Major Project 1
3/2/2025-25/3/2025 Week 1-Week 7
Jie Xuan/ 0356515
Major Project 1/ Bachelor of Creative Media/Taylor's University
Major Project 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Instructions
INSTRUCTIONS
MAJOR PROJECT 1
TIME FRAME: WEEK 01 - WEEK 07
At the beginning of the semester, we were introduced to Major Project I, the first part of our Final Year Project (FYP). During the briefing, we gained an understanding of the module's structure and expectations. We were then required to form teams of four and explore different ideas before finalizing a concept that aligns with our UI/UX specialization.
My team members:
Sin Jun Ming 0364638 (Group Leader)
Natalie Chu Jing Xuan 0354589
Chan Xiang Lam 0358400
Jie Xuan 0356515
Task 1: Proposal Development
task 1
Instructions
You are to work as groups in presenting an innovative concept that introduces unique social, cultural and/or economic value to the intended target audience within your chosen field of specialization.
You are to conduct research on current technology and design trends that influences and benchmarks your area of specialization.
Case studies with analysis reports on product/service functionality and effectiveness, technical innovations and challenges, aesthetics and design appreciation are required to support your new project proposal.
Ideation
The ideation stage is where we apply the design thinking process to generate and refine potential app ideas. This phase includes brainstorming, evaluating feasibility, and iterating based on feedback.
Initial Brainstorming Ideas
After forming our group, we started brainstorming ideas for our app. We had an online meeting on Google Meet and came up with 3 main ideas.
IDEAS:
- Pet Adoption App
- Kids Learning App
- Health & Fitness App
Idea refinement
After first discussion, we planned to develop an interactive language learning app for kindergarten students. However, after consulting with Mr. Razif, we found that the idea lacked proposition and no unique. To refine our concept, we held another online meeting and brainstormed a new idea. Eventually, we decided on a Healthy Eating App, which was later approved by Mr. Razif.
Project Concept
After refining our ideas, we finalized our app concept: Zestoria, a platform promoting healthy eating through personalized meal plans, restaurant recommendations, and expert consultations. This section outlines the foundation of our project, including the core problem it addresses, the proposed solution, and its intended impact.
Finalized App Idea: Zestoria
Zestoria is designed to help users customized meal plans, restaurant recommendations, food tracking, and expert health insights to create a seamless experience for users. We also began conducting market research and case studies to analyze existing solutions, identify gaps, and determine how Zestoria can offer a unique and innovative approach.
The App name Zestoria meaning:
Problem Statement
Maintaining a healthy diet can be challenging, especially for individuals with busy lifestyles. Many people need to use multiple platforms—checking social media for meal inspiration, searching Google for calorie information, and using food delivery apps to order meals. This fragmented experience makes healthy eating time-consuming and inconvenient.
Solution
Zestoria solves this problem by offering a one-stop solution that integrates healthy restaurant recommendations, food ordering, customized meal plans, nutrition tracking, and health influencer content into a single platform.
Theme: "Healthy Eating, All in One Place."
The theme focuses on creating a seamless and integrated experience for health-conscious users. Zestoria combines all these features into a single platform. By integrating meal discovery, customization, expert insights, and food ordering, the app makes healthy eating easier, faster, and more accessible.
SDG Goal 3: Good Health & Well-Being
Objectives
- Provide a One-Stop Healthy Eating Platform: Combine restaurant discovery, food ordering, meal plan customization, and nutrition tracking in one app.
- Make Healthy Eating More Convenient: Reduce the hassle of searching for meal ideas, calorie counts, and healthy restaurants separately.
- Create an Engaging Health & Wellness Community: Allow users to watch expert videos, follow health influencers, and interact with a like-minded community.
- Offer Customizable Meal Plans: Enable users to create meal plans based on their dietary needs, fitness goals, and preferences.
Target Users
- Health-Conscious Individuals: People looking for nutritious recipes, meal plans, and healthy eating tips.
- Busy Professionals: Those who want quick and healthy meal ideas without spending too much time cooking.
- Student: Student who wanted to eat healthy, but has no time to cook.
- Parents: Parents who wanted to search for healthy meal inspirations and recipe for their family.
At the start of our project, we identified two primary target users: busy professionals and health-conscious individuals. However, as we conducted user interviews and Google Form surveys, we discovered that our potential user base was broader than we initially expected. Our findings revealed two additional key user groups: Student & Parent.
