Timeline

Jan - Feb 2020 |
4 Weeks

Role

Independent
Project

Tools

Photoshop
Illustrator
Adobe XD

Skills

Trend Analysis
UX Research
UI Design

Outcome

Simplistic, easy to navigate nutrition app

Developing an Eco-friendly Diet

This project is an approach to helping people transition to a plant based diet effortlessly and safely. Ve-G helps people keep track of the daily nutrition they need and provides option and alternatives to foods they can substitute instead of meat. This app aims to help people develop healthier and sustainable eating habits that not only benefit the person, but also the planet by reducing meat consumption.

The Problem

We can see the negative effects, which are accelerated by the mass production of meat, the climate change crisis has caused to our planet. What can we do on our part to be more environmentally conscious and help reduce emissions? Changing our eating habits can be a solution, but it is a challenge to stop yourself from eating your favourite meal or to even safely transition to a plant based diet.

Project Objective

The objective is to create a tool that helps people transition safely into a plant based diet. Helping them develop better eating habits, make a routine out of it and also reduce their carbon footprint along the way.
Ve-G is an all in one service that allows its users to keep track of their nutrition, find alternatives to their favourite meals, plan their meals and keep track of their progress. Also educating people on the effects the foods they are consuming has on the environment.

Project Intention

I wanted to create an app that facilitated the transition of eating meat everyday, to 1-3 times a week. Eventually helping people develop a habit of not having to consume meat on a daily basis. My main intention was not to make everyone completely vegeterian, it was to reduce the consumption of meat. When more meat is consumed, more meat is purchased, and more meat is produced. The meat industry is a major culprit when it comes to climate change.

Logging In

Social integrations to reduce barriers in creating a new account

Onboarding

Users will be welcomed to the app with a review of what dietary goals they want to achieve, and provided with a daily nutritional goal.

Build Your Own

Users can easliy build their own meals either by choosing their favourite ingredients or the ones available to them.

Recipes

Here users can find a collection of meat friendly recipes. It will also outline the ingredients available to them in their pantry or fridge, or the ingredients they require in order to complete the dish.

Inventory

Users are able to scan or manually add products to their inventory, helping users keep track of the ingredients they already have.

Shopping List

Since Ve-G keeps track of a user's inventory and intake, it's able to alert users when they are running low on products. Users are also able to add other products they want to purchase.

Substitudes

Users are provided with a selection of possible substitudes they can integrate into their next meal that can work as an alternative to using meat.

PC Products

Ve-G also provides a selection of President's Choice meatless products they can add to their next meal.

Daily Progress

Users are able to track their daily nutrition and the nutritional goals they have to meet by the end of the day. It also provides a list of foods that can help them reach the required nutritional goal.

Progress Tracker

Ve-G helps users keep track of their meat consumption over a period of time. Showcasing how well they meet their goals along their plant based journey.

Journaling

Users can learn about the nutritional value of the foods they consumed through the apps' food journal.

Emission Tracker

Ve-G's emission calculator scales the amount of meat the user has consumed and compares it your local or country's total consumption.

Providing a summary of how much their diet has impacted the environment through emissions and the amount water saved from consumed goods.

Approach

For this project I looked into personal experiences and challenges I faced when trying to transition into a plant based diet. Not just my experience, but also the journies of other people. In this case, I interviewed some colleagues and explored their challenges. During the course of this project I implemented a design thinking process in order to make sure I developed an appropriate solution for people that want to cut back on their meat consumption.

Discover &
Empathize

Research
Empathy Map

Define & synthesize

User Personas
User Insights
Competitive Analysis
Opportunity

develop & ideate

Value Proposition
Value Statement
MOSCOW
Journey Map

Design & prototype

Wireframes
High-fidelity
App Layout

design & test

Ve-G

Insight

We are currently living in a society where we are becoming more environmentally conscious about the products we purchase, consume or discard. It's true we can try and recycle more or even purchase more eco-friendly products, but we got to take into consideration the impact our diet has on the environment. Studies have surfaced showing how much water, land, and emissions could be saved if we were to even cut our meat consumption by a fraction of what we consume on a regular basis.

Idea

Through the development of the Ve-G app, the research and insight collected influenced the direction of its experience, by designing an app for people that are trying to have a healthier lifestyle and also be more environmentally conscious. Ve-G is a self-development experience meant to create habits and educate its users. Using simple UI to display the user's progress, food journaling to keep track of a person's daily nutrition and emission cost, and meal planning/scheduling that adjust to a person's daily routine. Also, by providing alternatives to meat products or meat dishes to encourage a more plant based diet.

Impact

We have reached a tipping point when it comes to mass meat consumption and production; it's affecting our health and our planet in a negative way. We humans are omnivores and are not just meant to consume meat in our daily diets, but also vegetables/fruits. The outcome of this app is to help reduce the mass production of meats and educate people on other alternatives to having meat in every meal. Ve-G proves that we can still enjoy our favourite meals and snacks without it having such a negative impact on the environment.

Discover

Empathize

Empathy Map

To get a better understanding of our targeted user, I used an empathy map to help me define what their perspectives and their needs are. The map covers 5 major categories: what they do, see, say, hear and feel.

Define

Synthesis & Insight

User Personas

The following personas were developed to get insight into a users personality, thought process, motivations and interests. Also to help us understand their goals and frustrtions, and the type of challenges the users face when trying to transtion to a plant based diet. I took into consideration the personas daily activites to gain more insight into what a typical day in the user's life looks like. These personas were developed using the synthesized data collected during the reasearch stage of the project.

User Insights

Creating these personas helped me define the following problems:

Users have a hard time staying focused when trying mindful practices

Users have difficulty when it comes to consistency when practicing mindfulness

Users don't know how to properly practice mindfulness

Competitive Analysis

To help me understand my competition I used a Competitor Analysis Competitor Chart to understand what I could do different than my competitors but also what I can adapt or improve on.

Opportunity

After the competitive analysis, I have concluded that in order to have an effective product launch I should take the following into consideration:

Users have no option to meal planning unless they subscribe to monthly or yearly plan

Limited to pre built meals; there's an opportunity to create your own meal plans

Focus should aim towards amount of emissions/water saved per meal

These apps are informative, but make the app a bit difficult to navigate

Visual display of a user's progress throughout this diet transition

Some of these apps do not work without a network

Develop

Ideate

Value proposition

I used a value proposition canvas to understand how the users' needs are going to be met through this service. My focus was brought to the types of jobs a user needs to go through when practicing mindfulness and what I could develop to help improve that experience.

Value Statement

An AI self-care companion that applies mindful practices as a means to develop preferable coping mechanisms.

Feature Prioritization (MOSCOW)

Must

Must facilitate dietary transition

Should

Should become part of people's daily routine

Could

Could motivate users to share and help others partake on this experience

Would

Would build a community of environmentally conscious people

Journey Map

I used journey mapping as means to understand how the user would react when onboarding the presented app/service. I took into consideration the feelings, and thoughts a user may have through the onboarding process. Looked into the actions and channels they could use, the type of pains and challenges they may run into and provided relievers and solutions.

Design

Prototype

App Architecture- Navigation Ideation

I created this user flow to imagine how the user would interact or navigate through the app.