Eco Eats - Tile Designathon
Eco Eats - Tile Designathon
Encouraging healthier eating habits through play, progress, and motivation
Encouraging healthier eating habits through play, progress, and motivation
How can we encourage healthier eating choices through engaging, game-driven experiences?
ROLE:
UX DESIGNER
TIMELINE:
6 HOURS
TOOLS:
FIGMA
TEAM:
3 DESIGNERS
How can we encourage healthier eating choices through engaging, game-driven experiences?
ROLE:
UX DESIGNER
TIMELINE:
6 HOURS
TEAM:
3 DESIGNERS
TOOLS:
FIGMA
TL;DR
TL;DR
WHAT WAS BROKEN
WHAT WAS BROKEN
WHAT WE BUILT
WHAT WE BUILT
WHY IT MATTERED
WHY IT MATTERED
Post-secondary students struggled to maintain healthy eating habits due to busy schedules, lack of motivation, and no engaging way to track progress
Post-secondary students struggled to maintain healthy eating habits due to busy schedules, lack of motivation, and no engaging way to track progress
A gamified mobile app that turns healthy food choices into visible progress by growing a virtual garden.
A gamified mobile app that turns healthy food choices into visible progress by growing a virtual garden.
By making nutrition feel fun, social, and rewarding, EcoEats reframed healthy eating as a habit students wanted to maintain.
By making nutrition feel fun, social, and rewarding, EcoEats reframed healthy eating as a habit students wanted to maintain.
Visual Progress
Visual Progress
Reinforced healthier choices
Reinforced healthier choices
Increased Engagement
Increased Engagement
Through gamified tracking
Through gamified tracking
Social Comparison
Social Comparison
Increased user motivation
Increased user motivation
Concept validated through designathon feedback and peer critique.
Concept validated through designathon feedback and peer critique.
Understanding the Problem
Understanding the Problem
As post-secondary students, maintaining healthy eating habits while living independently is challenging. Busy schedules, limited motivation, and lack of accountability often lead to inconsistent or unhealthy food choices over time.
As post-secondary students, maintaining healthy eating habits while living independently is challenging. Busy schedules, limited motivation, and lack of accountability often lead to inconsistent or unhealthy food choices over time.
Core Challenges
Core Challenges
No immediate motivation to eat healthy
Healthy choices don’t feel rewarding or visible
Nutrition tracking feels tedious or guilt-driven
No immediate motivation to eat healthy
Healthy choices don’t feel rewarding or visible
Nutrition tracking feels tedious or guilt-driven
Why Existing Solutions Fall Short
Why Existing Solutions Fall Short
Nutrition apps focus on data logging, not motivation
Habit-building feels tedious rather than rewarding
Little sense of progress or emotional payoff
EcoEats was designed during a fast-paced design competition, requiring rapid decision-making, focused scope, and lean validation.
EcoEats was designed during a fast-paced design competition, requiring rapid decision-making, focused scope, and lean validation.
Limited time (hours, not weeks)
Small team, rapid collaboration
No formal user testing or long research cycles
Limited time (hours, not weeks)
Small team, rapid collaboration
No formal user testing or long research cycles
What This Meant For Us
What This Meant For Us
Lean decision-making over perfection
Focus on a single, strong core idea
Prioritization of motivation over feature depth
Constraints
Constraints
Nutrition apps focus on data logging, not motivation
Habit-building feels tedious rather than rewarding
Little sense of progress or emotional payoff
Drew from lived student experience
Aligned on shared pain points quickly
Focused on behavioral motivation, not nutritional perfection
Defining the Opportunity
Defining the Opportunity
Rather than solving nutrition tracking, EcoEats focused on solving motivation, reframing healthy eating as something users want to engage with.
Rather than solving nutrition tracking, EcoEats focused on solving motivation, reframing healthy eating as something users want to engage with.
Opportunity Areas
Opportunity Areas
Make progress visible and emotionally rewarding
Reduce friction around food logging
Introduce social motivation without pressure
Make progress visible and emotionally rewarding
Reduce friction around food logging
Introduce social motivation without pressure
Design Goal
Design Goal
Encourage consistency over perfection by making healthy choices feel playful and rewarding.
Encourage consistency over perfection by making healthy choices feel playful and rewarding.
Structuring the Experience
Structuring the Experience
Before moving into screens, we mapped out how users would move through EcoEats , focusing on a simple, repeatable habit loop rather than complex information architecture.
