HealthyMeals

Healthy meal cooking app

Le Fleuriste project main image

BedtimeStories is an iOS app that lets parents easily create personalized bedtime stories for their children. Using OpenAI's API for story content and DALL-E for illustrations, the app offers a simple prompt or detailed template for story creation. All stories are saved within the app, making bedtime a magical storytelling adventure.

Project status: In progress

- UI/UX Design: In Figma.

Wireframes finished, Mockups in second round of improvements.

- Development: Xcode with SwiftUI.

The prototype is finished, it includes a successful network connection to the OpenAI API to get the story text and image. The stories are persisted using CoreData and displayed on their dedicated view, where users access , favourite and delete their stories.

Project details

HealthyMeals is the third and last project created as part of the Google UX Design Certificate.This project aims to help people to cook healthier meals. Food preferences and unique lifestyles of users are key in HealthyMeals. Users can choose or avoid specific ingredients in recipes, and the weekly meal plans adapt to their personal needs.

Project type
UI/UX design | Google certificate
My role
UX researcher & UI/UX designer
Tools
Figma
Date
June 2022

Project prompt

Design a tool to help people learn how to cook healthier meals.

The goal of the last project of the Google UX Design certification is to reinforce the knowledge gained throughout the entire course. The final assignment consists in designing a project for three different screen sizes.

I designed HealthyMeals for three different screen sizes, but my main focus was the mobile app.

The problem

Most people know what a healthy meal is, but it is difficult for them to find new and delicious recipes that adapt to their lifestyle and preferences.

The goal

Make meal planning and daily cooking easier for users, so they focus on cooking healthy and delicious recipes.

Understanding the user

I conducted remote interviews to understand participants' concept of a healthy meal. I also asked them about their daily cooking habits and food shopping.

User personas

1. Aniya

1. Émilie

1. Ryan

Problem statement: Aniya is a remote worker that has a sedentary lifestyle who wants to cook new healthy recipes because she cares about eating healthier.

User persona 1 image

2. Ansel

2. Megan

Problem statement: Megan is a busy mom of three boys, who needs healthy and adaptable recipes that are also family-friendly because she finds complicated to cook healthy food that pleases all family members.

User persona 2 image

User journey map

Through Aniya's journey map, I learned that this persona tends to get bored of eating the same meals all the time and that she looks to cook healthy but quick recipes.

User journey map image

Starting design

Paper wireframes

No items found.

Low-fidelity prototype

This lo-fi prototype displays in the main screen the meals planned for today, here user's can tap in a recipe and then read or play the video instructions. Other menu icons allow to plan a weekly meal plan and create a shopping list.

Lo-Fi prototype
No items found.


Usability studies: findings

In the first round of usability studies, most participants found the main flow easy to use, but they got confused and had feedback in some areas. Later in a second round and after improving the prototypes, users found the app and improvements easy to use and understand.

Round 1 findings
Round 2 findings
One
Participants found the prototype not interactive enough.
One
Participants found the prototype intuitive.
Two
Text size was too small for the participant with low vision.
Two
Participants need a help/support option.
Three
Payment process confusing for all participants.
Three
CTA button hidden behind nav. bar in some screens.
Round 1 findings
Round 2 findings
One
Participants found the note-taking flow easy to use.
One
Participants mentioned they see themselves using the note-taking system.
Two
Toolbar icons were too small to identify and participants felt confused.
Two
Toolbar improved from feedback, and participants understood clearly the functionality of the icons.
Round 1 findings
Round 2 findings
One
Participants found the note-taking flow easy to use.
One
Participants mentioned they see themselves using the note-taking system.
Two
Toolbar icons were too small to identify and participants felt confused.
Two
Toolbar improved from feedback, and participants understood clearly the functionality of the icons.
Round 1 findings
Round 2 findings
One
Most participants found that a weekly meal planner is needed.
One
Participants found useful that they now can alternate planners.
Two
Participants had a hard time adding recipes to the shopping list
Two
Add to shopping list button added, now it's clear for users how to create a shopping list.
Round 1 findings
Round 2 findings
One
Participants found the note-taking flow easy to use.
One
Participants mentioned they see themselves using the note-taking system.
Two
Toolbar icons were too small to identify and participants felt confused.
Two
Toolbar improved from feedback, and participants understood clearly the functionality of the icons.

Prototype

Development status

The demo presented below has been developed using SwiftUI. Currently, I am focusing on enhancing error handling and improving user notifications. The UI will be updated once the mockups are finalized.

Functionality:
The app offers two distinct modes for creating a story:

1. Template Mode: In this guided mode, users fill in the fields and select buttons to create a story that is more specific to what children might enjoy.
2. Quick  Mode: Users can enter a quick prompt to generate a story on the fly.

Powered by AI technology, this app crafts unique bedtime stories, complete with illustrations, specifically tailored for each child.

App back-end process:

1. Network Call: Upon receiving user input, a network call is made to OpenAI’s API.
2. Story Generation: The API response includes a detailed bedtime story text and an accompanying image generated using the DALL-E model.
3. Data Persistence: The  story is saved using CoreData and the image is stored in the Documents Directory.
4. Stories Management: Users can view, favorite, or delete their stories as needed.

Refining the design

Mockups

No items found.
No items found.
No items found.

High-fidelity prototype

Hi-Fi prototype


Accesibility considerations

One
Contrast
Two
Headings
Three
Typefaces
I used contrast checking tools to make sure that the contrast between background, font and images was high.
Different font sizes were used to for main heading and sub-headings.
Only two basic typefaces were use in all the designs, being Helvetica regular and bold the main font.
One
CTA Buttons
Two
Element Labels
Three
On boarding
Call to action buttons have a high contrast color.
Meal plans and onboarding include images and text..
A detailed onboarding process with images and text

Going Forward

Impact

Participants of the moderated usability studies mentioned that the app was easy to use and that they see themselves using an app like this in their everyday life.

What I learned

In this project, I strengthen my knowledge of the UX design process and Figma. HealthyMeals presented a grade of complexity because the problem varied slightly depending on the health status, lifestyle, and family situation of the users. My goal was to cover the most common scenarios and try to create an app that applied to most users.