UX / Product Design · 2024

ratadoit

Meal planning for UK university students — making eating well the default, not the exception.

RoleSole UX/Product Designer
Timeline10 weeks
ToolsFigma
PlatformiOS Mobile
9:41●●●
Discover
NHS-aligned
🔍 Search recipes...
Top Picks
Recipes
VALUE
Teriyaki Salmon & Quinoa
£2.40 · 25 min · Easy
NHS
Chicken Stir-fry
£1.90 · 20 min · Easy
9:41●●●
Hi Alex 👋
Monday, 10 March
AS
Lunch Plans
Teriyaki Salmon & Quinoa Salad
12:30 PM · 25 min prep
Breakfast ✓
Lunch
Dinner
Left to spend
£132
this week
Points
2,308
#4 this week
Friends Activity
Chloe logged lunch
Chicken Bowl · 2 pts · 3m ago
Tom started Budget Week
7-meal plan · Just now
9:41●●●
My Plan
Week of 10 March
M
10
T
11
W
12
T
13
F
14
Breakfast
Eggs & Avocado Toast
Lunch
Teriyaki Salmon
Dinner
Chicken Stir-fry
Overview

University students don't have an information problem — they have a structural one. When the day gets busy and there's no plan, the easiest option is always the takeaway. Ratadoit does the planning for them, so that eating well becomes the default, not an act of willpower.

9:41●●●
🔍 Search recipes...
Top Picks
Recipes
VALUE
Teriyaki Salmon
£2.40 · Easy
Chicken Stir-fry
£1.90 · Easy
9:41●●●
Hi Alex 👋
Monday, 10 March
AS
Lunch Plans
Teriyaki Salmon & Quinoa
12:30 PM · 25 min prep
Breakfast ✓
Lunch
Dinner
Left to spend
£132
Points
2,308
Friends Activity
Chloe logged lunch
Chicken Bowl · 2 pts
9:41●●●
My Plan
M
10
T
11
W
12
T
13
F
14
Breakfast
Eggs & Avocado Toast
Lunch
Teriyaki Salmon
The Problem

A knowledge gap that isn't
a knowledge problem

Students know what healthy eating looks like. They still don't do it.

40%
make poor food choices despite knowing what a healthy diet looks like
28%
experience food insecurity driven by budget pressure, not lack of access
30%
skip meals regularly — highest rates on days with no plan
30%
eat enough fruit and vegetables — despite being able to name the recommendations
Competitive Gap
MyFitnessPal
Asks users to log every meal — adds effort to an effort-constrained day
Yazio
Recipe inspiration that assumes skills and time most students don't have
Ratadoit
Plans the week for you — making the healthy choice the lowest-friction option
Research

Four sources.
One consistent signal.

📋
NHS Eatwell
Secondary research on nutritional benchmarks for UK young adults
🥗
Nutritionist
Dr. Giulia Napolitano on dietary behaviour and cooking confidence
💡
Deloitte Digital
Jonathan Herrle, Director CX — on digital behaviour change and AI input
📔
Food Diary
3 students tracked food choices, spend, and emotion across one week
"All 3 participants defaulted to takeaways on every day they had no meal planned — without exception."
Food diary study — primary research finding
Archetype A
The Overwhelmed Planner
Year 2 · Studies full-time · Cooks occasionally
Frustration
Plans on Sundays. Abandons the plan by Wednesday when stress peaks.
Needs
A plan that accounts for her real week, not an idealised one.
Archetype B
The Reactive Spender
Year 1 · Works part-time · Rarely cooks
Frustration
Impulse shops, ends up with mismatched ingredients. Defaults to Deliveroo 4–5× a week.
Needs
A shopping list that removes the impulse purchase. Simple recipes under 30 minutes.
Key Insights

What the research
actually says

01
The Plan Gap
No plan = poor decision. Every single time. The absence of a daily plan is the primary trigger for poor food choices — not motivation, cost, or availability.
02
Skill Is the Master Variable
Cooking confidence — not time, not budget — was the single strongest predictor of whether a participant cooked at home. Skill level determines everything.
03
Structure Problem, Not Information Problem
40% make poor choices despite knowing what healthy eating looks like. Apps built on nutrition education are solving the wrong problem.
04
The Emotional Cost Is Underserved
Students experience poor diet as shame and guilt. Daily tracking reinforces this cycle. Progress must be visible without being punishing.
05
Friction Decides Everything
The healthy option consistently loses to the convenient option — not because students don't want to eat well, but because the activation energy required is too high. Every friction point in the app is a direct risk to the user's health outcome.
Opportunity

There is an opportunity to reduce the daily cognitive load of food decisions for UK university students — so that eating well becomes the default choice, not an act of willpower.

Design Principles

Three rules the product lives by

01
Reduce decisions, don't add them
Pre-built plans, smart defaults, one-tap actions. When a student has to decide, the design has failed.
02
Make progress visible, never shameful
Celebrate forward movement, never penalise deviation. The app should feel like support, not surveillance.
03
Meet students where they are
Start from the student's real day — their schedule, skill level, and budget — not an idealised scenario.
Design Decisions

Three choices that
shaped the product

01
Navigation
8 items → 4 tabs
Before
Health · Plans · Recipes · Account · Friends · Saved · Budget · Settings
→
After
Home · Discover · Plan · Profile
02
Colour
Energetic → Calm
Before
Saturated greens · High-energy wellness aesthetic · Fitness app language
→
After
Earthy, muted tones that feel like relief, not pressure
03
AI Camera
Two uses, one gesture
Meal photo
Identifies the meal and logs it to the social feed — no manual input
Receipt photo
Reads the shopping receipt and updates the budget tracker automatically
Final Product

Six screens.
One consistent experience.

