CalFit
UX/UI design
Duration:
2 months
Software:
Team :
Prasenjeet Kharat
CalFit is an food planning application to track food and calories intake , find suitable recipes for your diet according to your daily calories required. It also motivates the users so they have stress free life and maintain their diet for long run. CalFit also helps users to track their water intake and scan any food item to get recipes related to that food item.
Problem statement
A food planner for somebody that dislikes technology and has never tracked their food intake.
Primary research
Primary research is a type of research design in which the researcher is directly involved in the data collection process. In other words, the researcher gathers relevant data samples directly instead of depending on already existing data with regards to the research context.
In this the primary research I used 5 W's and H Questions method (Who, What , When , Where , Why , How) for asking questions about a process or a problem taken up for improvement.
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Competitive Analysis
With the problem statement in mind, I started looking around for other existing systems that do similar things to what I envisioned. Let’s face it, if there is a product already out there that does exactly what I want to do, then I shouldn’t waste time and resources reinventing the wheel without having any new advantages to propose. The following is a list of potential competitors I considered that I could learn from.
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I learned from my competitors that there are existing applications that provide some quality information about the food tracking and calories counting. To understand the users and their problem I used these applications information and separated them into Pros and Cons so I can understand the features provided by these applications to user and the problems user faces while using these applications.
With these competitor's pros and cons in mind, I then established some initial process on my problem statement :
1) Most of these apps are confusing and complicated to use.
2) They stresses users out since they have to keep track on their process and calories diets
3) Recipes takes a lot of time or are not available locally
4) Most of the application does not have water intake reminder or count and even if some has it, users have to pay for their membership.
5)Some apps has a lot of features like games , gym workout etc. While some need expensive membership to unlock their features.
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Thus studying all the pros and cons I got an initial idea on how I can solve my problem statements :
1) Provide a fast, usable, and convenient method for my application to determine the calories of what the user is eating , with minimal effort from the user. Whether it be by taking a picture of a food, or a recipe based search.
2) The UI must be simple, attractive and easy to understand since our application is focused on beginner users
3) Also add only important and necessary features needed for the users to simplify the users problems
4) Be able to bridge the gap between different food cultures in different countries , and experiences.
5) Leaving the users feeling good about their decision.
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Brainstorming
Generating various directions of the research area using the brainstorming method is utilized to understand what users wants and needs are, Features used by users to track their food calories intake benefiting their health , diet and mood.
By studying and understanding my competitive studies I started brainstorming features which are beneficial for users and can solve the problem statement.
Clustering
Clustering is used to organize and analyze large numbers of ideas by categorizing them. By organizing and reorganizing ideas, I gain a better idea on features and how the information can be organized after a brainstorming session.
With the help of clustering i managed to separate features in 4 different groups that is user panels, admin panels, expert panels and advance feature panels. This gave me a clear idea of different panels containing different features, and which features can be useful for my application.
Target Audience
The app developers and owners should make it a point to figure out who are the potential users of the application and which groups of the society are going to benefit the most out of it. Take a look at the probable users of the app:
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Users
These apps fall under the activity tracking apps as it records the diet habits of people suggesting them nutrition intake. Users who are conscious of their daily diets are more prolonged to use these apps. An ideal app for those who want to maintain a track of their meals, these apps help users keep updated about their weight gain and loss. For those who are looking for a healthier lifestyle are also susceptible to download these apps.
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Fitness Centers
Fitness centers offer a wide range of workout equipment to their users, however, providing their clients with an app that helps them take proper diet will put them in a win-win situation. This can help them outshine the other fitness centers that do not offer such services. This is not only new to the fitness industry but something that clients have always been looking for.
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Nutritionists
As the people are gaining awareness around the health benefits of eating nutrient-rich food, they are getting more inclined towards getting their diet charts being made by official nutritionists. However, a diet chart is not enough for a nutritionist to keep going. Therefore, they have started asking their clients to rely on these apps for getting a better understanding of their meals and counting their calories.
The willingness of people in order to get and stay fit by eating the correct and right amount of food has also generated a source of revenue for both health businesses and app developers who can create apps for the health and fitness industry.
Diet and Nutrition Apps Market
Global Diet and Nutrition Apps Market Size, Trends & Analysis - Forecasts to 2027 By Type (Exercise & Weight Loss, Activity Tracking), By Platform (Android, iOS), By Device Type (Smartphones, Tablets, Wearables Devices), By Region (North America, Asia Pacific, Central & South America, Europe, and the Middle East & Africa), End-User Landscape Analysis, Company Market Share Analysis, and Competitor Analysis.
