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Role: UX Designer Tools: Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, ChatGPT, Miro Team: Cailey Booze and Mo Touman (Mentor) Timeline: 3 Months
Simplifying Meal Management for Busy Families
Context
Thymio is a mobile app that automates weekly meal planning and delivers personalized groceries and meal kits directly to the user.
The Problem
Lifestyles for families with school aged children tend to be chaotic and stressful. Meal management is an additional hassle.
The Solution
Thymio focuses on streamling the meal management process by reducing decision fatigue and reducing time spent.
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I originally began this project to address the issue of food waste in the home. My assumption: People throw away food because they overbuy or forget what they have. However, research contradicted my assumption.
Research & Synthesis
Methods
I conducted five user interviews. To my surprise, while food waste does happen in the majority of these kitchens, users did not identify food waste as a meaningful issue. I uncovered that users are much more concerned with other pain points, the main two being time spent on meal management, and managing diet preferences and restrictions.
"Food waste isn't really a problem to me."
"Food going bad is the least of my issues."
The real issue:
"I just wish I had more time."
"After a long day, the last thing I feel like doing is cooking."
"Making something that ALL of my kids will eat is a successful dinner to me."
"If my kids don't like it, they won't eat it."
Insights
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Food waste is a byproduct, not the core problem.
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Users need a system that streamlines meal management, and reduces mental fatigue.
Affinity Mapping
After conducting user interviews, I synthesized the data using an affinity map to identify recurring patterns, emotions, and behavioral drivers. I organized the notes into three major themes:
Priorities
Habits
Negative Feelings
These insights directly shaped the pivot of the project from “reducing food waste” to reducing stress, time, and decision fatigue, which ultimately led to Thymio’s concept: automatic meal planning + customized grocery delivery.
Problem Statement
Busy individuals need a streamlined way to plan and prepare meals that fits their constraints and household needs, because the current process is time-intensive and mentally taxing.
How might we... find a way for people to save time in the realm of meal planning and cooking?
How might we... find a way for people to find a variety of recipes that accommodate diet restrictions and preferences while also being healthy?
Empathy Maps
To better understand users’ behaviors, motivations, and frustrations around meal management, I created two empathy maps based on research insights for two types of users: the "On the Go Mom" and the "Entry Level Professional".
"On the Go" Mom Maria
"Entry Level Professional" Piper
User Personas
Based off of the empathy maps I created, I developed two personas. I used ChatGPT to help come up with these personas, which helped me think of a lot of different ideas, and gave me a lot of inspiration.
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Conceptualization
Initial Wireframe Sketching
I began with low-fidelity sketches to explore different ways users could navigate meal planning, grocery delivery, and customization. The goal was to visualize solutions quickly before committing to digital wireframes.
User Flows
Based off of my findings from my user research and insights, I configured user flows of my project's red routes.
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Prototyping
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Using my user flows, I created wireframes demonstrating the overall layout of Thymio's red routes.
The Solution
Introducing Thymio! Thymio is a highly customizable grocery + meal kit delivery application and service that automatically creates a weekly meal plan, builds the grocery list, and delivers everything through meal kits or individual items to the users doorstep.
Core Features
All features of Thymio tie back into addressing user pain points revolving around meal management.
Meal kit + grocery
Full customization
Interactive AI chatbot
Doorstep delivery
How Does Thymio Address Food Waste?
Don't worry! I didn't forget about the original problem I set out to solve. Below are the most common reasons for food going bad in households with children. Thymio’s highly customizable nature addresses each of these issues:
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Over-purchasing and poor planning
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Perishability and spoilage of food
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Children’s selective eating
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Lack of time and busy lifestyles
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Improper storage and lack of knowledge
My solution elegantly addresses two challenges at once: the core issue of food waste in American household kitchens, as well as the deeper, more significant pain points that emerged from my user interviews.
Brand Book
Below, I have designed Thymio's brand guidelines.
High Fidelity Wireframes
Here, I am demonstrating the main sections of Thymio, and the customization quiz. Every feature in Thymio maps back to a need or frustration uncovered during research. Below is how each component addresses those pain points.
Customization Quiz
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Enables a highly customizable experience across all sections.
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Evaluates different diet restrictions and/or preferences.
Groceries
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Users are able to order their essential ingredients separately.
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All items can be acquired in one order.
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Eliminates second orders or trips to store.
Meal kits
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Users can order portioned size meal kits.
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Meal kits are customized to lifestyle.
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Eliminates waste.
ThymeBot
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User can interact with chatbot to further customize experience.
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Acts as "assistant" or "guide".
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Assists with user stress.
User Testing
User Testing Round One
I conducted five unmoderated user tests. I found that 80% of user tests revealed that the user had trouble finding their first order.
User Testing Round Two
Round two of user testing revealed no further usability issues.
Impact
Thymio successfully addresses user pain points in the following ways:
Reduced meal planning time
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Simplified management of restrictions and preferences
Less grocery shopping burden
Lower stress around weekday cooking
Reflection
I learned a lot while working on this project, including:
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It is important to stay open-minded, as assumptions often change once actual user insights occur.
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Pivoting my project made my solution more realistic, and I loved seeing how a UX project can change based off of user insights.