9:41●●●
Hi Alex 👋
Monday, 10 March
AS
Lunch Plans
Teriyaki Salmon & Quinoa
12:30 PM · 25 min prep
Breakfast ✓
Lunch
Dinner
Left to spend
£132
Points
2,308
Friends Activity
Chloe logged lunch
Chicken Bowl · 2 pts
Home
What am I eating today?

The meal is already planned before the student feels hungry. Spending and points visible at a glance. Friends feed makes healthy eating feel socially normal.

Responds to Insight 01 — The Plan Gap
9:41●●●
Discover
NHS-aligned · Budget-first
🔍 Search recipes, plans...
Top Picks
Recipes
Plans
VALUE
Teriyaki Salmon & Quinoa
£2.40 · 25 min · Easy
NHS
Chicken Stir-fry
£1.90 · 20 min · Easy
PLAN
Budget Week — 7 Meals
£18 total · Beginner
Discover
The choice has already been curated

NHS-aligned plans ready in one tap. VALUE badge surfaces the cheapest option automatically. Recipes calibrated for genuine beginners.

Responds to Insights 02, 03, 05
9:41●●●
My Plan
Week of 10 March
M
10
T
11
W
12
T
13
F
14
S
15
S
16
Breakfast
Eggs & Avocado Toast
Lunch
Teriyaki Salmon & Quinoa
Dinner
Chicken Stir-fry
+ Add or replace meal
Plan
The week is structured before it begins

Plan today or the whole week. Shopping list auto-generated. Step-by-step instructions remove the "I don't know how to make this" barrier that sends students to Deliveroo.

Responds to Insight 01 — The Plan Gap
9:41●●●
AI Camera
Identifying your meal...
Teriyaki Chicken Bowl ✓
📷
Meal
🧾
Receipt
AI Camera
Two use cases. One gesture.

Photo a meal → logged to feed. Photo a receipt → budget updated. Manual input breaks habit loops. The camera removes both friction points with one familiar interaction.

Responds to Insight 05 — Friction Decides Everything
9:41●●●
My Progress
AS
2,308
pts
#4 on your leaderboard
Budget Performance
This week
£28.40
Saved vs last
+£11
Profile
Progress without pressure

Budget compared to last month — celebrates the delta, not the ideal. Points and leaderboard create peer motivation that sustains what individual discipline cannot.

Responds to Insight 04 — The Emotional Cost
9:41●●●
Notifications
Lunch is planned for 12:30 PM
Teriyaki Salmon & Quinoa — tap to see instructions.
You're £11 under budget this week
That's better than last week. Friday dinner is your last planned meal.
Cooking tip: quinoa storage
Prep a batch on Sunday. Save 20 min across the week.
Chloe is ahead on points
Log today's meals to close the gap — 140 points behind.
Notifications
Prompts, not alarms

Meal reminders before hunger takes over. Budget updates that celebrate improvement. Tips delivered progressively — learning as a byproduct of daily use.

Responds to Insights 04, 05
Impact

Problems addressed.
Features accountable.

Problem
The Plan Gap
Home screen meal card surfaces today's plan before the student has to think about food. The decision is made before hunger takes over.
Problem
The Budget Barrier
Budget tracker as a first-class feature. VALUE badge. Shopping list from meal plan removes the impulse purchase that causes overspend.
Problem
The Skill Gap
Recipes calibrated for genuine beginners. Step-by-step instructions. Difficulty filter. Skill is the master variable — so the design lowers the skill floor.
Problem
The Motivation Problem
Points system + friends feed create peer accountability. Social comparison sustains what individual discipline cannot.
Future Opportunities

Three things v1
didn't fully solve

01
AI nutritional pattern analysis
The camera currently logs individual meals. A future version analyses patterns across weeks — "no vegetables since Tuesday" — and suggests targeted adjustments.
02
Grocery retailer integration
Discount partnerships with Tesco, Sainsbury's, Lidl. Students who save money on planned ingredients have a direct financial incentive to use Ratadoit every week.
03
Cooking skill progression
A progressive skill-building pathway — beginner to confident — that celebrates the student's development as a cook, not just their dietary choices.
Reflection

What this project taught me

What went well
The inversion that changed everything

Leading with planning instead of tracking was the most consequential design choice. Every competing app defaults to tracking. Ratadoit inverts this — plan first, and the day's decisions are already made.

What I'd do differently
A more diverse research sample

Three participants from the same course gave directional findings, not range. With more time I would have recruited 8–12 participants across year groups, living situations, and dietary backgrounds.

What I learned
Behaviour vs. information

Most UX problems are solved by making information easier to find. Behaviour change problems are solved by making the right action easier to perform. The design's job is to reduce friction, not add knowledge.