Welcome to Nourish
Nourish is a nutrition mobile app to be used by Dietetics and Food Restricted People for the purpose of discovering safe and healthy meals.
The Problem
The problem that Nourish aims to solve is that of time and accessibility. For people with a busy schedule and who are always on the move, it is simply unrealistic to be able to cook three healthy meals a day. Although, if a person tries to eat out, it feels like they are stuck between choosing between one unhealthy meal or another. It’s a losing situation no matter what way you look at it.
The Research
A key aspect of Nourish’s development is its input from the people who need it. With 6 interviews and 179 survey responses, Nourish understands how people with food allergies and nutrition problems feel overwhelmed and lost. Nourish’s goal is to guide the user through their journey by creating a simple and organized approach to eating healthy while out of the home.
The Solution
In the world we live in thousands of food options are available to us at any moment from just being near us or through delivery services. At least a portion of them has to be able to fit within a diet. The problem is we don’t have the nutrition information accessible the same way we do the food. That’s where Nourish comes in.
Nourish filters out the junk food options and finds the food that fits your needs. Whether it’s a food allergy, nutrition goal, or food-related medical condition. Nourish finds the food you can eat and presents it to you.
The Application
When looking at the prototype there are two user workflows. The first and primary user workflow is a recommendation quiz. Using pre-existing user data and combining it with new data that is specific to each meal using the quiz. Nourish will then determine the three best options within the user’s vicinity. Acting as one big filter to find the perfect match.
The second user flow is designed to give control to the user and the ability to browse all options In their vicinity. This is especially useful to users who know what they want already and want to bypass the recommendation feature.
Quiz
The quiz is the main use case for the app. It asks a series of questions.
- How much time do you have?
- What are you in the mood for?
- What is today’s budget?
This is the last little bit of information the app needs. Pairing it with the information during account setup can now make a recommendation to the user.
Browse
The browse option is the second user flow and is designed to give control and the ability to browse all options In their vicinity. The focus here is on the individual meal. Showcasing the meals and individual food items instead of the restaurants that make them.
This section will break the meals down into relative categories of
- Featured - Meals that are popular among other users
- For You - Meals that Nourish thinks you will like
- Favorites - Meals you have had and favorited before
- Deals - Meals that currently have discounts or deals
The most important thing is that with nutrition the app has some wiggle room with nutrients and calories to give the user a variety of choices while staying within a specified range of goals. But with allergies, there is no room for error. Nourish will never give the user an option to order a meal that contains an allergen on their account.
Food Item
After both User flows, Users would be able to select and view the chosen meal, its nutrition, price, ingredients, etc. This allows the user to make an informed decision on what they are going to eat and also help them understand what they are putting in their body. All with little to no effort on their part.
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The Competition
There are two major competitors to Nourish. Find me Gluten Free and MyFitnessPal.
While doing research and looking for competition, no service that helps users with both food allergies and nutrition was discovered. It was always one or the other. They require the work to be done completely by the user to find a safe and healthy meal. Worst of all this causes the process to take an extensive period and when someone is in a situation where they need to eat quickly, they must either break their diet or risk their health, and in some cases both.
Target Audience
Nourish is being built around two user personas, Food Restricted Andy and Dietetic Nicole. Each of these personas represents a specific group of users that Nourish is trying to help. Nourish is a nutrition app to be used by Dietetics and Food Restricted people to discover safe and healthy meals. While there may be more users that Nourish can help, these are the two main personas being used for the development of the project.
Dietetic Nicole
Dietetic Nicole is a fitness freak and marketing specialist who travels for work frequently. She is so busy that she rarely has time to cook for herself and resorts to eating out. Nicole was named after one of the interviewees who share very similar traits and has suffered from eating disorders because she wants to achieve her best self. She is completely obsessed with her fitness and strives to be the best version of herself.
The persona Nicole is a marketing specialist who is always traveling and represents 64% of participants who said that their busy schedule was why they struggled with a nutritionally balanced diet. Nicole is someone who understands nutrition and food labels because 88.3% of participants can as well. She wants to learn more about nutrition but struggles to find the time to do so like 48% of people. Nicole represents those who are interested in their nutrition because most participants are. This focus on users who are interested in themselves fits with the obsessed portion of her persona. She cares so much about her nutrition that she begins to obsess over it.
Food Restricted Andy
Food Restricted Andy is a busy student that is allergic to Red-40 food dye and shellfish and struggles to find the time to cook between classes, so he often goes hungry since he doesn’t trust the food around him. He represents all the survey and interview participants that suffer from food allergies or intolerances. In total, that is 112 out of 179 survey participants and two interviewees. Food Restricted Andy is allergic to Red-40 food dye, representing the experiences shared by one of the interviewees. He is also allergic to shellfish because of the high survey responses of 24 (21.4%) who answered shellfish. Andy represents the 15.2% of users whose reactions are life-threatening. This may seem like an oversight but when considering the level of seriousness in the aspect of a life-threatening allergy it makes sense to qualitatively represent Andy in this way. Andy is represented as a student with a busy and inconsistent schedule. He is busy and he cannot always cook, which means he must resort to eating out. While 64.3% of participants answered they can eat out with their allergy, 30.4% of participants struggle to do so because of their allergy. Andy represents all users who have food allergies in the development of Nourish.
Marketing
Marketing is a big part of Nourish, with it being mainly a mobile app to be used on the go. The app is targeted toward young professionals and students who need to eat out with a busy schedule. Although the app is built for anyone who can benefit as it is simplified for all users. Social media and print advertising are the main focus, with last but not least partner advertising coming in third.
Partnership Marketing
Since Nourish’s business model is to partner with many food establishments it only makes sense to advertise in their restaurant space. Things such as table tents, paper food bags, and nutritional and allergenic report postcards help Nourish advertise to their existing customers to bring them back in the future.
Advertising
Advertising is vital. With Nourish being an app to be used quickly, it makes sense to target busy cities with print advertising. Using taxi tops, bus shelters, and subway posters. This targets busy professionals on the go in heavily populated urban environments. This makes sense for Nourish because a lot of the time these people have nothing better to look at than the advertisements, and when they get hungry it drives them to download the app.
Promotional Products
Even though Nourish is primarily in the digital space, that does not mean that promotional products are any less important. Promotional products create a connection with the user and can help retain them as costumers. They can also help build trust within a brand which is a primary focus for Nourish.
Visual Strategy
Nourish’s visual strategy is meant to be fun and exciting, pairing powerful colors with modern yet expressive typography to showcase that eating nutritiously can still be fun and delicious. The colors are meant to feel fruity, hearty, and ethnic. There are many cultures in the world with very different foods and flavors. Since Nourish would be serving many family restaurant businesses of these cultures, the idea to use them as inspiration was born.