Google Form Questionnaires:
Interview Questionnaires:
Following the preparation of our interview questions, each group member conducted physical interviews separately to gather qualitative insights from potential users. To ensure we had a diverse range of perspectives, we needed a total of at least 12 interviewees per group, meaning that each member was responsible for interviewing three individuals.
We asked open-ended questions to encourage participants to share their personal experiences, such as their struggles with maintaining a healthy diet, their use of existing meal-planning apps, and what features they would find most useful in a new platform like Zestoria.
Results:
After collecting responses from our Google Form survey and conducted interviews, we analyzed the data to identify key insights about our potential users. The findings provided valuable information on their demographics, pain points, and expectations, helping us refine Zestoria’s features and adoption strategy.
Findings from Google Form Survey
Target Audience: Primarily young students (18-24) with mid-range budgets, looking for quick and affordable healthy meals.
Pain Points: Lack of time, high costs of healthy food, and limited meal options.
Opportunities: A one-stop app with nutrition tracking, budget-friendly meal plans, and community support can attract users.
Adoption Strategy: Since most have never used similar apps, a simple UI, educational content, and incentives (discounts, challenges) can increase engagement.
Findings from Physcial Interview
Challenges: Limited healthy options, high costs, and lack of variety in restaurants and delivery services.
Opportunities: Strong interest in a one-stop app for meal recommendations, calorie tracking, personalized plans, and food delivery integration.
After gathering all the interview data, each of us summarized the findings using affinity diagrams to identify common themes, user motivations, challenges, and needs. We categorized users based on their lifestyles, such as students, working professionals, and health-conscious individuals. This helped us visualize behavioral patterns, food preferences, and obstacles users face in their daily eating habits. By grouping similar insights, we were able to highlight overlapping needs such as convenience, affordability, and health awareness, which guided us in defining potential problem areas and opportunities for design solutions.
Task 1 Submission:
Group Slide:
Individual Slide:
Figjam Link:
Task 2 Design Proposition
Instruction
- Continue on developing user insights and data from user interview
- Develop User Personas based on user research data
- Develop User Journey Map
During Weeks 4 to 5, our group focused on developing the design proposition for our project, Zestoria – a one-stop healthy eating app. We expanded upon our initial idea by diving deep into user research, creating detailed user personas, empathy maps, user journey maps, and conducting a card sorting exercise to structure the app’s layout logically and intuitively.
We proceeded to define the user experience after developing a solid research base. This phase involved structuring Zestoria's user flow, creating essential features, and guaranteeing a seamless user experience. Our strategy focused on convenience, customization, and engagement with communities.
Each team member contributed to different aspects of the research and design documentation, which helped us understand user pain points and define key opportunities for innovation. We finalized four main personas representing different user types (students, fitness trainers, busy professionals, and parents), allowing us to tailor the app features to real needs. We also mapped out typical user journeys to ensure Zestoria delivers a smooth and valuable user experience from discovery to meal planning and content sharing.
Empathy Map
To better understand our users, we created empathy maps for each target user. This helped us analyze out pain points, motivations and their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, we gained a clearer idea of how to tailor Zestoria to meet their needs.
User Personas
Based on our research, we developed four user personas representing our target audience:
- Students
- Fitness trainers
- Busy professionals
- Parents
User personas helped us empathize with different user types and understand their behaviors, needs, and pain points.
User Journey Map
We then mapped out each persona’s journey in using Zestoria.
- Discovery Phase: How users find Zestoria and what attracts them to try it.
- Engagement Phase: Their interactions with the app, including meal planning, tracking nutrition, and ordering food.
- Retention & Growth: How the app maintains user engagement through features like expert-led content and community engagement.
Card Sorting
To organize information effectively, we conducted a card sorting exercise. This helped us determine how users expect content and features to be structured within the app. The process allowed us to refine the navigation, making it more intuitive and user-friendly.
cardsortinglink: https://study.uxtweak.com/cardsort/QW2XIQw3Vwu2RtOynn9cw
Result:
Task 2 Submission:
Group Slide:
Task 3: Concept Presentation
Instructions
Group Work
Brainstorm ideations using storyboarding, sketches etc.