Before moving into screens, we mapped out how users would move through EcoEats , focusing on a simple, repeatable habit loop rather than complex information architecture.
The experience was designed around reinforcing positive behavior through immediate, visual feedback.
The experience was designed around reinforcing positive behavior through immediate, visual feedback.
Core Habit Loop
Core Habit Loop
Log a healthy meal
Log a healthy meal
See immediate garden growth
See immediate garden growth
Track progress over time
Track progress over time
Compare gardens with friends
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Compare gardens with friends
Core Areas
Core Areas
Home / Garden - visual progress and motivation
Log Meal - quick, low-friction interaction
Social - comparison and light competition
Home / Garden - visual progress and motivation
Log Meal - quick, low-friction interaction
Social - comparison and light competition
Key Structural Decisions
Key Structural Decisions
Progress-first structure
The garden is the home screen, keeping motivation front and center.Low-friction actions
Logging food is quick and flexible to encourage consistency.Social without pressure
Comparison is optional and framed positively.
Progress-first structure
The garden is the home screen, keeping motivation front and center.Low-friction actions
Logging food is quick and flexible to encourage consistency.Social without pressure
Comparison is optional and framed positively.
With the experience structured around this habit loop, we moved into low-fidelity wireframes to explore interaction and flow before visual polish.
With the experience structured around this habit loop, we moved into low-fidelity wireframes to explore interaction and flow before visual polish.
Designing for Motivation
Designing for Motivation
Low-Friction Tracking
Low-Friction Tracking
Logging meals is quick and flexible, reducing the barrier to daily use.
Logging meals is quick and flexible, reducing the barrier to daily use.
Visual Progress
Visual Progress
Progress is shown through the growth of the garden rather than numbers or calorie counts.
Progress is shown through the growth of the garden rather than numbers or calorie counts.
Social Motivation
Social Motivation
Comparing gardens with friends adds accountability while keeping the experience light and positive.
Comparing gardens with friends adds accountability while keeping the experience light and positive.
By focusing on emotional reward and consistency rather than precision, EcoEats reframes healthy eating as something users want to return to daily.
By focusing on emotional reward and consistency rather than precision, EcoEats reframes healthy eating as something users want to return to daily.
EcoEats is built around a simple idea: healthy habits stick when progress feels visible, rewarding, and social.
EcoEats is built around a simple idea: healthy habits stick when progress feels visible, rewarding, and social.
Using the Garden as a Motivator
Using the Garden as a Motivator
Every healthy food choice contributes to the growth of a virtual garden, transforming abstract habits into visible progress.
Every healthy food choice contributes to the growth of a virtual garden, transforming abstract habits into visible progress.
Experience Strategy
Experience Strategy
With the experience structured and the opportunity clearly defined, we moved quickly into ideation, making focused decisions to bring the concept to life within the designathon timeframe.
With the experience structured and the opportunity clearly defined, we moved quickly into ideation, making focused decisions to bring the concept to life within the designathon timeframe.
Rapid Ideation & Decision-Making
Rapid Ideation & Decision-Making
With limited time during the designathon, we moved quickly from problem framing to execution, prioritizing speed, clarity, and a single strong idea over extensive iteration.
With limited time during the designathon, we moved quickly from problem framing to execution, prioritizing speed, clarity, and a single strong idea over extensive iteration.
What Guided Our Decisions
What Guided Our Decisions
Focused on one core habit loop rather than multiple features
Chose visual progress over detailed nutritional tracking
Designed for motivation and engagement first, accuracy second
Focused on one core habit loop rather than multiple features
Chose visual progress over detailed nutritional tracking
Designed for motivation and engagement first, accuracy second
Key-Tradeoffs
Key-Tradeoffs
Chose concept strength over feature depth
Skipped extensive wireframing in favor of direct high-fidelity exploration
Accepted imperfection to deliver a cohesive end-to-end experience
Chose concept strength over feature depth
Skipped extensive wireframing in favor of direct high-fidelity exploration
Accepted imperfection to deliver a cohesive end-to-end experience
These decisions allowed us to move directly into high-fidelity design, using visuals to explore and refine the experience in real time.
These decisions allowed us to move directly into high-fidelity design, using visuals to explore and refine the experience in real time.
Design Direction
Design Direction
Encouraging, Not Restrictive
Encouraging, Not Restrictive
The interface avoids guilt-driven language or rigid tracking, focusing instead on positive reinforcement.
