I ATE MOBILE
APP
ROLE
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UI UX Designer
TEAM
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Solo
So
Overview
Every website has a story, and your visitors want to hear yours. This space is a great opportunity to give a full background on who you are and what your site has to offer. Double click on the text box to start editing your content and make sure to add all the relevant details you want site visitors to know.
If you’re a business, talk about how you started and share your professional journey. Explain your core values, your commitment to customers, and how you stand out from the crowd. Add a photo, gallery, or video for even more engagement.
Problem
The problem we are trying to solve is the inauthentic food culture that dominates our current social media landscape. From unrealistic "What I Eat in a Day" videos to overly curated and edited Instagram food pics, there's a lack of food content that feels real and relatable.
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How Might We Statement
How might we create a more authentic and communal space for people to share and connect through their everyday meals - whether home-cooked or store bought?
Research
Mukbang Psychology
Watching others eat (Mukbang) provides comfort and a sense of connection, especially for those eating alone. However, it can also normalize unhealthy eating habits and reflect deeper loneliness when watched excessively.
Phone Eats First & Photogenic Food
The "phone eats first" trend highlights the shift toward aesthetic focused dining. Photogenic meals, like charcuterie boards, have become symbols of social dining culture, fueled by social media's visual demands
Why BeReal is Popular
Bereal's success comes from its simplicity, fun experience, and strong peer influence. It helps users stay connected with friends in a casual, authentic way
Digital Food Inspiration
71% of adults now look online for recipes, favoring platforms like Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram over traditional cookbooks
Affinity Mapping
After conducting user interviews, I synthesized qualitative data using an affinity mapping process. I extracted key quotes, behaviors, and observations from participants and organized them into clusters to identify patterns across user experiences. This method helped transform scattered insights into structured findings and revealed relationships between user motivations, behaviors, and emotions. The affinity map served as a foundation for defining key insights and guiding later design decisions.
Key Insights
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Foodies are ok with dining alone,
but enjoy watching other people eat
Foodies often rely on social media platforms to consumer food content
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3
Foodies like to not only create, but also share foodie trends
Ideation
Following research and insight synthesis, I moved into an open ideation phase to explore a wide range of possible solutions. I generated multiple concepts across digital, physical, and hybrid experiences, including a food-focused version of BeReal, a dedicated food-only social platform, unfiltered food capture tools, creator-focused equipment, meal-sharing systems, ingredient kits, and tools to support food content creation and learning. The goal during this phase was not to narrow immediately, but to explore diverse directions that addressed user behaviors around authenticity, social connection, food sharing, and content creation. This broad ideation helped identify opportunity areas and informed the direction of the final concept.
Lo-Fidelity
Mid-Fidelity
Hi - Fidelity
Usability Test
Key Quotes and Justification
I decided to remove the aesthetics page because I felt it distracted from the main purpose of the app, which is creating a space where people can authentically post their food without feeling pressured to make it look perfect. This adjustment does not mean people cannot post aesthetic food photos, as they are still welcome and appreciated. However, by removing the dedicated page for them, the design makes it clear that aesthetic posts should not be valued more than real, unfiltered moments.
I updated the posting format so that, before uploading, users select whether the food is homemade, eaten out, or store-bought, such as a Trader Joe’s meal. On the main feed, each post is tagged with its category, making it easy to see what type of meal it is. This change keeps the feed authentic and inclusive of all types of food, while still providing clarity for users about where the meal came from.
I adjusted the timing aspect of the app to move away from the BeReal-style push notifications. Instead of getting a random prompt, users now have dedicated time windows to post their meals - breakfast, lunch, dinner, or late-night munchies. For example, the breakfast window might be from 9-11AM. Once you post, you can then view everyone else's posts from that same time window. This keeps the experience timely and communal, without the randomness.
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