Yealthy
Encouraging healthy eating habits within children.
As part of the Goldenhack 2.0, my team and I were challenged to build a viable business solution using digital technologies. We found that food & beverage marketing has detrimental impacts on children on their eating habits. Yealthy is a mobile app solution that utilizes food-recognition technology to help children track & understand what they’re eating.
ROLE
Lead UX/UI Designer, conducting research, ideating & prototyping
TOOLS
Figma
DURATION
24 hours
TEAM
Mai Nguyen (Designer) Thabeetha Regi (Business Strategy), & Swathi Sriram (Business Strategy)
DESIGN CHALLENGE
How might we encourage healthier eating habits among children?
The Solution
With Yealthy, children can take a photo of their food & instantly receive information about their meal’s nutritional value. Yealthy also includes a points system with fun badges, personalized eating recommendations, and additional educational features.
The Problem
KEY FINDINGS
47%
of Americans report eating fewer nutrients during the pandemic
90%
of food and beverage ads targeted at kid are unhealthy
68%
of parents agree that mobile devices help their children learn faster
Users want to lead more sustainable lifestyles but need incentives to adopt new habits.
Defining the User
We defined the primary user to be children aged 5-10 with access to a mobile device and an interest in food.
We also identified the opportunity to implement another user view for parents to not only gain insights into their children’s eating habit, but also receive meal & snack suggestions personalized to their children.
Solution
Snapping a picture of their meal
Before a meal, children can navigate to the camera within the app to take a photo of their meal. Upon snapping a picture, the app will identify the food, & number of servings for each food group to award points and badges for healthy choices/habits. The last screen will also include unique meal recommendations based on nutrient deficiencies, unhealthy habits & personal diet restrictions.
Understanding personal nutrition
In the Profile section, users can view past meals and its simplified nutritional breakdown. They can also see their daily progress on the number of servings of each food group they have consumed in addition to their collection of badges.
Key Takeaways & Future Iterations
KEY TAKEAWAYS
For everyone on my team, this was our first hackathon. As business students, we really had no idea what a hackathon entailed. Throughout the 24 hours, we maintained open communication, collaborated on frequent calls, and effectively delegated tasks, ultimately securing 1st place for the Tech Consulting Challenge and the Grand Prize out of 19 other teams. Here are my main takeaways from this experience:
Embrace ambiguity — Having only case competition experience, our team initially struggled with the ambiguity of the challenges. Later on, we found we were able thrive on this ambiguity and let our imaginations run wild
Applying the strengths of the team — The Goldenhack emphasized the importance of presenting an idea that was backed with a thoughtful business model. Members of the team who weren’t designers or developers were still able to add immense value by working on the value proposition, revenue model and go-to-market strategy.
NEXT STEPS
While the time pressure was an effective motivator, there are many components of the business solution that could not be fully fleshed out due to time constraints. Going forward, there are many iterations I would make to the product.
User Research: I would start from the very beginning of the design process and conduct user research to understand the extent of unhealthy eating habits within children. It would be beneficial to gather more insights into parent pain points in encouraging healthy foods as well as childrens’ understanding of towards healthy eating.
Nutrition Meter: The achieve the goals of this product, it is essential that nutrition information is displayed to children a way that is easily understandable. It might be useful to conduct user testing to evaluate the effectiveness of a nutrition meter and other iterations such as a comprehensive nutrition score.