Market Stats to Support Investment in Diet and Nutrition Tracking App
With time the tools of food and nutrition apps have gained immense popularity and have become a necessity for many. Since there is no better and faster way for one to count their calories and work on their diet and food consumption, these apps have made it possible to keep a tab on what they eat and when they eat it. There is high competition in this vertical, but what keeps a diet and nutrition app going are the features it offers to its users.
With time, users have started investing a lot of their time and money in such apps as they are more reliable than any other person or tool available in the field. Since health is of utmost importance to every single person, they keep looking for ways to maintain a lifestyle that will help them stay strong physically in the long run. Therefore, these apps have gained widespread recognition. For the past three years, many of these apps have come into being, each offering something different from the others.
Let’s take a look at some of the market and growth statistics of these applications according to various researches conducted over the years:
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According to Netimperetive, these apps have seen an increase in their engagement of over 330 percent.
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A Grand View Research clarifies that the global mobile health market will grow at a CAGR of 29.2 percent. According to the same study, it is believed that the market will reach $ 316.8 billion by 2027.
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Which age group has the maximum usage of these apps? Statista reports that people between 18 to 29 use these apps on a regular basis to track their diet.
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Another study named Transl Behav Medicine stated that 53 percent of the people use these apps to track their physical activities, 48 percent use it for tracking their food habits, 47 percent to lose weight, and 37 percent to learn exercise.
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Healthworks collectives state that there are over 97,000 fitness and health apps that one can use on their device.
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The potential growth of the fitness app market is $ 1.68 billion in the years between 2020 to 2024, according to the market research company Technavio.
mHealth Market Size Worth $130.6 Billion By 2030
Based on services, the monitoring services segment dominated the market with a revenue share of 61.9% in 2021. Monitoring services mainly involve the observation of health conditions, diseases, and other complicated medical parameters for a defined time. The rising prevalence of chronic diseases and increasing preference for remote monitoring services in post-acute care are some of the factors contributing to the growth of this segment. In addition, increasing investments by the key players in mobile health apps for patient monitoring is also expected to propel the segment growth over the years.
Based on participants, the mobile operators segment accounted for the highest revenue share of 47.0% in 2021. This is attributed to an increase in the use of 4G and 3G technologies, improvements in the network infrastructure, and a rise in the number of mobile subscribers. Furthermore, an increase in the number of industry activities, such as collaborations and partnerships, is also another significant factor propelling the growth of the segment. For instance, in 2021, Allscripts announced its collaboration with Blessing Health System, a non-profit organization. Under the partnership, Blessing Health System has adopted Allscripts’ health platform to 3 of its facilities in the U.S. In addition, it has also acquired Allscripts Managed Services and extended its agreement till 2028.
Survey and Interviews
After that, I devised a quantitative survey to understand the users. When they were asked how conscious they are about their health and diet, 54% answered they were already conscious about it, and would want to be more conscious. The reasons for adopting a healthy diet are for fitness, awareness, and lifestyle purposes. They also want to have more healthy choices, to look and to feel better.
The most common questions asked to them was
1) “How would you like your diet tracking app?”
And the most common answers for it was
“It should be accurate, must be simple to understand and use, UI must be easy and friendly”
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2) “Why is technology difficult for you to understand and what can make it easy for you to understand?”
To that the users replied
“Most of fitness apps has a lot of features which are unwanted making it complicated to understand , they want an app which is simple to understand for beginners “
The age group which faced difficulty to understand technology was between 27-66
After the survey, I have interviewed 5 respondents to further understand their thoughts with a view to defining the real problems
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Rutuja, 29, Computer engineer
“I am aware of my diet, which is to eat more proteins, fewer fats, and carbs. I want to keep track of my calorie intake, look good and stay young. But I sleep too much and do not have a regular mealtime. I am lazy to get healthy food to cook.”
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Siddhant, 25, photographer
“My days are never regular. I am not very conscious of my diet. Overall, it is too easy to order food online. sometimes I bought good food but did not cook them, and it goes to waste”.
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Rohan, 66, retired
“I am very conscious of my health and diet. Sometimes it is boring to eat the same food as I know which dish is healthy and the apps are hard to understand for person of my age”.
