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Just a Little Better:
The impact of small changes

Just a Little Better aims to help people who want to starting eating healthier but don’t know where to begin or what healthy eating entails. 

It is designed to show how the impact of small modifications on meal choices lead to substantial change in the nutritional quality of their meal.

This app is created to used in synchrony with food delivery apps like Postmates or Uber Eats. As someone is ordering their meal, they use Just a Little Better to make modifcations to the meal, enabling them to make positive behavior changes today and in the future when eating. 
 

key skills
prototyping, usability testing, micro animations, UI, functional design

tools
Framer.js

advisor
Chris Risdon

timeline
4 weeks

 

the story + the objective

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Design Objective:

To foster better eating choices by showing the impact of small modifications on meal selections. 

 
 

The Challenge

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Dave is working towards making healthier eating choices. But, he doesn’t always know what he should be eating, especially when eating out. So many dishes seem like they are healthy, but fall short of it.

Dave is feeling disappointed by this lack of direction.

Discovery

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It’s a Sunday night, and Dave wants to finish the weekend with a delicious meal while at the same time at least trying to choose the better option for dinner. Nothing in the fridge looks good, so he decides to order something in.

He opens up PostMates to make his dinner selection and an alert pops up for a partner app called Just a Little Better. Curious, he downloads it...

Capability Exploration

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Just a Little Better offers suggestions and modifications to make restaurant dishes at least a little healthier.

Dave is delighted - this is exactly what he’s been needing for his ordering needs!

Dave scrolls through his options, exploring cuisines and opting for New American.

 
 

Modifications

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The app not only gives an overal health rating for the restaurants, but also for each dish.

Dave can modify the health meter on each dish by selecting modification options. This addresses his concern of not knowing what is exactly healthy, and also being able to bump of the health a little more.

The Results

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Dave feels much more empowered in his ordering selections using Just a Little Better. He also likes that the focus isn’t just on eating foods that are 100% healthy, but he can choose dishes that meet his cravings and make modifications to increase the health a lot or a little.

And best of all, he still easily order through PostMates... and have his dinner at the door 30 minutes later.

A successful Sunday with a (mostly) healthy meal!

 

designs: flows to usability changes

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Initial Wireframes 

Some initial sketches to get my ideation flowing. I originally had two components to the app – users could make healthier choices eating out OR cooking at home. It was too much having both these capabilities in one, so I ditched the wireframes for cooking features, and honed in on better choices while eating out. 

 
 
 
 

The Main Flow: Ordering a Little Bit Healthier Dinner

 
 

The Animations

 
 
 
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Start here
Hungry users pick which cuisine they want most.

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From the selected cuisine, users are presented with a number of restaurants, rated based upon their overall level of healthiness. 

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Users can select from only vegetarian, meat/protein focused meals, or the overall healthiest meal options at the selected restaurant.

 
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Once a meal is chosen, users can modify the ingredients from a short list of options. 

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As they select more modifications, the health meter rating increases.

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Users get badges that are redeemable for discounts and free food at sponsored restaurants. 

 

Usability Testing

 
 

Broader Questions

  • Does the app motivate behavior change?

  • Is the app easy to navigate in reaching a meal selection + modifying the meal?

  • What information do users want when making decisions for restaurants and meals in the app?

Finer Details

  • Do the hearts make sense as a “health meter/rating system”?

  • Are the badges motivating both in terms of making healthier future choices?

  • Does the color palette and imagery convey that healthy food is still delicious food?

 
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“I love the modifications, but I don’t know what the original salad dressing is, so I’m not sure what I’m modifying.”
— eater 1
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“The wording of “Vegetarian” vs.
“Healthier” vs. “Meat Centric” don’t make sense to me. ”
— eater 2
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“I love the modifications, but I don’t know what the original salad dressing is, so I’m not sure what I’m modifying.”
— eater 3
 

The Resulting Changes

 
 

More clarity on what is being changed:
An ingredient list has been included so people know what to change

More clarity in health rating:
Exchanging hearts for emojis

Clearer nutritional mprovements:
As modifications are made, macros and calories adjust

 

Better wording on the tabs:
More cohesive language

 
 

At least one more round of usability testing would need to be done for validation. These most recent changes have not been tested at all.