Design inspiration from other design resources/websites for ideations
Develop Information Architecture (i.e. Card Sorting Method) for your proposed solution
Develop User Flow/Work Flow diagram
Create Design Guideline (colour scheme, typography, UI component etc) that is related to the project topic and targeted user personas
Individual Work
Initial Lo-fi prototype (sketches or wireframe)
User Flow Chart
To visualize how users would navigate through Zestoria, we created a user flow chart. This step helped us identify the most intuitive pathways for discovering meals, customizing meal plans, ordering food, and engaging with the community. Refining this flow was crucial in ensuring a seamless experience for users.
Ui Kit Design
We focused on developing a strong visual identity to ensure Zestoria’s interface was both aesthetically pleasing and functionally effective. The key components included:
Colour Palette
A fresh, vibrant selection of colors representing energy, health, and well-being.
Font Selection
Clean and modern typography that enhances readability and user experience.
Icons
Custom icons and graphics to create a visually engaging and intuitive navigation system.
figma link: https://www.figma.com/design/Ii5KytMV5TyeBVEQHA8S6u/UI-Icons?node-id=14-5037&t=pJM1pjwHhLSFv2pd-1
Monetization Strategies
To keep Zestoria running while providing value to users, we explored different ways to generate revenue. Here’s our monetization plan to support the app’s growth:
Initial lo-fi Prototype
Once the user flow was finalized, we began sketching wireframes for the app's core pages individually.
Low-fi Link: https://www.figma.com/design/hRKeyVbiYvg8v61XA8wa7B/Major-Project-1?node-id=0-1&t=umFWqHte4b2nbk8w-1
Final Submission for Task 3
Group Slide:
Group Figjam Link:
Individual Figjam link Low fi:
Final Submission:
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
FEEDBACKS
Week 1
Our initial idea, a Kid’s Learning App, was not recommended as it lacked unique features and engaging interactions to enhance user experience. We were advised to conduct further research and explore ways to improve user engagement.
Week 2
After presenting additional progress and app features to Mr. Razif, he pointed out that the app still lacked an innovative approach to delivering lessons. However, our alternative idea, a Healthy Meal App was approved.
Week 3
This week, we consulted Mr. Razif regarding our progress on physical interviews and the Google Form survey.
Week 4
We were advised to create user personas based on our target audience and to integrate findings from both the physical interviews and survey results to develop a comprehensive user journey map.
Week 5
Task 2 was successfully completed.
Week 6
We proceeded with the development of the low-fidelity prototype. Each group member was required to design their own version, allowing for different UI design preferences.
Week 7
We conducted our physical presentation in class. The meal planner feature received positive feedback for its usefulness. However, we were advised to add the following features to enhance the app:
Goals Feature: Allows users to set personal goals, such as losing weight, gaining muscle, or maintaining a healthy diet.
Nutritionist Consultation: Provides one-on-one live chat with licensed nutritionists for personalized meal planning recommendations.
REFLECTION
Experience
The Major Project has been both challenging and rewarding. It allowed me to go through the full UI/UX design process—from identifying a problem to creating a solution. Through user research, I learned that many people struggle to maintain a healthy diet because they have to use different platforms for meal planning, nutrition tracking, and food ordering. This made us realize the need for a simple, all-in-one solution.
Working as a team also taught me a lot about communication and time management. We had to plan tasks, share ideas, and stay on the same page. Meeting deadlines and keeping everything on track was an important part of the process.
Finding
Turning research into user personas, journey maps, and wireframes helped us design an app that meets user needs. Brainstorming and sketching different ideas allowed us to explore options before choosing the best one. One of the biggest challenges was balancing looks and usability—we wanted the app to be attractive yet easy to use. Feedback and improvements along the way helped us refine our design.
I’m very grateful to my teammates—Jun Ming, Xiang Lam, and Natalie for their hard work and creativity. Their teamwork made this project smooth and enjoyable. A big thank you also to our lecturers and supervisor, Mr. Razif, for their guidance and feedback, which helped us improve our design.
Observation
Looking back, this project has strengthened my problem-solving and design skills. I learned how to understand user needs, turn them into solutions, and create an easy-to-use interface. Moving forward, I want to improve my prototyping and usability testing skills to make my designs even better. This experience has made me more passionate about UI/UX design, and I’m excited for future projects.
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