Client
School Project
RIT
Role
UX/UI, Visual
Time
Spring 2020
Identifying the Problem
A diet that consistently relies on meat consumption contributes to greater water usage, fuel dependence on fossil fuel energy, and increased production of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.
In regards to human health, such a diet can lead to an increase in the risks of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Although the number of vegans and vegetarians in America is growing, the percentage of Americans who opt for meatless meals is still only around 5-6%.
How could we help?
Every vegan/vegetarian helps to save around 200 animals per year through a plant-based diet that largely avoids meat products. In addition, eating vegan foods rather than animal-based ones significantly reduces one’s carbon footprint, and thus promotes climate efficiency.
Solution: a platform that can help vegetarians and vegans, as well as people who want to improve environmental safety and their health by reducing their meat consumption. The app would share the health benefits of cooking vegan options, as well as recipes and step-by-step instructions on how to cook these healthy meals (including traditionally non-vegan recipes with substitutes for meat).
The aim of this platform shouldn’t be to strictly limit meat-lovers to vegan alternatives, but instead encourage and inspire those whose diets primarily rely on meat consumption to begin incorporating vegan alternatives into their lifestyles as well. Also, the platform would alleviate the struggles vegans and vegetarians experience when seeking meatless recipes.
Understanding Content Flow
Developing Features
Create Profile
Users can list their health conditions, food allergies, and restrictions when creating their profile in order to receive recipe recommendations that effectively alleviate those health concerns.
Meal Prepping
Choose between breakfast, lunch and/or dinner, dessert, and snack to scroll through a selection of vegan recipes. There, users will find instructions, nutrition breakdowns, and video tutorials to assist in cooking meals.
Object Recognition
Scan a meat ingredient to receive a vegan alternative and recommended recipes.
Designing Final Comps
Conclusion
Through this project, I learned how many different factors contribute to a user’s decision to choose a vegan recipe over a meat-based one— health concerns, food restrictions, goals, nutritious value, etc.— and how important it was to take all of these factors into consideration when designing an inclusive app.
Designing Meatless also encouraged me to take full advantage of the intuitive technological advancements that could further enhance the app’s mission. By incorporating object recognition, this feature added convenience to the world of veganism where it was desperately needed and previously lacking.