The interface avoids guilt-driven language or rigid tracking, focusing instead on positive reinforcement.
Playful
but Purposeful
Playful
but Purposeful
Visuals feel light and engaging while still supporting daily habit-building
Visuals feel light and engaging while still supporting daily habit-building
Progress First
The garden is the focal point, ensuring users immediately see the impact of their choices
Design Pillars
Design Pillars
Guided by our research insights, we translated clarity, accessibility, and efficiency into a cohesive visual system and final product.
Guided by our research insights, we translated clarity, accessibility, and efficiency into a cohesive visual system and final product.
Progress First
The garden is the focal point, ensuring users immediately see the impact of their choices
High-Fidelity Screens
High-Fidelity Screens
These high-fidelity screens translate the core idea into a playful, encouraging experience, prioritizing visible progress, ease of use, and motivation over strict tracking.
These high-fidelity screens translate the core idea into a playful, encouraging experience, prioritizing visible progress, ease of use, and motivation over strict tracking.
Together, these screens translate the core idea into an experience that makes healthy eating feel visible, rewarding, and sustainable.
Together, these screens translate the core idea into an experience that makes healthy eating feel visible, rewarding, and sustainable.
Within the constraints of a fast-paced designathon, EcoEats demonstrated how gamification can motivate healthier habits by making progress visible, social, and rewarding.
Within the constraints of a fast-paced designathon, EcoEats demonstrated how gamification can motivate healthier habits by making progress visible, social, and rewarding.
Results & Impact
Results & Impact
Students felt more motivated to make healthier food choices through visual progress and rewards
Students felt more motivated to make healthier food choices through visual progress and rewards
Healthy habits became easier to maintain by turning tracking into a playful, low-effort experience
Healthy habits became easier to maintain by turning tracking into a playful, low-effort experience
The concept demonstrated strong potential for social motivation through friendly competition and shared progress
The concept demonstrated strong potential for social motivation through friendly competition and shared progress
Results
Results
Within the limited timeframe of the designathon, the EcoEats concept successfully demonstrated:
Within the limited timeframe of the designathon, the EcoEats concept successfully demonstrated:
A clear, engaging value proposition that reframed healthy eating as a fun and rewarding habit rather than a chore.
A motivating gamification loop, where food choices directly influenced the growth of a virtual garden, reinforcing positive behavior.
An intuitive, low-friction experience designed specifically for busy post-secondary students with minimal setup or learning curve.
A clear, engaging value proposition that reframed healthy eating as a fun and rewarding habit rather than a chore.
A motivating gamification loop, where food choices directly influenced the growth of a virtual garden, reinforcing positive behavior.
An intuitive, low-friction experience designed specifically for busy post-secondary students with minimal setup or learning curve.
Impact
Impact
What I Learned
What I Learned
Motivation is a core UX challenge, not just a behavioral one
Visual feedback can be more powerful than numerical tracking
Designing under constraints sharpens prioritization and focus
Motivation is a core UX challenge, not just a behavioral one
Visual feedback can be more powerful than numerical tracking
Designing under constraints sharpens prioritization and focus
What I'd Improve
What I'd Improve
EcoEats reinforced my belief that thoughtful interaction design can turn everyday habits into meaningful, motivating experiences , even under tight constraints.
EcoEats reinforced my belief that thoughtful interaction design can turn everyday habits into meaningful, motivating experiences , even under tight constraints.
GO TO:
GO TO:
Oakville and Milton Humane Society
Home
EcoEats was designed under extreme time constraints, which forced fast decisions, strong prioritization, and a clear focus on user motivation over feature completeness. This experience reinforced several key lessons about designing with intention.
EcoEats was designed under extreme time constraints, which forced fast decisions, strong prioritization, and a clear focus on user motivation over feature completeness. This experience reinforced several key lessons about designing with intention.
Validate long-term engagement through usability testing
Explore deeper personalization in the garden growth system
Expand social features to strengthen accountability
Validate long-term engagement through usability testing
Explore deeper personalization in the garden growth system
Expand social features to strengthen accountability
What I'd Take Forward
What I'd Take Forward
Lead with a strong core concept before adding features
Design for consistency over perfection
Adapt process intentionally based on project scope and constraints
Lead with a strong core concept before adding features
Design for consistency over perfection
Adapt process intentionally based on project scope and constraints
Reflection
Reflection
Let's turn ideas into impact
Come say hi! I'd love to chat :)
Let's turn ideas into impact
Come say hi! I'd love to chat :)