case study

Plate Plan

Helping students plan smarter and waste less food in their daily routines.

role

User Research

Prototyping

Strategic Framing

principles

Service Design

Research-Driven Iteration

Systems Thinking

DURATION

1 Month

tools

Figma

Illustrator

Background

Plate Plan was created during a service design course at the Department of Informatics. The project addressed food waste and meal planning challenges, especially for students and young adults. Using key service design principles like user involvement, iterative prototyping, and practical insights, we developed a digital tool to simplify inventory tracking, meal inspiration, and shopping, making meal planning both easy and sustainable.

Problem

Young adults and students often struggle with meal planning on a budget, leading to food waste, last-minute grocery runs, and uninspired meals. Limited time and tight finances make it challenging to keep track of ingredients, plan balanced meals, and shop efficiently.

Solution

Plate Plan

Plate Plan simplifies meal planning and grocery management through several key solutions, addressing users' needs for efficiency, budget-friendliness, and sustainability. This is achieved through:

#1

Real-Time Inventory Tracking

Users can scan ingredients at home to track what they have, making it easier to plan meals and reduce waste.

#2

Tailored Recipe Suggestions

Customized recipes based on users' current ingredients simplify meal planning and ensure ingredients are fully utilized.

#3

Smart Shopping List

Users can add missing ingredients for recipes directly to a shopping list, streamlining grocery trips and preventing overspending.

#4

Personalized Recommendations

A simple onboarding lets the app learn your preferences, helping you build a meal planning routine that’s both easy to follow and sustainable over time.

USER INTERVIEW

Understanding Everyday Habits

We spoke with six students and young adults to understand their real-life routines around food: how they plan meals, what drives their shopping choices, and where things tend to fall apart.

Data Clustering

Connecting the Dots

The next step was to make sense of what we’d gathered through our interviews. Through clustering, we spotted recurring patterns in how students plan, shop, and waste food. It helped us move past surface-level frustrations and understand the habits shaping their decisions. These insights became a key part of how we shaped the design moving forward.

What We Found

The issue wasn’t that students didn’t care about food or planning. It was that the tools around them seemed to assume they had the time, energy, or a clear plan to start with. The real opportunity wasn’t to change their habits, but to create something that made planning feel less like a burden and more like a natural part of everyday decision-making.

Mapping the Market

We wanted to see how existing services stack up against the challenges students face. We looked through the lens of our research, using what we’d learned about habits, frustrations, and needs to spot where current solutions fall short.

ICA/Coop

Strengths

Strong national brand with broad reach and physical–digital integration

Weaknesses

Limited innovation in smart planning and sustainability

TooGoodToGo

Strengths

Clear climate purpose with real savings and easy use

Weaknesses

Unpredictable selection and low user control

Mealime

Strengths

Personalized planning with seamless recipe-to-list flow

Weaknesses

No built-in waste tracking or inventory tools

outcome

We saw a clear gap where most services tackle food from different angles: some focus on planning, others on waste, but rarely both. That split didn’t line up with how students actually manage food in everyday life. Each service had its strengths, but based on what we’d learned, we re-evaluated them through a student lens, picking out what actually fit their needs.

Rough Sketches

We started with fast sketches to capture concepts and visualize user flows before committing to structure.

Screen Flows

Mapping every core interaction helped us focus on clarity and minimize friction. Every step aligned with real user goals.

User Testing

With our insights in mind, we started testing early to see if the ideas actually worked. We focused on things like keeping track of what’s already at home, finding quick recipe ideas, and making planning feel simple.

Initial Testing

We began testing core flows early, focusing on ingredient tracking and recipe suggestions. Users loved the idea but asked for a more tailored onboarding experience, including value-based preferences, and a more prominent shopping list.

Mid-Fidelity Iteration

We refined the navigation and layout to make things smoother. Since many plan day by day, users wanted a clearer view of today’s meal, so we pushed that forward and made it more visible right from the start.

Final Touches

Our final tests validated the improved experience. Users reacted positively to personalized onboarding, smarter expiration notifications, and one-tap shopping list access.

Key Adjustments

We made features like “today’s meal” easier to spot, cleaned up the layout, and shaped the flow to match how people actually use the app. On top of that, we added more tailored onboarding, quick-access favorites, and put the shopping list right on the home screen. Small tweaks that ended up having a big impact on the overall user experience.

Design System

We built a simple design system to keep things consistent and easy to work with, helping us move faster and stay aligned as a team and with our vision for the app.

Final Screens

Onboarding Process

Simple onboarding process that picks up your preferences, goals, and what’s already in your kitchen, setting up a personalized experience from the start.

Final Screens

Home Screen

The home screen gives a clear overview of what you can cook with what you already have at home. Easy filters and edits make it simple to plan meals or try something new without much effort.

Final Screens

Scanning Process

Users can scan their groceries to keep track of what’s at home, quickly build their digital fridge, pantry, and freezer, and cut down on waste while planning.

Final Screens

Managing Your Pantry, Favorites, and Profile

Save go-to meals, update your inventory manually, and manage preferences in one place to get better control over weekly meal planning.

What This Project Taught Me

Frequent testing helped us move past assumptions and focus on what actually mattered. Each round helped us simplify, sharpen the concept, and see more clearly how Plate Plan could fit into real routines. One challenge was staying aware of our own biases. Since we were students ourselves, it was easy to assume too much without meaning to. This project reminded me how important it is to keep checking in with real users, no matter how familiar the context feels.