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Akash, 34, entrepreneur
“My family member has health issues so I am very aware of my diet: I am also very aware of what I eats and buys and orders to eat, eating slowly and enjoying it so as not to overeat. Due to the lockdown, there is a change of my habit as it is too easy to order convenient food online and difficult to keep track of my calories as I lack daily motivation. I wish the apps had easy UI”
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Aarti, 18, Student
“I have been a vegetarian and been adopting a low fat, low sodium, low sugar diet. However, I am only half-conscious to stick to my diet as there is no time for me to cook it. Honestly, I lack motivation as I get distracted easily if there was a way to motivate and remind me daily to do so I will definitely do it”
Define Stage
Problems
After a thorough survey and interviews, I got it.
Even though people have a relatively high consciousness of healthy dietary concepts, they lack the discipline to stick to the diet. It could be due to lack of motivation or difficultly in understanding the UI app as its either complicated UI design for beginners or has a lot of features which confuses them resulting in skipping it.
I believe by creating an app that allows users to keep track of their intakes/macros while also sending reminders motivating them and providing immediate recipe solutions, and simple UI design which will help them to track their goals and needs without any stress or complication, will help them stick to a consistent nutrition journey.
I will know I'm right if people are feeling better about their progress.
Hypothesis statement
Ideation Stage
After defining the problems, I progressed to the ideation stage, including a lo-fi and hi-fi. I have also created a user persona and a journey map based on our survey and interviews.
User persona
Nikita, 30 years old, consultant, conscious about her diet. She is too busy and lacks the discipline to stick to her plan. Her goals are to stay healthy, stay fit, and stays aware of what she puts in her body.
​User journey map
Feature analysis
Moscow Method
The MoSCoW method is a four-step approach to prioritizing which project requirements will provide the best return on investment (ROI). MoSCoW stands for must have, should have, could have and will not have -- the o's were added to make the acronym more pronounceable.
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I have adopted the “Moscow Method” to decide what I should include in the final product. Here are the features you will find:
​Brand Attributes
After consideration, I have also decided on the brand attributes:
Caring
Relaxing
Encouraging
User Friendly
Health-oriented
I aim to create an impression that this app is going to help them achieve their purposes, without feeling pressured using the app.
Information Architecture
Low-fidelity wireframes
​Ideation on the wireframes is to understand the layout and usability of the features. Low-fidelity wireframes gives a context of data flow. Each screen represents the visual placement of the features and how the user can navigate from start to end point. A brief idea is obtained to get an idea on the final product.
UI style guide
1) Colors
2) Typography
Font
Roboto
uppercase and lower case
Primary color
Secondary color
3) Icons
Report
Reminder
Professionals
Feed
4) Buttons and inputs
Buttons
Home
Camera
Recipe
Diary
5) Grid and spacing
Levels
Vertical
Text field
6) Illustrations
Login art
Professional info
Privacy
Share to professional
Logo
High-fidelity wireframes
Splash screen
Menu options
Create account screen
Welcome screen
Setting up your profile screens
The home page comprises every feature the application represents. Each feature has the simplest action to access it. The user's profile is displayed at the top to give a brief of status and current weight and height. The user profile page gives a detailed view of their account.
Homepage screen
Profile screen
I focused on the UI to be simple and easy to understand for users who face hard times handling technology or users who are beginners for food planning application. So the icons are made in such a way that it can be attractive and easy to understand while accessing all the features necessary
If you resister as a new user you have to set up your profile by filling your person details like height weight and so on.
The setting up profile screen has interactive design, if you click on the button it will change it colors so the user will know what they clicked on before moving on to next screen.
Setting up your profile screen
On home screen when you click feed this screen will be displayed. Feed has all the healthy food photos where user can see all the healthy food posted in one place resulting them to know healthy food does not need to be boring. It will help by encouraging them to eat healthy and stay focused on their diet stress free.
Feed also has access to other features like notification where users will get notified for new updates in app and it will notify user to have a "cheat meal " once a week where as quotes feature will guide users to motivational quotes, resulting them to have a stress free diet by keeping them motivated. Saved icon will store all the posts users wanted to save
Feed screen
Professionals screen
My Professionals as the name says this feature gives users access to send their progress to doctor, trainer or dietitian. Users can send an mail to them where the mail shows your calories intake and your fitness journey goals.
Reminder screen
Reports screen
Recipe screen
Diary screen
Camera screens
Camera screen
Scanning screen
Suggested recipes screen
The camera feature is interesting one where users can take a snap of the vegetable they want to check recipes of or scan using QR code. After the shot it will scan the photo and will ask if the vegetable name is correctly displayed on the pop up. Once the users click Yes button the application will suggest various number of recipes containing that ingredient (vegetable) as mandatory element in that recipes.