile eCommerce concept that helps busy users access pre-made, cuisine-diverse meals, without the hassle of cooking or grocery shopping.
WHAT I DID
Research synthesis, end-to-end ownership of the home page, meal cards, and rewards: three places where users decide if they want to come back.
THE PROBLEM
Meal kits apps solve logistics, not desire.
Meal prep is time-consuming, but the apps meant to solve that problem introduce their own friction. Existing services feel generic — limited variety, poor customization, and little to motivate users to keep coming back.
For busy people who want to eat well and explore new cuisines, nothing on the market truly meets them where they are.
Limited variety
i want quinoa, not rice
Poor customization
Joined Oct 2024
Last order:
2 years ago
Little motivation to come back
DIS(H)COVERY
Users want convenience
without compromise.
RESEARCH
Existing meal kits made dinner easier—but left bigger needs unmet.
1
Meal prep is a time burden, not a hobby.
Users didn't describe cooking as enjoyable. They described it as something that consumed time they didn't have. They wanted convenience, and they weren't getting it.
2
The market is repetitive and culturally narrow.
Participants wanted cuisine diversity and dietary flexibility. Nothing was delivering that at the depth they wanted.
3
Nothing motivates continued use.
Users had tried meal kit services and lapsed. The experience felt transactional, as something you use once, not something you look forward to.
User interviews
4 interviews to understand meal planning habits, frustrations with existing services, and what would actually motivate someone to stick around.
Competitive analysis
Evaluated existing meal kit services across browsing, filtering, and customization to find the gaps worth designing into.
Persona development
2 personas representing varied lifestyles, preferences, and dietary needs — used to anchor decisions throughout the process.
Information architecture
Mapped end-to-end flows in FigJam — from product catalog to checkout — before a single screen was designed.
EXPLORATION
Turning insights into
solutions.
KEY ITERATIONS
From early concepts to stronger solutions.
Meal card information density vs. scannability
Rich dietary detail on every card — cramped.
Dietary icons for quick scanning. Deeper detail lives on the meal page. Clear image & white space. Fast decisions, no information loss.
Dietary icons: the learning curve
Icon-only labels. Users had to guess or give up.
Color + icon as differentiators. An icon key on the homepage does the teaching upfront.
Rewards: list view vs. progress indicator
Static list of perks. No sense of progress, no pull to keep going.
Visual progress bar with milestone markers. Users can feel where they are and what they're working toward.
FINAL SOLUTION
A meal kit experience built for
discovery, confidence, and return.
WHAT I BUILT
Home page
Moving hero, curated sections like "Order Again," and an icon key that does the dietary teaching before users hit a single card.
Meal cards
Large food photography leads. Dietary icons, cuisine type, calorie count, and a quick-add button — browse and decide without leaving the feed.
Gamified rewards
Progress indicator + milestone bar. Rewards include culturally meaningful free items, reinforcing the whole point of the app.
IMPACT & REFLECTION
Every decision tied back
to what users told us.
What worked
Letting research drive the retention design. The gamification was a direct response to user behavior, not an add-on.
What I'd do differently
Test the dietary icon system with real users before finalizing. We flagged the learning curve but didn't get to validate our solution.
If this shipped, I'd measure…
Repeat order rate, rewards page engagement, and session depth.
Want to hear more?
Contact me! I'd be happy to share :)
Check out my other work!
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Built by curiosity, shaped by empathy.
seeking full-time product design roles!
