Long term meal planning with MyFitnessPal

MyFitnessPal(MFP) is known for its robust nutrition tracking features and serves as a valuable tool for managing dietary needs and wellness goals. Despite its established reputation and extensive database, the app faces a challenge in the form of weekly meal planning. This creates a hurdle for some users aiming to achieve their goals through diet. I challenged myself to a 2 week solo project as the UX Researcher and UX/UI Designer to address those issues.

Objective

Build a new feature that is effective in meal planning to improve users' satisfaction and help them achieve their fitness goals.

Beginning with Research Objectives

• Understand user’s lifestyle and motivations to meal plan.
• Understand user’s pain points when creating weekly meal plans.
• Discover how users currently plan their meals.
• Discover pain points in user’s current meal plan methods.
  

Interviews

A total of 6 interviews were conducted via zoom to understand user’s pain points, goals, and needs when meal prepping and to discover what can be added to the new features that will help them. The demographic was MyFitnessPal users and experienced meal preppers.

Observational Research

In tandem with interviews, observational research was undertaken to gauge the time investment and process used to create a meal plan in MyFitnessPal. This data was then compiled into a user journey map.

• Duration: 1-2 hours
• Participant was able to plan 2 days worth of meals within 5 minutes by recalling recipes from memory.
• When participant ran out of recipe ideas, they resorted to searching through MFP. As a result, frustration and time increased.
• Participant began googling recipes instead. This led to an increase in stress due to cognitive load.
  
• Participant occasionally got fed up with the task and would give up, then resume back once they have calmed down.
  

Surveying Interview Participants

9 people were surveyed. From the survey answers, I created an affinity map to organize all the qualities participants wanted in a meal prep app.

Key Insights

• Participants had to go grocery shopping and then cook all of their meals in one day.
• Some of the participants also struggled with a busy schedule and finding a routine.
• Majority of the participants find meal prepping to be physically exhausting.
  

Defining the data

I created a chart to compare MFP with other meal planning tools to see where MFP is lacking in being the ideal meal prep app. From the chart, I discovered that MyFitnessPal is missing a Shopping list, Food Measurement, and Weekly Planner Feature.

From there, I created an MVP table of what is needed for the add-on. With the weekly planner and shopping list, users can now customize their ingredient measurements and track their macros based off of saved  meals. By giving users more tools to personalize their plan, users can focus on their fitness goals with less stress.

Design Patterns

A How Might We(HMW) exercise was conducted to frame a solution for Abby’s problem. As a result, I selected the question: "How might we get users to support each other in getting to know their matches?". This prompt was most in line with my initial group chat idea and Abby’s goal of meeting new people.

Results from Testing

• 100%

  Found the found the prototype to be easy to use.
  

• 80%

  Participants were able to complete the tasks easily.
  

• 80%

  Rated the new feature at least 4 out of 5 in being an effective meal prep app.
  

• 80%

  Rated the graph chart to be 5 out of 5 in usefulness.
  

• 60%

  Rated the graph chart to be 5 out of 5 in usefulness.
  

Key Insights

• Users need their progress line to be more prominent than their goal line in the graph chart so they can focus on the present and how to regulate their food intake.
• Users need the daily calorie goal to be listed first instead of the weekly calorie goal count so they can quickly determine how much food to is needed to achieve their goals.
• Users need to see the ingredient and measurement amount of what they are substituting for so they can make sure they are replacing the right item.
• The actual MyFitnessPal app has inconsistent style and information architecture is difficult to navigate. Users need something simple and easy to understand so they can find what they need and achieve their goals faster.
  

Test Objectives and Findings

Usability testing were conducted to validate this new feature and make MyFitnessPal the ideal meal prep app. Mid fidelity screens were used for the testing.

• Test ease of use in creating a meal plan.
• Test if users find the graph chart useful in staying within nutrition requirements of their meal plan.
• Test if users find the new feature to be a more effective in planning meals than their current tool.

Usability testing were conducted to validate this new feature and make MyFitnessPal the ideal meal prep app. Mid fidelity screens were used for the testing.

Conclusion and Reflection

After conducting research interviews, two groups of meal preppers emerged: People who plan their recipes ahead of time, and people who prep based on available ingredients at the moment. This showed there is more complexity in the target demographic.
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I also encountered a time set back on the project during my prototyping stage. I wanted to analyze the original MFP designs through UI kit creation. However, it lead me to begin high fidelity assets and high fidelity screens before my lofi wireframes and prototype was ready for user testing. This was an eye opening moment that I should prioritize functionality before aesthetics.

Having to navigate windows to find references when designing my screens took a lot of time. I started using ProRef to gather all my references in the same window and having the ability to resize/zoom/and move around the screen allowed me to generate ideas and work faster.

My Next Steps

• Usability test on new prototype iterations.
• Give MyFitnessPal app a heuristics audit to find what else can be improved.
• Develop a consistent style guide for the entire app.
  

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