eatr
The food app that makes choices easier.
Product Designer
UX Researcher
ROLE
TIMELINE
Sept. 2024 - Dec. 2024
Prototyping
SKILLS
Interaction Design
Wireframing
THE PROBLEM
Have you ever asked someone where they want to eat and they say,
"idk"
"down for anything"
"up to you"
THE INDECISION
This indecisiveness is exactly the problem I set out to solve. From my own experience, I'm often the friend who can never decide where to eat. I’m usually fine with anything, as long as it’s good Asian food. I totally get how frustrating it can be, spending so much time just trying to figure out the right place.
THE PROBLEM STATEMENT
"How can I make deciding where to eat easier and more enjoyable, especially in group settings where diverse preferences and the need for compromise often lead to frustration, wasted time, and decision fatigue?"
THE SOLUTION
eatr
INTRODUCING
With features like EatLists, Fusion EatLists, and a Shuffle Button, Eatr is a proposed mobile app that transforms the stressful process of choosing a restaurant into an enjoyable experience.
Browse through your favorite foods, discover new tastes
PERSONALIZED OPTIONS
All your favorite restaurants in one place called an EatList. Create Fusion EatLists to share and explore new foods with friends
CREATE AND SHARE EATLISTS
Having trouble deciding? Press the shuffle button and the app will randomly select a restaurant from that EatList.
LET THE APP CHOOSE FOR YOU
BACKGROUND RESEARCH
PEOPLE WATCHING AT UTC FOOD COURT
Armed with a notebook and some curiosity, I observed how people decided what to eat. From scanning menus to family debates over who wants what, I saw a lot of hesitation and frustration. Groups especially struggled, often hopping between multiple options before settling.
OBSERVATION
Person A stood for five minutes looking at De Nunno’s menu, appearing hesitant and looking at other restaurant menus.
A family entered the food court and scanned various menus, but after looking at De Nunno’s menu, the mother made the decision to leave for another place.
OBSERVED NEED
Customers need to narrow down their choices for restaurants.
Family needed clear and appealing menu options that catered to their preferences
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Display top menu items at the entrance of restaurants.
Offer samplers to help customers make quicker decisions.
Use digital menu screens that suggest popular options based on time of day or trends.
Implement a feedback system, such as comment cards or an online survey, to gather insights from families about their dining experience.
Include interactive elements like pictures or short descriptions of meals.
SCROLLING THROUGH SUBREDDIT THREADS
Turns out, Redditors love talking about their dining dilemmas. From curating restaurant lists to creative elimination games, these conversations revealed clever strategies people use to combat indecision.
Subreddit threads related to dining and restaurant selection were examined to gather insights from real user discussion,
KEY FINDING #1
Frustration from endless debates in group settings.
KEY FINDING #2
Difficulty balancing personal and group preferences.
KEY FINDING #3
Decision fatigue from too many options.
DESIGN PROCESS
IDEATION
To generate concepts, I used mind-mapping, reverse-thinking, and analogies. In a quick five-minute brainstorm, I developed five initial ideas and expanded them into ten additional concepts.
So, I started wondering…
Could I create something similar, but for food? Could there be a way to curate and share dining experiences as effortlessly as sharing a playlist?
The answer was simple: EatLists!
What's an EatList?
An EatList is a personalized list where you can save your favorite restaurants or places you want to try. Think of it as a curated playlist, but for food! You can create different EatLists for different occasions, like "Weekend Brunch Spots," "Date Night Favorites," or "Late-Night Eats."
But what if I want to share my favorites with friends?
A Fusion EatList takes things a step further by combining your preferences with your friends' choices. If you’re deciding where to eat as a group, Fusion EatList merges everyone’s saved restaurants into one shared list. Using AI, it suggests options that balance the group’s tastes, making it easy to find a place everyone will enjoy.
PROTOTYPING
Once I had these different flows in mind from the architecture diagram, I wanted to envision how EatLists should look like; I created lo-fi and mid-fi wireframes focusing on: Core Flows, Feature Placement, and User Interaction. These wireframes were shared with users for initial feedback, helping identify usability issues early in the process.
PARC Principles
To achieve an app interface that simplifies dining decisions while offering enjoyable user experiences, I grounded my design-thinking in PARC principles—Proximity, Alignment, Repetition, and Contrast—which helped me create a clear, consistent, and visually engaging interface as seen above.
PROXIMITY
The "Favorites" and "Eat Again" sections on the landing page are distinct, helping users differentiate between lists.
On the "Library" page, categories like "Recently Visited" and restaurant groups are placed close together to indicate relationships.
ALIGNMENT
On the "Library" page, restaurant names and details align neatly for easy reading.
Horizontal alignment of icons and images creates a balanced, structured interface, especially in the "Fusion EatList" view. Repetition
REPETITION
The red and beige color scheme appears in buttons, icons, and backgrounds across screens.
Navigation bar icons and action buttons are uniform, making navigation intuitive.
CONTRAST
Dark red search bars and call-to-action buttons stand out against white backgrounds.
Bolded section titles and lighter text weights distinguish headers from general content.
Based on user feedback, I decided to change the following:
TESTING AND TESTING AND TESTING
I conducted usability testing with participants who interacted with the app via a linked Figma prototype. The process included pre-task questions to gauge initial impressions, task-specific scenarios to observe navigation and interactions, and post-task questions to gather feedback on their overall experience.
Many users found the pop-up screen intuitive to use
They also liked ease of adding restaurants into an eatlist by either tapping on the + button or sliding the restaurant card to the left
I decided to try designing pop-ups for both EatList and Fusion EatList due to the ease of use and familiarity.
The Final Prototype
Try it out for yourself!
(press 'R' to restart)
WHAT'S NEXT?
Eatr made big strides toward solving the “where should we eat?” dilemma, but there’s always room to grow. Future iterations could include smarter error prevention, more tailored recommendations, and user-friendly guidance for first-time users.
In the end, Eatr wasn’t just about food—it was about creating an experience that brings people together around the table, without the stress of deciding how to get there.
Check out my final presentation deck here!
Let's connect!